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Is it worth buying clothes at outlet centers?

Such stores are easy to find both online and offline. The principle by which items arrive there is simple: these are unsold leftovers from collections, which, of course, cannot simply be thrown away or given away for free, and which must make room in the store for fresh arrivals. This is the law of the clothing cycle in retail: first, items go to brand stores, on the best shelves, in the next season they are sold at a discount, and unsold leftovers are sent to special centers.

Discount centers are not the only place where you can buy clothes cheaply and easily; any store has sales, but big centers have several advantages over them:

1) discounts are temporary, you can't visit all stores at once, if you don't make rounds once a week or two, you will definitely miss a lot. Where collection leftovers gather, you can catch up;

2) it is impossible to buy all necessary items at a discount in one go at regular stores; it never happens that all your favorite brands have sales simultaneously;

3) the delivery issue: many brands only run promotions in offline stores. Outlet centers are either entirely online or provide the ability to order any item at a discount with delivery at a time convenient for the buyer.

But not everything is so simple; purchases at centers specializing in discounted goods also have disadvantages that must be taken into account:

1) there is a risk of buying a fake or defective item; the turnover in discount centers is very high, which opens up many opportunities for fraud. In brand stores, this risk is minimal;

2) it is better to spend a whole day visiting an outlet center; they are huge, and the selection is even larger; you cannot just pop in for half an hour;

3) non-standard size is a downside. The further your size is from average, the less chance you have of finding suitable clothing at an outlet center. Although there are exceptions. But in any case, the size selection is minimal or non-existent; many items may be available in only one copy.

Spending a day visiting an outlet center or a few hours browsing an online store of discounted goods is a good investment of time. It is quite possible to buy items whose regular price is significantly higher than what you can afford. Or to buy several items for the price that a couple of months ago you would have paid for each of them.

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