Thank you, thank you, katev!! I'm going to print this out so I have it handy for reference. Your time time and effort spent on this is much appreciated!
My pleasure! I hope that you find the information useful!
I wanted to draw your attention to some comments that were made about my guide's references to the department store codes. It seems that my statement that N and M codes were sold at
Nordstrom's and Macy's may not always be correct. The statements below were posted on the Authenticate this Coach thread shortly after I posted the guide.
Regarding KateV's Guide For Coach Product Grades and Markings
Hyacinth:
Good information, although I'm not sure about the various department store codes. To actually use the first letter of the store name just seems too logical. And Coach is seldom logical. And maybe they changed colors but the lettering and drawstrings on my outlet dustbags for keychains were usually red. Nice job!
KateV
I’ve just remembered, the small outlet dustbags with the brown letters and strings are from the Men's Outlet. You are right, the regular outlet uses red letters and strings. And I did some research and found references to N and M codes for
Nordstrom and Macy Department Store exclusives, but perhaps those were incorrect assumptions?
BeenBurned:
I've seen bags as Macy's with M codes also.
Hyacinth:
I've seen Z mentioned as both Nordies and TJ Maxx, and W for Hudson's which I'm assuming is the old Hudson's Bay. The only Ns I remember are those old Nordie Ns that were in some sort of brackets. But I never shop at any of those stores except for TJ so I've only just seen the ones on Ebay.
BeenBurned:
The "Z" bags I've seen have been at discounters, i.e., Nordstroms Rack, TJ Maxx, and prior to its recent demise, Filene's Basement. I've never seen a Z at a full priced department store.
Rambler:
Hudson's may have been one of the stores that joined to form Dayton-Hudson dept stores, who were then bought by Marshall Fields who were bought out by Macy's. Dayton-Hudson was the parent corporation of Target.
Hyacinth:
I thought about that. But these store or retailer letters are pretty recent, just in the last year or two, and Dayton-Hudson was sold maybe 10 years ago at least. Also, the poster who mentioned seeing a W in a bag from Hudson's lives in Canada, so I'm assuming she means Hudson's Bay Company that everyone in Canada just calls Hudson's now. The post was just made here at tPF in the last few months
.