No more boutique bags at outlets?

[ozmodiar]

If COACH makes 1000 Sabrina's and they sell for $400 ea. and only 500 people buy...what are they going to do with the other??? Sit on them?? I think NOT. They have grossed $200,000, but they are still sitting on 1/2 their stock. Why not sell those bags at the outlets for $200 and pocket another $100,000 bucks?! They know they'll sell at the outlet at that price and they can still line their pockets nicely! We all have GOT to know that even with the quality they put into those bags when all is said and done it can't cost them AT MOST $20-$30 per bag, considering wages, supplies and materials.


They ARE better off to sell a higher quantity at a lower price, this serves 2 purposes as it still get's the product out there to be seen, and it put's the money back into their pockets at a quicker rate. I would most likely only own 2 or 3 bags if it was not for the outlet. In this case COACH would have got maybe $1200 MAX of my money. Instead I buy like a craZy person at the outlet, and spend maybe $600 a year on FP + another $1200 at the outlets. So COACH is really getting alot more of my $$$ by doing the boutique transfer thing.

Well, those extra Sabrinas that didn't sell would eventually go to the outlets as they have been doing, but for the next line that Coach produces, they would see that demand is lower than expected and so would only make 500 or fewer of the new line of bags for the boutiques. And then maybe most of those would end up selling at full price and there would be only a handful left to go to the outlets.

To make up the difference in factory store inventory, Coach would increase production of MFF bags, maybe recycling an old design like the Madeline (which I did see MFF at the outlet this week). Those would be priced around $200 and would probably have a higher margin than a discounted boutique transfer selling for the same price. You may not buy them, but most customers don't know that they are MFF - they just see a great bag that they may remember from their local mall last year now selling for half the original cost.

So Coach makes their money at FP, they make more money at the outlet with MFF bags, the average outlet customer is happy, and they don't tick off their boutique customers for discounting bags so quickly. Maybe you and I are not happy, but we make up a very very small percentage of their customers. We'll have to either choose whether we are willing to buy at full price before a new bag sells out, shop mainly at the outlets and hope that we can catch a few leftover boutique transfers during the few days they are available, or stop buying Coach altogether.


Anyway, Coach is still in the process of changing the balance of boutique vs outlet bags at the factory stores right now, and we probably won't know if what they say about no more boutique bags there will be true for a while yet. I imagine there will still be some, but not in the quantities that there have been over the past few years, and there may be a bigger time gap before they show up discounted.

The Ann Taylor example is a good one. I used to shop there all the time when it was an actual clearance center because the deals were fabulous. Once when I was travelling, I found an outlet that was selling tons of shoes from the boutiques for only $5 a pair! Too bad those days are long gone.

 

[lovecoachmore]

I know that this can be justified either way, but what is COACH going to do??? Keep cutting back the amount of bags they manufacture until they are only releasing 100 of ea. style??? They can't KNOW for SURE what people are going to go for and what they aren't. They will always have some overstock on certain styles/colors!!!!

Also, the fact that you & I aren't happy would have to consist of the other collectors that seek boutique transfers at the outlets. THEN, what is COACH going to do when they've ticked off their tried & true customers and another designer comes into town that's "hotter" then COACH and they don't have the bandwagon customer base they once did? It could go either way, but IMO there will ALWAYS be overstock of SOME boutique bags and they will go to the outlets!!!
I also believe that alot of the people that actually do crave COACH as a brand and not a "status symbol" that hangs on their arm do get to know the brand and they're getting spoiled by boutique transfers just like us. I for one am looking into BE as an alternative because the policies & procedures at the Coach stores and outlets have become too aggrivating to me...I've gotta wonder how many aren't far behind me?!

Well, those extra Sabrinas that didn't sell would eventually go to the outlets as they have been doing, but for the next line that Coach produces, they would see that demand is lower than expected and so would only make 500 or fewer of the new line of bags for the boutiques. And then maybe most of those would end up selling at full price and there would be only a handful left to go to the outlets.

To make up the difference in factory store inventory, Coach would increase production of MFF bags, maybe recycling an old design like the Madeline (which I did see MFF at the outlet this week). Those would be priced around $200 and would probably have a higher margin than a discounted boutique transfer selling for the same price. You may not buy them, but most customers don't know that they are MFF - they just see a great bag that they may remember from their local mall last year now selling for half the original cost.

So Coach makes their money at FP, they make more money at the outlet with MFF bags, the average outlet customer is happy, and they don't tick off their boutique customers for discounting bags so quickly. Maybe you and I are not happy, but we make up a very very small percentage of their customers. We'll have to either choose whether we are willing to buy at full price before a new bag sells out, shop mainly at the outlets and hope that we can catch a few leftover boutique transfers during the few days they are available, or stop buying Coach altogether.


Anyway, Coach is still in the process of changing the balance of boutique vs outlet bags at the factory stores right now, and we probably won't know if what they say about no more boutique bags there will be true for a while yet. I imagine there will still be some, but not in the quantities that there have been over the past few years, and there may be a bigger time gap before they show up discounted.

The Ann Taylor example is a good one. I used to shop there all the time when it was an actual clearance center because the deals were fabulous. Once when I was travelling, I found an outlet that was selling tons of shoes from the boutiques for only $5 a pair! Too bad those days are long gone.