My outlet advetnture...

So I drove up to scenic Lancaster, PA to go outlet shopping. I didn't have a pressing need for anything, but I figured that although I couldn't really justify taking a vacation this year, I could at least take a day-cation, and pick up some useful stuff while I'm at it.

I picked Lancaster because BSOM had gone there with his wife a few months ago and had good things to say about it, and there were some interesting stores there, including a Pepperidge Farm outlet and a QVC outlet. Sure, there were closer outlets, as a commenter on my previous post pointed out, but hell, I'm splurging - it's my day-cation!

I set off with a mental list of things I could use if I found good deals on them, and to not spend more than $100 - enough that I could actually do some shopping, without taking too big a blow to my accident-damaged savings.

First stop was the Tangier Outlets. My purchases:

Aeropostale:

1 checkered long-sleeve shirt - $3.90

Bannana Republic

1 long sleeve zip sweater - $12.99

Reebock Outlet

1 pair fleece sweatpants $27.99 (I know, not much of a deal, but I live in sweatpants during the winter, and it's hard for a short guy to find decent-looking ones with elastic around the legs

1 pair dazzle basketball shorts - $8.99

Then, after a tasty lunch at Sonic of a breakfast bistro sandwich, tater tots, a lime diet coke, and a fried ice cream sonic blast, I headed to the Rockvale outlets 2 miles down the road

VF Clearance Outlet

1 Perry Ellis sweater - $7.99

1 Perry Ellis half-zip sweatr - $7.99

VF Outlet

1 pair Lee carpenter jeans - $20

Steve and Barry's

2 pairs jeans - $8.98 each


That comes to $107.81, not including the ~$13 I spent on bread and goldfish at the Pepperidge Farm outlet. While I hate spending all that money all at once, and while there were a few things I was hoping to pick up that I didn't, like underwear, I think I did well.

I shopped the way I shop normal stores - headed straight to the back for the clearance racks.

My thoughts on outlet shopping - I'll do it again, for the experience, but it's not a great way to save money, and not just because I burned through almost $40 worth of gas. I'm not normally a brand-name shopper - most of my clothing comes from the clearance rack of Target or Old Navy - so I'm not exactly the ideal person for an outlet full of brand-name clothing. Outlet shopping is also better for outerwear and the like than for staples like undewear and socks, whose prices seemed pretty close to retail. And like any other kind of shopping, the best deals are on the clearance racks and on stuff that's out of season.

As far as the two outlet malls, I liked Rockvale better - it was bigger, better looking, and and had a lot more non-clothing stores, like Pepperidge Farm and QVC (which was fun to poke through, although most of the stuff is crap). But since both are so close to each other, so it's stupid not to go to both.

This may become a mad anthony summer tradition. Heck, depending on what people ask me for for Christmas, I might make a trip back up in December.