Hi everyone,
I’ve heard someone else talked about “outlet”. For instance, they say “I bought a skirt. It’s outlet.” My question is what’s the meaning of outlet for this sentence? Does it mean it’s very cheap? Actually, I’ve heard my friend said it outlet clothes has some flaws from time to time, and the flaws of the clothes are NOT obvious. What do you think of “outlet”?
Thanks in advance.
Maggie^^
Inmy view ‘outlet’ means-when goods price get down.
thanks zuleykha
“Outlet” is short for “factory outlet,” which is a store that sells excess or unwanted merchandise at clearance prices. Many these days, however, are not affiliated with a factory, brand or clothing company and use “outlet” mainly to attract customers looking for good deals.
Since “outlet” refers to a type of store, it doesn’t work in the example you listed. You would buy something “at an outlet” instead. However, you could use the phrase “on clearance” in the same example, with the BE verb made past tense: It was on clearance.
Hi Teachers
What is the difference between antecedent and precedent?
(ante-cedent vs pre-cedent)
Could you give me some examples?
Thanks
Mark
I think the word “outlet” may be the short form for “factory outlet”, “outlet mall”, “outlet store”, “a department inside a big store to sell special items” or even “outlet item”.
In the factory outlets, the manufacturers sell their stock in retail stores directly to the end users at cheaper prices. They may also sell samples with very good workmanship. Usually outlet items are brand new items and sometimes they are discontinued or obsolete items.
In some outlet stores, they also sell open box items, demo items, display items, returned items, old fashioned or old model items as well as some items with flaws labeled “as is”.
In Canada, if you purchase stuffs from some big stores such as Sears, you can always return them with full refund within a certain period of time. Hence an outlet store is one of the places to re-sell such returned items at lower prices.
Usually the sizes of clothes or shoes are not continuous nor in a complete set. Sometimes they are either too big or too small and there is also no rain check.
For electrical appliances, they still provide warranty.
However, the transaction at the outlet store is always considered as final sale. i.e. no more return for whatever the reason.
Since the word “outlet” is a noun, I think it is more appropriate to say “ I bought a skirt. It’s from an outlet” or “I bought a skirt. It’s an outlet item”.
I am not quite sure whether I have answered the question, but I would like to share my personal idea with you all.
Nick
Hi Brently and Nick,
Thanks for giving me so many explanations for the term “outlet”.
As Nick said, “Usually outlet items are brand new items and sometimes they are discontinued or obsolete items.”.
I’m wondering when someone else tells me he or she buys a skirt from an outlet, how can I know the skirt is brand new or obsolete item?
Thanks again.
Hi Maggie,
For garment manufacturing, there is a QC procedure to check whether the products are beyond the specification before shipment.
If there are some flaws in workmanship, such as sewing, they will disassemble them and redo them again.
However, if the flaws are from the material themselves, they may not be curable.
If the flaws are not so obvious but just below the specification, the products will be sent to the factory outlet instead of throwing away.
Therefore, when you buy something in a factory outlet, double check the workmanship as well as the quality of the material very very carefully.
Factory outlets usually sell brand new items due to excess inventory, products with small flaws or accumulated samples. But it is not necessarily the same to the department outlet stores. They may also include lots of returned items in the outlets. Of course, the returned items look like brand new.
I can’t tell whether the clothes from an outlet are brand new or not. To play save, however, you had better clean them thoroughly before use.
Regards,
Nick
Hi, Nick
I got it completely. By the way, I’m wondering how come your location is in Canada, but your photo is like Chinese. So are you Chinese or Canadian?
Happy Lunar New Year.
Maggie^^
I am both. I was born in Hong Kong but migrated to Canada many years ago.
In Canada, we have people from all over the world so you can see all kinds of nations here. For the Chinese, we have a lot of immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Nowadays, most new Chinese immigrants are from mainland China.
This topic made me recall my memory of the summer job in Hong Kong when I was a secondary school student.
I had worked in a Garment factory for two months as a Quality Controller (QC).
I remember that a young lady who newly joined the industry as a sewing trainee had very poor workmanship in her work in the first two weeks.
Every dozen of the clothes she made, I rejected at least three or four and in the worse case there were seven out of a dozen to be rejected.
When she saw the rejected clothes she almost cried out with the teardrops in her eyes. My feeling was not good either. On the one hand I wished her work could pass the inspection but on the other hand I had to guarantee all the products to meet the standard before shipping out. Fortunately she had improved a lot after learning from numerous failures and I could see her smiling face with confidence before I quitted my summer job.
By the way, if there were some dirt on the clothes which couldn’t be cleaned in the normal way, They would treat them with a special chemical solution which was a very strong oxidizing agent. The solution was emitted out through a small jet with very high speed to remove the dirt, both chemically and mechanically. Once that kind of method was used, that part of the clothes hit by the solution would wear out easily later. That’s an old old story. I don’t know whether they have any advanced way to solve the problem nowadays.
Which part of Taiwan are you from ?
Happy New Year of the Tiger !
Nick
Hi, Nick
Thanks for sharing so many experiences for us. Actually, I love western style very much. Originally, I would like to study abroad in western college. So when someone else tells me about things of western countries, I feel very very happy. I am from South of Taiwan. I am a country girl. But I love modern city more, and I work for the Taipei City Government right now. Now it’s during the Chinese New Year, so my family and I have visited our relatives, etc. I’m wodering do you celebrate the Lunar Chinese New Year in Canada as well? Anyway, nice to meet you here.
By the way, I also have a blog. You can visit it when available. There you go. 0rz.tw/793HL
Maggie^^
Hi…Actual meaning of outlet is a place of business for retailing goods. The synonyms are Retail store,Sales outlet… Also Wall socket,Wall plug are the synonyms in another way.
Thank you