Factory Clearance Outlets

Factory outlets and clearance stores sell a variety of goods, at discounted and lower than normal retail prices, direct to the public.

A factory outlet can be either a “bricks and mortar” shop-front or an online retail store, through which a manufacturer sells their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached directly to a factory or warehouse, however most factory outlets are now situated with other similar stores in retail rather than industrial areas. Factory outlets may sell “seconds”, goods which are marked or otherwise not suitable for retail stores, or they may sell clearance stock from previous seasons or ranges, or unwanted sample stock.

Clearance stores, while similar to factory outlets, are traditionally not affiliated with any one brand or manufacturer. Clearance stores will stock a wide range of products, sometimes within a broad category such as “women’s wear” or “homewares” and sometimes ranging across many different categories, such as $2 shops. Clearances stores are often “jobbers”, in that they take job lots of clearance goods from manufacturers and larger wholesalers and offer them direct to the public at near wholesale pricing.

Factory outlets and clearance malls and centres are shopping centres or street districts dedicated to clearance and factory outlet stores. These centres will commonly have a wide range of clothing, sporting and homewares outlet stores, most often selling previous seasons’ items at discount prices.