Providing Outlets for Shoppers
Two new factory outlet malls are opening in Southern California within a month of each other and just in time to garner some of the holiday business.
One is The Desert Hills Factory Stores in Cabazon (15 miles west of Palm Springs) that staged its grand opening at the end of October with some major manufacturers that haven’t been seen at other outlet malls.
Many of the factory stores at Desert Hills are familiar names in Southern California malls. Present here, as in the Factory Merchants Outlet Mall in Barstow, are Adolfo II, Barbizon, Bass, Evan-Picone, Gant, Gitano, Royal Doulton, Anne Klein, Corning/Revere Ware and American Tourister. But other manufacturers have opened in the Cabazon location: Nancy Johnson, Gorham, Harve Benard, Esprit, Guess?, Joan & David Shoes, Perry Ellis Shoes, Nike, Adrienne Vittadini, West Point Pepperell and, opening later, Geoffrey Beene and Albert Nipon.
Ninety miles from the downtown L.A. interchange and 20 minutes from Palm Springs, the Desert Hills Factory Stores already are attracting about 14,000 shoppers each week, according to mall spokesman Gary Sherwin. The prices are generally 30% to 70% off the regular retail, with most merchandise falling in the 35% to 40% range. Some of the manufacturers trade on their well-earned reputations for quality and make products that they sell only in outlet stores. Some use their outlet stores to test market new lines and others relegate irregular merchandise to their outlet stores.
The Desert Hills Factory Stores will most likely capture the bargain hunter en route between Palm Springs and Los Angeles as well as the Los Angeles and Orange County shopper in search of deals on some of the pricey labels housed there. Esprit and Guess? are labels that will certainly appeal to the fashion-conscious young crowd, while the more traditional names such as Evan-Picone, Nancy Johnson, Anne Klein, Adolfo II, Jones New York and Harve Benard provide enough prestige to satisfy seasoned shoppers. Gorham, Royal Doulton, Oneida, West Point Pepperell and The Kitchen Collection’s inventory of Proctor-Silex, Wearever and Anchor-Hocking offer good buys for the housewares shopper or gift buyer.
Take the San Bernardino Freeway to Apache Trail off-ramp. The Desert Hills Factory Stores, located next to Hadley’s in Cabazon, are open 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. daily. All stores accept checks and major credit cards.
Until now, factory outlet malls have been located outside major metropolitan areas so that manufacturers are not in competition with their big customers--retail department stores. To date in Southern California we have the San Diego Factory Stores in San Ysidro, the Factory Merchants Outlets in Barstow, and now 55 stores in the Desert Hills complex in Cabazon. But they’re getting closer. In the last week of November, The Citadel Outlet Collection will open the first such mall in Los Angeles. The mall will be located in the old Uniroyal tire factory off the Santa Ana Freeway, at 5675 E. Telegraph Road, in the City of Commerce. The developer, Trammel Crow Co., has preserved the factory’s original Assyrian architecture while expanding the complex to accommodate 50 outlet stores and eventually a hotel, restaurants and an office complex. Next week I’ll cover those manufacturers who are participating in this first Los Angeles-area outlet mall.
For information on outlet malls across the nation, there’s a neat publication called “Outlet Bound” that lists more than 250 outlet malls with the manufacturers’ names cross-referenced for easy referral. To get a copy, send $5.95 to Outlet Bound, P.O. Box 1255-B, Orange, Conn. 06477.
