Orlando: Outlets, Outlets Everywhere.. How Did My Suitcase Shrink??
Written: Aug 27 '00 (Updated Dec 16 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Lots of outlet shops and malls; warm weather means good shopping!
Cons: Some outlets have better prices than others
The Bottom Line: There are many great outlet malls where you can find good quality merchandise at very reasonable prices. Welcome to Outlet Shopping Land!
|
|
|
| diverpam's Full Review: Orlando |
Orlando may well be the factory outlet capital of the world… or at least a very viable theme park alternative. If you're all Mickeyed out, there are lots of great places to hunt for bargains!
My Outlet Shopping Odyssey
The first day we arrived for our 10-day Orlando visit, I was impressed by the vast array of brochures and billboards portraying factory outlet shopping. Now, I am no novice to factory outlets and I expect to find a good price. A factory outlet in name only is, indeed, no real factory outlet.
It seems we had quite a large selection from which to choose:
Belz has Mall 1, Mall 2, and Annex 1, 2, 3, and 4. A total of 170 outlets.
Not a bad start.
Then there is the Orlando Premium Outlet Center. Designer names such as DKNY, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Dooney & Burke, and Versace.
The Lake Buena Vista complex has almost 40 stores, including Liz Claiborne, Gap and Nine West.
They are several golf outlets, Bass Pro Outdoor World, and a Divers Discount outlet.
In was obvious my husband and I had our work cut out for us while in Orlando.
Our first day of shopping we hit the Designer Outlet on International Drive on the way to the Belz Malls.
Some of our favorite stores included Bose, Liz Claiborne, Coach, and Maternity Works.
We found a gold mine at Maternity Works (our fourth grandchild was on the way). For $40, we bought a dress and five tops. The total retail price of the items was $250. They featured items with labels such as Pea in the Pod, Mimi, and Motherhood. With the exception of one item, we got everything at a 90% discount. Now that’s what I call outlet shopping.
Next we hit the Aigner store. There I bought five pairs of shoes for $60, about the retail price of one pair. (That did include two pairs for my daughter, despite a rather entertaining cell phone conversation I had with her from the store.)
Me: “Hi, what size shoe do you wear?”
Daughter: “Who is this?”
Me: “This is your mother.”
Daughter: “You’re supposed to be on vacation. Why do you need my shoe size?”
My poor husband gladly carried the shoes to the car for me as we headed to the Belz Mall.
In Mall #1 they have many of the standard outlet mall offerings, such as Maidenform, Carter’s, Footlocker, Mikasa, Dress Barn, Bass, and Levi’s. They also had Wolf Camera & Video, Stride Rite, Fitz & Floyd, The Gap, Elisabeth, Izod, Kasper, Nautica, San Francisco Music Box, and Universal Studios. We did mostly looking at this mall, although we did buy a few clearance items.
Mall #2 has Samsonite, Corning-Revere, Oneida, Burlington, Dockers, London Fog, and Van Heusen (the usual cast of characters).
However, in this mall they also have a Planet Hollywood merchandise outlet, Character Warehouse (lots of Disney stuff), Aigner, and Time Square Watches (with a pretty nice selection of Tag Heuer watches and competitive prices). No, I didn’t get to buy one of those, but I was tempted.
We bought some cute Disney outfits for the grandkids at about a 70% discount off the retail price. Not bad.
The four smaller annexes included stores for Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Liz Claiborne, Reebok and Rockport. Hilfiger had some items on clearance with savings up to 75%. My husband bought two nice golf shirts for $15 each. He was starting to get interested again.
All you men will be happy to know I gave my husband a day off from shopping and we played golf. Then, we were back out looking for – what else – golf merchandise at outlet prices. There were a few stores that claimed to be outlets, discounters, or had clearances.
We checked out Edwin Watts outlet center. They had some nice merchandise, but no great prices. My husband had bought his Callaway irons at a golf pro shop in Memphis for less than they were selling them.
Golf Liquidators was a real bust. Not only were they not especially cheap, they didn’t have the top name merchandise. I want a bargain and a brand name.
Sports Dominator had a clearance center in Kissimmee that had a large selection of clubs and clothing (still not great name brands, but not bad).
We checked out the Diver’s Outlet on International Drive. They had much better prices on scuba gear than we can ever get in Memphis. Imagine that!
We couldn’t stand it; we bought new masks at a pretty good discounts. We got Mares top of the line $150 masks for $99.99 each.
Yes, guys, it gets even better. We went to Pro Bass Outdoor World – they were having a great sale on Ashworth golf shirts. My husband got a $50 shirt for $20. I got two $50+ shirts, one for $16 and the other for $13.
Should I mention at this point we went to the Universal Outlet and bought an extra carry on bag for $12?
The biggest disappointment for us was the Orlando Premium Outlet center, near Disneyworld. They had the most elite names – as well as the most elite prices.
There were a few good deals, including a $285 Coach bag for $169, but for the most part the merchandise was not very well discounted.
The biggest surprise was the Buena Vista Lakes outlet. It looks a lot smaller from the front, but has quite a few good stores. We found clearance prices on Liz Claiborne – three tops, one pair of jean and a leather belt for $50.
The VF outlet had a clearance on Heath-Tex baby clothes. I found several cute sleepers/outfits ranging from $4 - $8. Quite a good price on Health-Tex.
I’m writing this in the hotel as we prepare to leave Orlando. I can’t wait to get home and show off all my great finds.
Happy shopping the next time you visit Orlando!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
diverpam
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Pam
Location: Collierville, TN
Reviews written: 263
Trusted by: 351 members
About Me:
~~~~So many oceans...so little time!~~~~
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.