Otte's First Outlet Store Is Full of Bargains and One-Off Samples

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Love browsing through Otte, but not a fan of its price point? Otte feels you, and that's why the boutique has converted its Nolita location into its first permanent outlet store. Previously, that spot was used for its end-of-season sale location, but after the last one in January, the response was so "overwhelmingly positive and people begged for us to keep it," vice president Nancy Zhang told Racked today. "So, we decided why not? We kept it open, and that's when we started asking designers for contributions."

Not only will the outlet collect sale items and interesting off-season goods from its other locations — when an item is marked down, it will remain at its location for two weeks before being shipped to Nolita — but it'll also offer apparel from third-party brands Otte's not carrying anywhere else yet. That includes those labels' off-season and end-of-season goods, and, in some cases, true samples.

"This has become a whole new business on its own," Zhang explained. "We have consignment designers and we have a lot of young designers who want to work with us and we're able to test them in the Nolita location [before putting them in other stores]."

Expect items in every category and at every price point. New stuff comes in directly priced, at usually 50% off, while some of the older things are up to 90% off. And they don't take "up to" lightly — a lot of things really will come close to that mark, they're promising.

If you're shopping online, though, you're not going to find an "outlet" section anywhere on the site. "What's on sale online are things that are on sale in the stores that may have been moved to Nolita, or they may still be in the store, so that won't change at all," Zhang said. "But if you do physically go to Nolita, you'll find some treasures that are not online."

Giving the people what they want has been going well up to this point. "So far, what we've seen is [that the outlet] has not taken business from our other full-price [stores] — in fact, it has enhanced our full-price selling so that our salespeople and customers who are looking for full-price can really focus on it, and those customers who are looking for a bargain can come to one location and find all the bargains they want."

Shop Otte's new outlet store and all its bargain glory on Mondays through Saturdays from 11am to 7pm and on Sundays from 12pm to 6pm.