"They carry first run pieces and they will they also carry discontinued items. In other words, older items that the other department stores do not want to carry because they like carrying new items; newness is everything to a department store."
There are always some items that are near and dear to the hearts of collectors, so Lenox may continue making them on a limited basis. "There will be some popular classic Lenox pieces we will continue to manufacture and just put them in our outlet stores. I think the goal is to have some differentiation, some difference between the Lenox store and a department store."
He continues, clarifying how outlet stores are actually a wise strategy for the business.
"It would be pointless to have [all the retailers] carrying identical products because the price structure is slightly different. Also, just from a purely competitive standpoint, in certain regions we do not want to step on each other's toes. So to that end Lenox still carries some of the same products, but also a lot of different products and also some exclusives, which are just designed and manufactured to the store itself."
Carder admits there are also some great hidden treasures to be found in outlet stores. "There are a lot of accessories,paper goods, napkins with a holiday decoration printed on them, etc. and I think it is a really fantastic venue for somebody who is very loyal to Lenox. That customer will go to an outlet find some unique pieces that have been made especially for the store."
And some folks may even find that they prefer getting their Lenox pieces in an outlet store setting. Carder explains, "It has a slightly different character; it is obviously a whole environment full of Lenox products, whereas a department store is just a store carrying many other manufacturers' products."
He notes that there is a common misconception regarding the content of outlet stores.
"A lot of people associate second quality merchandise with the outlet store. From time to time, there have been some products sent to outlet stores with minor defects and they were identified with maybe a slight decorating mark." But that practice is rarely seen these days, he stresses." I think in the earlier days, some seconds may have been placed in the stores, but generally if we see the defect, we destroy the piece; in some of our lines we have absolute zero tolerance for defects."
Carder explains how the strict Lenox standards prevent some of that slightly defected merchandise from reaching our stores.
"Our quality control is so stringent now that, for instance if we are manufacturing offshore we will not ship seconds into this country. We just wouldn't do that because if we did, we'd be paying to ship something that is not correct. So, the availability of seconds kind of disappears."
In conclusion, Carder says the variety alone should serve as a great incentive to shop at a Lenox outlet store.
"You may see special things that you are not aware of; that type of thing."
"There are also overruns too," he continues. "We may create the product, forecast great success and then the product may not sell as well. We've had new designs go to market and customers express interest without placing the orders. In meantime we had to make the products anyway. If they ultimately did not want it, we might have shipped it to our Lenox stores."
