Filene's Basement Strategy

[sf_esq]

Originally Posted by gqreader239

lie to your wife?

Spoken like a true veteran. I concur. A man must sometimes do what is necessary when necessary.

 

[RichmondStyle]

Maybe with the market the way it is, I should hold off until after Thanksgiving when retailers start to panic.

 

[hadamulletonce]

What's the best time to visit Filene's basement in Chicago? I always make a stop when I'm on a trip but haven't found anything close to the finds I hear about in this forum.

I haven't had much luck in D.C. either but I've found some nice Chanel items for my wife.

 

[TCN]

Originally Posted by hadamulletonce

What's the best time to visit Filene's basement in Chicago? I always make a stop when I'm on a trip but haven't found anything close to the finds I hear about in this forum.

I haven't had much luck in D.C. either but I've found some nice Chanel items for my wife.

No best time in my experience. Totally random; they've had the same Borrelli shirts, Brioni suits and Borrelli shoes at the same prices the last few times I've been there. I wonder if they're having a tougher time moving stuff.

 

[knittieguy]

Originally Posted by RichmondStyle

I remember in Boston at Filene's Basement they had a pricing strategy for which they were famous that automatically discounted clothing based on how long it had been on the rack.


They don't seem to do that anymore. I don't know why. Maybe too many people put off buying in the hopes that the price would go lower. I've been watching an HF suit at Filenes for five or six months now and the price never changes, apart from the $200-off wardrobe sales, like they have now. They also wouldn't stack a 15% off fan club reward coupon with the sales price. So there the suit sits, waiting for someone with fewer suits than me.

 

[needshoehelp]

Originally Posted by knittieguy

They don't seem to do that anymore. I don't know why. Maybe too many people put off buying in the hopes that the price would go lower. I've been watching an HF suit at Filenes for five or six months now and the price never changes, apart from the $200-off wardrobe sales, like they have now. They also wouldn't stack a 15% off fan club reward coupon with the sales price. So there the suit sits, waiting for someone with fewer suits than me.

That pricing scheme was unique to the downtown crossing store, which closed in '07 for two years of renovations. Whether the store will come back -- let alone the auto markdowns -- has yet to be seen.

 

[KObalto]

Originally Posted by TCN

No best time in my experience. Totally random; they've had the same Borrelli shirts, Brioni suits and Borrelli shoes at the same prices the last few times I've been there. I wonder if they're having a tougher time moving stuff.
At least here in Baltimore, they've marked the Brioni and Borrelli down another 30%.

 

[NH_Clark]

Originally Posted by KObalto

At least here in Baltimore, they've marked the Brioni and Borrelli down another 30%.

the FB in Peabody, MA has done the same. They had a bin of Brioni OTC socks both in silk and cotton tagged at $9.99 with an additional 30% off.. but they only had small and xlarge

and the xlarge had been picked through so much that there was some snags, loose threads appearing

 

[scwtlover]

At the Newton, Mass., FB, I've been able to stack a 20% off coupon on a 40% reduction in the "Vault" price. Basically, I was told, a 9xx department number = the vault. Unfortunately, most Oxxford is Dept. 852.

 

[Christofuh]

The 20% OFF coupon wasn't supposed to ring up with 40% OFF sale items

 

[rioni]

Strategy paid off today when I scored 2 mainline borrelli shirts, 1 borrelli royal collection shirt and a brioni shirt for 260 :0 that additional 20% ontop of 50% is awesome

 

[amerikajinda]

Originally Posted by rioni

Strategy paid off today when I scored 2 mainline borrelli shirts, 1 borrelli royal collection shirt and a brioni shirt for 260 :0 that additional 20% ontop of 50% is awesome

Wow I saw that -- the Borrellis were $149 and then $75 at 50% off, and then with the 20% off they were $60 each? Filene's was awesome today... lots of nice Brioni too.

 

[scwtlover]

Originally Posted by Christofuh

The 20% OFF coupon wasn't supposed to ring up with 40% OFF sale items

The vault suits rang up as 25% off -- the suit event -- not 40% off. The store manager instructed the cashier to override; put in the original FB price; take off 40%; then take off 20% for the coupon.

 

[Kei-bon]

Originally Posted by knittieguy

They don't seem to do that anymore.
That's sad. That discounting system was the whole point of FB. the thrill of finding something that had made it to third markdown, or to "charity"!

 

[dirk diggler]

Originally Posted by sf_esq

Spoken like a true veteran. I concur. A man must sometimes do what is necessary when necessary.

who makes more $$$$? My wife has stopped arguing about my expenditures and started calling me the franchise player since she is a stay at home mom and we just significantly upgraded our lifestyle b/c of my career.