Stretching Your Dollar: Benefits of Outlet Shopping

<div class="block">Stephen Yalof, Tanger Outlets CEO, joined Cheddar News to talk about outlet shopping versus shopping at a traditional retailer. </div>

Stretching Your Dollar

We're all looking for the best deals, especially when it comes to shopping and outlets can be a great way to get the most bang for your buck Steven, who's the CEO of Tager Outlets joins me now to give us some tips from mastering the outlet experience. Uh Stephen, what's the value that someone can get by shopping at an outlet mall? Well, we tell everybody you can get between 30 70% off every day on your favorite brands, 30 to 70% off pretty good. How much can customers save on average? 30? You mentioned 30 to 70% anytime that they can save even more than that? Well, you know, we just launched our new Tanger app uh and loyalty program last month. And if you subscribe to the app, we have a free level that we call that the blue level. We have a, we have a gold level which is a buy-in level. But depending on the level that you're in, you can actually unlock additional value as you continue to shop with uh with Tanger at our shopping centers across the country. Unlock new deals and the loyalty program will ultimately reward you for the more that you spend on that program. So in addition to these great values that you get every day from our favorite brands, Nike Polo, Banana Republic, you can unlock even better deals by subscribing and becoming a member to the Tanger Loyalty program. What's the best way that someone should approach outlet shopping? Is it better to go at certain times of the day, the week, the month, the season or the year? And should they start at one point and end at another? What's the right strategy? Well, strategically, the the beautiful thing about the outlet center is that it's on sale every day, every one of your favorite brands is on sale every day. So the best time to go is when you have available time to spend time in an outlet center. And what makes it even more exciting is we're sort of changing the old outlet narrative. So where the, where the customer would typically go and shop their favorite store, now they can stop, they can refresh. We've got new restaurants, sit down food and beverage, we've got better amenities and even some entertainment uses. So depending on who's traveling with you, how many people you bring in the car will have something for everybody to do when they come and visit. What's the draw of visiting a physical outlet location versus shopping online for deals? Well, first of all, I think people love the experience of being outdoors shopping outlet is a great, uh, sport activity to do with friends. And I think when people come back from a great, uh, successful shopping on outlet experience, what they're typically they're talking about not only is the product they got at their favorite store, but the value they got. And I think that people love to try things on. They want to try on that new pair of, of, of sneakers. They want to try on that app. You want to wear the handbag and see it in the mirror before they actually execute and make that purchase. But for us, once again, you know, using that Tanger app, you can really prepare for your, your trip, you can window shop online and then you can execute your purchase when you actually get in store. Now, um, one of my producers told me there's also a coupon book at Stephen. Tell me more about that how consumers might be able to save a little bit more dough. Yeah. Well, we're actually doing away with the coupon book. We think the coupon book is a thing of the past something that we've had for years at Tanger. But now we're digitizing and the reason why we're digitizing is because a lot of, a lot of folks shop with their phone in their hand and this is an opportunity for our retailer partners to get uh up to the minute deals in the hands of that shopper. A coupon book typically gets printed once a year and that same coupon value lasts that whole year long. That doesn't give our best brands the opportunity to communicate better with the customer. So if there happens to be a run on a certain color or a certain style or a certain product, they get to pass that value on every day to the consumer so they can buy the best products that they want at the price that they want to spend. How do you spot a good deal when shopping? How do you spot a good deal in shopping? Well, for me, you know, first of all, the confidence that you have when you shop in an outlet center is, you know that there's gonna be everyday value so we can start with that. But I think our consumer and our best shoppers are shoppers that really know they know what they want. They know the brands that they love and they've seen that brand in maybe full price, bricks and mortar stores. They've seen that product online, they've seen advertised, but they know when they come to an outlet, that's where they're gonna get their very best price. Whether they buy from the store directly with the, with the store incentive or if they use the New Tanger Loyalty program and are able to unlock additional value and then stack that additional value on top of the best offer that they get in store. Uh Steven, what are your favorite items to buy? When you go outlet shopping, you know, I'm, I'm a big, uh, you know, I like to run, I like to exercise. So I typically find myself buying workout gear, whether it's Nike or Puma, uh, under armor or, um, uh, Adidas. Those are, those are typically my favorite brands. I also, I'm a loyal Ralph Lauren customer can't help it. I've worked for the company for a number of years and so, uh, I always like to walk that Ralph Lauren store every time I'm in the outlet and see what I can get, uh, at the very best value there. All right, Steven, great tips. Hopefully our viewers might be hitting the outlet mall soon. Uh, Steven is the CEO Tanger outlets.