Outlet store

The invention of the factory outlet store is often credited to Harold Alfond, founder of the Dexter Shoe Company.

Factory stores started to offer damaged or excess goods to employees at a low price.

[citation needed] In 1970, Vanity Fair opened the first multi-store factory outlet center in Reading, Pennsylvania.

[3] Outlet stores enabled manufacturers to directly enter the retail field themselves and capture more of the profit associated with their brand names.

In Europe, retailer BAA McArthurGlen has opened 13 malls with over 1,200 stores and 3 million square feet (about 30 hectares) of retail space; describing itself as an "outlet village", Bicester Village, on the edge of the town of Bicester in Oxfordshire in England, is a regular stop for bus-tours of foreign tourists, especially from China.