The Shophound

WAREHOUSE RELOCATION: Barneys Warehouse Sale To Officially Move To Metropolitan Pavilion —But Why Bother?

Yesterday marked the end the last Barneys Warehouse Sale in its traditional Chelsea location, and the retailer took the opportunity to officially confirm to shoppers what The Shophound has predicted: that the sale would relocate to the Metropolitan Pavilion a couple blocks East on 18th Street. Of course, having seen the pitiful selection of merchandise that was left even by the time the sale was halfway over, we have wonder if it is worth holding the live, walk-in version of the sale at all?

One has to remember that when the Warehouse Sale originally created, Barneys was more of a local destination on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Seventeenth Street (now the homes of Loehmann's and the Rubin Museum of Art), and holding on off-site sale was a great way to clear out inventory from the previous season while devoting the main store's limited floor space to current, full price merchandise. Since then, however the retailer has expanded, added a whole network of 13 outlet stores and, just this season, created an ongoing Barneys Warehouse website that will be open all the time.

Much like the Academy Awards, the Barneys Warehouse Sale has always given shoppers something to criticize and complain about, but regular customers will probably be able to point to incredible designer deals in their closets that they never could have been able to afford if they hadn't found them at the sale -usually during it's last days when additional discounts can reach up to 50% and 60% off the lowest ticket price. We certainly have a few, but there hardly any such items this time when the sale's offerings were dramatically diminished from the first day. Most of the designer items for men and women were reserved for the website, where many of them are still available but without any additional reductions from their final clearance prices in Barneys' stores. Who knows when, if ever, they will be re-reduced?

So, at this point, with outlets and a full-time off-price clearance e-commerce site why do they even need do do theses sales at all? In fairness, it's more profitable for the store to sell clearance items online in an ongoing manner without slashing prices so dramatically, so we can't blame them for creating what is really an off-price e-commerce site that should compete with the likes of Bluefly or Yoox. Next season, they have already given notice that the sale would focus only on men's tailored clothing and dress furnishings, but if the reduced selection we saw last week is any indication of what we can expect -and much of it felt like we had already seen it at previous Warehouse Sales- then we don't see why Barneys should even bother continuing with it at all. As we said when we reviewed this sale's first day offerings, The Warehouse Sale that we knew and loved is finished. Let's let it go.

Barneys Warehouse Sale (Official Site)
Previously:
Warehouse Report: About the Sad Excuse For A Barneys Warehouse Sale That Opened Yesterday

WAREHOUSE UPDATE: Additional Reductions At Barneys Warehouse Sale

The Shophound really didn't think we would bother checking back at the disappointing Barney's Warehouse Sale, but since we were walking past it yesterday, we checked to see how things were progressing. The first additional reductions have been posted including an extra 25% off on selected categories like men's dress shirts and Women's shoes among others. From what we can tell, there will be no additional merchandise added to the racks, as they looked substantially less full than they did last Thursday. The men's department is even drearier with whole sections of the space completely empty and closed off. Still, if you wear an XL or larger, there is an abundance of blue-star sport shirts at an extra 75% off the lowest ticket price, so for the right person, a remarkable bargain ma still be waiting for you —just keep expectations low.

Click on the image at left for a complete list of yesterday's additional markdowns.

Barney's Warehouse Sale Through February 24th at 255 West 17th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, Chelsea

WAREHOUSE REPORT: About the Sad Excuse For A Barneys Warehouse Sale That Opened Yesterday

A lot of New York shoppers may be thinking that the next week will be their last chance to catch one more opportunity to shop the Barneys Warehouse Sale that has been a seasonal bargain resource for years.

Well, unfortunately for them, that would have been last Fall. The sale that opened up yesterday in the longtime Chelsea space that Barneys will soon be turned out of is so diminished that The Shophound wonders why they bothered holding it at all. A lot of us have been wondering if the new online Barneys Warehoue site would have an impact on the amount and quality of the merchandise made available at the final sale in its traditional location, and the answer is yes to both concerns. Clearly, and in fairness, smartly, the retailer has reserved the best items to sell online. What is left for this sale is a pretty pitiful selection of goods that didn't make the cut. In terms of sheer volume, there appears to be about half the amount of merchandise available as we have come to expect from this event, which is why the sale seems strangely spacious. Women's apparel, the main draw, is now arranged only by category rather than designer, which suggests that the designer selection is fairly light at best. The women's shoe racks appeared reduced in numbers to us, and it was difficult for us to tell how much of the merchandise was from this past fall or previous seasons. There is virtually nothing from the Chelsea passage home department except for some stacks of coffee table books which regulars will recognize as leftovers from last season's sale. Women's accessories are similarly sparse, and the whole thing seems conspicuously meager.

Downstairs in the men's department is where you can really see how the event has been cut back. Men's tailored clothing has been reduced in space by at least half, as have dress shirts and furnishings, but not socks and hats. For some mysterious reason, there are bins and bins of socks and hats —more than we have seen before— but that hardly makes up for the sad shoe selection. It has been stripped of any of the desirable brands Barneys is known for in favor of some dodgy looking private label merchandise, and a few tough-sells from high profile labels

The second basement section, usually devoted to sportswear, is now reserved for merchandise from previous seasons with blue-star stamped tags. This may be the only opportunity for a real bargain, since it is all being sold for 75% off the lowest ticket price. It is mostly aged merchandise, so what is available is definitely hit or miss, and some sizes are barely represented. There is a much smaller blue-star section upstairs on the women's floor as well, and both departments offer an orange tag area featuring none too appealing priced-as-marked goods that appear to be damaged or otherwise altered in some way.

Overall, the entire sale is a disappointment, and just seems depressing. As usual, nothing has yet been reduced beyond its most recent ticket price, but we're not sure that you would want it even if it were marked down further. The sale that we all knew and looked forward to is now long gone. We have been told that next season, a new sale will be held focusing on menswear, but if this is any suggestion of what we can expect from future sales, then we don't see the point in continuing with the walk-in sales at all. Put it all online or send it to the outlet stores. The old Barneys Warehouse Sale is dead. Let it rest in piece.

Barney's Warehouse Sale Through February 24th at 255 West 17th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, Chelsea

 

WAREHOUSE UPDATE: Barneys Warehouse Sale Opens On Thursday —No Additional Markdowns Online

Oh, Barney's Warehouse Sale! We never know what to expect from you anymore.
The final sale at its regular location starts on Thursday, so this may be the last time, particularly for women, to stand in line on 17th Street and shop in a basement through a frenzied crush of crammed racks for the luxury store's final markdowns. That never sounds incredibly appealing, and yet it draws us back season after season. Somehow, there's always something there to tempt us and, obviously, plenty of other people.

Around this time last season, Barneys tested out an online Warehouse Sale for the first time which ended just as the regular sale began, and like its non-virtual counterpart, offered deep discounts just before it closed up. This year however, the Warehouse website will remain open permanently, and, unfortunately, we can find no such discounts this time around. How the online Warehouse Sale will handle re-reductions remains to be seen, but at the moment, everything seems to remain in the same 50% to 75% off zone as when the site launched a few weeks ago.

So get ready. Thursday starts your last opportunity to enjoy the Warehoue Sale you have come to know and love. We will try to stop by and check up on tings as we always do. Next season it will be a mostly (if not exclusively) Men's clothing affair in a Chelsea location yet to be officially anounced. Stay tuned for updates.

Barney's Warehouse Sale February 14th -24th at 255 West 17th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, Chelsea
Click image above to enlarge full details.

WAREHOUSE UPDATE: Barneys Warehouse Sale Is Live Online

The final sale in Chelsea doesn't start for 10 days, but the Barneys Warehouse Sale's new online outlet went live this morning permanently. We perused the offerings, and though we couldn't examine every single item, we got a pretty good idea of what can reasonably be expected.

First of all, there appears to have been no further price reduction in the transfer between Barneys stores and website to the Warehouse Sale website. Most reductions are in the 50% to 60% off range with a few items edging up to 75% off. This is not terribly surprising. Regular Warehouse sale shoppers know that in the first few days of the seasonal Warehouse Sale, price tags remain unchanged from full line stores' final clearance sale. The real savings happen when additional markdowns are taken as the sale progresses. Will this same dynamic of additional reductions be in effect online? We will have to wait and see.

Merchandise will be from the last season and possibly earlier. The Shophound spotted a pair of Mark McNairy boots we snagged at the last Warehouse Sale, but the price had reverted to the previous 50% off ticket price, without the deeper additional discounts we enjoyed when we bought them... five and a half  months ago.

On the plus side, the site looks almost exactly like the regular Barneys New York site, with the same interface, design and filters. It also features free domestic shipping on orders over $150, not quite as good as the main site, but chances are, you will probably be spending over $150 anyway.

Another plus is that merchandise that had previously been sold out online has now been replenished with consolidations from Barneys stores' stock, but we are curious to see how this affects the abundance of merchandise for the actual sale in Chelsea. If Barneys diverts goods to its online stock, will there be as much to buy for walk-in customers next week? We will find out more in the coming weeks, but we are expecting that the interest in Barneys final seasonal Warehouse Sale as we know it in Chelsea will be high, so brace yourselves for big crowds one last time.

Barneys Warehouse Sale (Official Site)
Previously:
Barneys Online Warehouse Sale Starts Monday & Stays Open Forever

WAREHOUSE REPORT: Barneys Online Warehouse Sale Starts Monday & Stays Open Forever

We have all been wondering exactly what form the Barneys Warehouse Sale will take after this season's finale at the familiar 17th Street location, and it turns out that the online version that appeared last season will become a permanent off-price site. Barneyswarehouse.com, launching on Monday, ten days before the physical Warehouse Sale is scheduled to begin. Unlike last season, however, the website will remain open as an ongoing clearance outlet for the store. Of last August's test of the online sale, Barneys Executive Vice President Daniella Vitale tells WWD, “We dipped our toe in the water and the [test] was enormously successful... It indicated this is something we should be doing on a long-term basis. They can all coexist and grow together”

The new ongoing site will act as an online version of Barneys' 13 outlet stores, though Vitale underplays the fact that Barneys buys merchandise to sell specifically in those stores (and we believe at the Warehouse Sale as well) that is never sold in full line Barneys New York locations. The site is expected to offer merchandise from previous seasons at up to 75% off including all product categories found in the stores.

What does this mean for the walk-in Warehouse Sale of the future? Vitale confirms that it will continue at a different location after this season, but it will primarily focus on men's tailored clothing, which is typically mmore challenging to sell online than men's sportswear and women's apparel, and requires more sales assistance. “The origin of the warehouse sale was as a men’s sale,” Vitale says, and it has always taken a substantial space in the traditional Warehouse Sales of the past. This means that going forward after this season, the racks of women's shoes and designer apparel will probably be reduced, or possibly eliminated altogether, along with much of the men's sportswear. Will Barneys be able to sustain a full-time website for clearance along with 13 outlet stores without buying additional off-price merchandise? Time will tell, but the upside will be not having to endure the lines to get in or check out, for one thing. What merchandise will be available remains to be seen, but at least it will presumably not have endured being crammed on racks and being pawed by who knows how many rapacious shoppers, often leaving once appealing goods somewhat the worse for wear by the end of the sale. Whether or not the website will also mirror the deep discounts that typically appear during the sales' final days also remains in question. We will all be anxious to see how this plays out in the coming months, so stay tuned.

Barneys New York to Launch Off-price Site (WWD)
Previously:
Warehouse Flash: Barneys Next Warehouse Sale Starts On Valentine's Day

WAREHOUSE FLASH: Barneys Next Warehouse Sale Starts On Valentine's Day

It will be a bittersweet Valentine's Day next month when Barneys kicks off its final Warehouse Sale in what will soon no longer be the Chelsea Co-op store. Our friends at Racked have been speculating that this may be the last Warehouse Sale ever. We hate to step on anyone's spin, but we are pretty sure that yesterday's WWD article that confirmed the closure of the Chelsea location was pretty specific that after next month's sale, another one was planned "in a new location one block away in August or September".
So, let's all just take a deep breath and stop worrying if the seasonal sale will continue, and start speculating about where it will continue. That's more fun anyway, right? Metropolitan Pavilion? Some other warehouse space in Chelsea? Who knows?

So far, we have no official word on whether the store will repeat the online component of the sale from last season which ran in advance of the traditional event. Followers will remember that prices were reduced at periodic intervals online in the same way they do at the main sale, and saved shoppers a lot of standing in line and uncivilized elbow checks. So far, Barneys' own Warehouse Sale site has not yet been updated, so we don't have complete dates, but, as always, we will keep watching.

*SALE HUNT* Barneys Warehouse Sale (Mizhattan)
The Barneys Warehouse Sale Has a Date (But Will It Be the Last?) (Racked)
Barneys Warehouse Sale (Official Site)
Previously:
Coming & Going: Barneys Co-op Officially Closing In Chelsea, But A Downtown Flagship Could Be In the Works

RUMOR MILL: Is Barneys' Co-op In Chelsea Ready To Pack It In?

Is it the end for Barney's Co-op in Chelsea? The New York Post and Racked are reporting on rumors that once this season's warehouse sale is over, the branch will not re-open to resume its normal activity as it has in season's past. Of course these speculations have been followed by trails of comments on Racked from those who claim to have known this for months, but rumors about Barneys have been unreliable in general in recent years, including some which emphatically insisting that the Warehouse Sale was being phased out, or that there were imminent plans for a new, full line Barneys store in the Meatpacking District.

What happens to the Chelsea Co-op remains to be seen. If our memory serves, it was the first location opened when Barneys decided to expand the Co-op brand from its denim and contemporary departments to its own offshoot chain. At the time, it was heralded as a return to Chelsea for the retailer which only a few years earlier was forced to close its original flagship store about a block away at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Seventeenth Street. Since then, it may have been eclipsed by a busier women's only units in SoHo, and an expansive two-level version in Cobble Hill, but it has always seemed to serve its sophisticated Chelsea and West Village clients well despite having to shut down for weeks at a time to host the Warehouse sale.
Barney's current management has not shown themselves to be particularly sentimental about the store's past, so it is not entirely unbelievable that the store might be shuttered, but that would leave a few questions such as: Would it be moved to a newer, more favorable location like the nearby Meatpacking District? What would happen to the Warehouse Sale? Would it move to a better location with more room, and would it still have such a conveniently accessible rest room?

The Warehouse Sale typically happens about a month from now —in fact, an announcement should be coming any day now. As for the fate of the Chelsea store, Barneys management isn't commenting. Make of that what you will.

A thread thrashin’ (NYPost second item via Racked)

WAREHOUSE UPDATE: Here Are The Latest Price Cuts From The Barneys Warehouse Sale

Click image for a larger view in a new window

The Barneys Warehouse Sale has started slashing prices.
These are the additional markdowns we found when we stopped by yesterday evening (click above for a larger view). There will certainly be more before it ends on Monday, September 3rd. You can always wait until the final price cuts on the last day, but The Shophound, based on our extensive Warehouse Sale shopping experience, actually recommends stopping by on Saturday or Sunday to avoid what can sometimes be crushing crowds at the end even if it costs you a couple of dollars more. If there is something in particular that you have had an eye on at the sale, now is the time to decide whether you should buy it now for a pretty good deal, or chance it  and wait for more reduction at the end —if it is still there, that is. We cannot make these decisions for you. While the Sale may not be what it once was, there is always something there you will want, and sometimes grabbing it now and getting it over with is better than checking back again and again for additional markdowns. Good Luck with whatever you decide.

Barneys Warehouse Sale through Monday, September 3rd, 225 West 17th Street between Seventh & Eighth Avenues, Chelsea

WAREHOUSE ALERT: Barneys Warehouse Sale Is Online Now, For A Select Few

Sorry, we didn't intend to make this Barneys Day on The Shophound, but after some initial reports from RACKED yesterday, and a denial from Barneys, we can report that Barneys Warehouse Sale is indeed selling online for the first time today. It is not yet available to the general public, but if you signed up for email alerts (or if you sign up right now), you will be able to log on to the sale. We found price to be more in the 50% to 60% off range, which mostly seems like what merchandise was selling for during Barney's in-store clearance, It's not rock-bottom warehouse prices, but who knows? You might get lucky. It's certainly a different experience than rummaging through the racks at the physical Warehouse Sale.

So what are you waiting for? See for yourself. Go shop!

The Barneys Warehouse Sale Will Begin Online Tomorrow at 9am (RACKED)
Previously:
Warehouse Sale News: Barneys Adds A New Twist To This Season's Warehouse Sale