Discount stores selling clothes, house or gardenware, toys and electrical goods are developing fast across France, with several firms regularly opening new déstockage shops.
They sell products which are end of line, have damaged or changed packaging, are last year’s models, or are left over because of cancelled orders.
Noz, one big chain with 308 shops, says it is opening an average two new shops a month and works with 170,000 suppliers. It recently obtained 5,000 electrical appliances, including fridges, freezers and ovens, from a flooded warehouse. The packaging was damaged but they were functional and were sold on at 30% below the usual retail price.
Another chain, Max Plus, with outlets across France, specialises in food, clothes, toys and wine. For example, it recently had end-of-line Le Coq Sportif clothes and shoes at an 80% discount.
Stokomani has 104 shops in France and hopes to have 200 by 2022. It specialises in fashion, beauty, home decor, and toys, and has an app to show you what is coming in.
A similar concept is “factory shops”, where manufacturers sell their own surplus stock directly to the public.
There are seven Marques Avenue shopping centres or villages, with 500 big-name brands selling last year’s stock at reduced prices. Three are in Paris, and the others are at Troyes, Metz, Cholet and Romans-sur-Isère.
The price label shows last year’s price and the present one. For example, a Comptoir des Cotonniers top was reduced from €135 to €85.
The biggest choice of such shops is at Troyes, in Aube, where the tourist office says three million visitors a year come to seek out bargains, with discounts of 30% to 70%.
Upmarket ballet and shoe-maker Repetto has an outlet at its factory at Saint Médard d’Excideuil, Dordogne, with shoes at a quarter of the usual price.
In Brittany, Armor-Lux sells its unsold items for an average discount of 30%.
To find where factory shops are in France, visit lesmagasinsdusine.com.
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