When a gray, rainy day threatens to ruin your mood and put a damper on beach vacations, seek shelter at one of the area beaches’ outlet malls.
There are three outlet centers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and in Delaware: Queenstown Outlet Center, Rehoboth Outlet Centers 1-3 and Ocean City Outlets. Each one boasts dozens of stores filled with discounted clothing, housewares and other items.
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 Lighting the way: The Rehoboth Outlets beckon shoppers with troves of treasures. (Photo by Patrick Swoboda, Special to SunSpot) |
Queenstown Outlet Center is just over an hour’s drive from either Baltimore or D.C. Within 15 minutes of the Bay Bridge, Queenstown is easy to find, there’s plenty of parking and all stores are easily accessible.
Unlike perky mall retailers in urban areas, the salespeople at Queenstown were refreshingly easygoing. However, there is a drawback to shopping at Queenstown — the lack of food. Other than scattered vending machines, there is no place in the outlet center to grab a snack or a drink.
Queenstown may be good for a half-day of shopping, but a visit to Rehoboth’s outlets requires time and persistence. The three centers, with a total of 133 stores, are spread along Route 50 before you reach the beach. The best aspect of the Rehoboth Outlets is that cheap prices seem even cheaper since there’s no sales tax in Delaware. Rehoboth is a little more difficult to traverse since the buildings are spread out, but there are more amenities for shoppers. In each building, you’ll find a food court with pizza, sandwiches, ice cream and public restrooms.
The last stop on the outlet tour is Ocean City. Ocean City’s outlets offer a welcome diversion from the airbrushed T-shirt havens of the beach’s boardwalk. On par with Queenstown in terms of size (there are 37 stores), Ocean City’s outlets will also occupy you for about half a day.
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Big deals: The Big Dog outlet store welcomes bargain-hunters to the Ocean City Outlets. (Photo by Jessica M. Garrett, Special to SunSpot) |
All of the outlet stores offer discounts, but some outdo the others. In Rehoboth, Timberland and Reebok offer some of the best deals on name brands with almost half of each store filled with clearance racks. Tommy Hilfiger, in both Rehoboth and Ocean City, offers significant markdowns on all clothing. Rue 21 in Ocean City and Queenstown is another store with great deals. Nothing there costs more than $15. If you need a new pair of shoes, check Rack Room Shoes in Rehoboth and Ocean City.
Make your dollar go even farther with discounts offered online and in free fliers. In Rehoboth, pick up a copy of “Beach & Bay Outlet Shopper” for coupons to all three nearby outlets. It’s also worth your time to spend 10 minutes online to print out additional coupons at www.shoprehoboth.com.
Outlet shopping is not just about saving money. It’s also about finding brand name, quality merchandise. Outlet wares tend to fall into two categories: overstocks and irregulars. Both require the shopper to do a little hunting and pecking with careful attention to detail. Overstocks make the quantity of clothes seem overwhelming. Don’t settle for the first item you see. A little extra time will yield a better deal. It is also important to remember to try on clothes at outlets. Since you are dealing with irregulars, your normal size won’t necessarily fit at an outlet store. The clothes aren’t made poorly, they just don’t
fit usual sizing guidelines.
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Beach outlet locations |
At www.primeoutlets.com, the owner of Queenstown’s outlet advises shoppers to wear comfortable clothes, to eat well before going and to add their names to mailing lists in order to receive prior notification of sales.
