For those of you, who might not know about Vera Bradley, let me explain. Vera Bradley is a company that manufactures purses, handbags, computer bags, wallets, luggage, and various accessories that are quite popular. You will either really love these bags or absolutely hate them. Vera Bradley specializes in making items of a quilted cotton material with very distinctive patterns.
I had won tickets to the preview night for the Vera Bradley 2010 Outlet Sale before the actual sale was open to the general public. There were two things that I noticed different from this sale and the two others that I had attended. One was that the prices were higher, and the other was that I thought there was more selection on previous sales. The line for people waiting to get in to the sale this year was ridiculously long. It was estimated that 65,000 people attended. Not all at once as the sale lasted for four days.
Many times during the sale people waited in line for more than three hours to get in. You had a long wait to get into the sale itself, and a wait that was several hours to check out. You have to be a really dedicated Vera Bradley fan to wait that long. Luckily I was able to time my visit so that I never spent more than two hours total at the sale. This included my wait time, shopping time, and check out time. I have to say that I was probably lucky.
The first night that I shopped was for items that were newer. I was able to purchase a mini laptop case. This is an item that Vera Bradley just started producing last year. After the first night, they were sold out. I then went to the sale again on Friday. This time I was looking for bargains. Normally the Friday of the sale is when Vera Bradley begins to reduce their items even more than the original sales prices. I found some good bargains, and was very pleased with my purchases.
I have heard that many people were disappointed this year, and I can’t say that I blame them. Some people experienced extremely long wait times of up to four hours. I don’t think there is any sale on earth that I would wait in line that long for. I have also heard that many were disappointed in the items that were in the sale. Towards the end of the sale everything was pretty picked over.
The local news station was reporting that there were over 40,000 people pre-registered for the Outlet sale this year. I’m sure there were many thousands more that came to the sale and registered at the site. It’s a shame that so many people had to wait so long to get in. If people had such a long wait time how will this affect the attendance for next year’s show? Vera Bradley is also building outlet stores. I know there is one open in the Chicago area, and that others are being planned in other parts of the country. I wonder if this is a step to eliminating their annual outlet sale. I think a lot of Vera Bradley fans love going to the outlet sale, and would be totally disappointed if this were to happen.
Vera Bradley did post on their Facebook page that they may hold more than one outlet sale in more than one location in the country. That certainly might help to alleviate the long lines. As long as Vera Bradley continues to have their Outlet Sale, I plan to attend. I personally won’t wait in a four hour line. I’ll just hope to hit the sale at a less busy time. If you’ve never been to one of these sales, you might want to consider it. It’s quite interesting, and people travel from all over the country for this annual sale.
