How to Shop: J. Crew & J. Crew Factory

I love shopping at both J. Crew and J. Crew Factory and would love to share my “strategy” and opinions on both stores with you today. Overall, I believe this brand has done a wonderful job at providing a classic, yet fun, streamline look that’s become more and more popular in America today. I personally think a lot of the higher end J. Crew items in the “J. Crew Collection” (think $500-$1000 range) has hurt the stores since there is such a great variance between their prices, but I’ve heard that there are plans to bring their prices lower in the future.

A good portion of my wardrobe is from J. Crew and I’ve only paid full price a rare handful of times. The trick to shopping J. Crew is to shop the sale rack religiously and never buy full price. J. Crew has one of the highest turnover rates when it comes to getting new arrivals and putting items on sale, so you may buy an item one week and see it at half the cost in two weeks. This is why you’ll see an item in every size on sale instead of just a few random pieces. Be patient and wait til it’s marked down, and if you’re extra patient, you can wait for an additional sale. Use your student discount (15% and it can be combined with their sales), and you’ll find yourself scoring great deals. Many times I pay less for what I find at J. Crew than I would at Target, yet the quality is much better.

I love their online sales as well as you can narrow down their large sale section by sizes, color, price, etc. Unfortunately you can no longer use your student discount online so normally I resort to buying in-store. They run fantastic online sales though, for example, they have an extra 40% off their sale currently.

 

J. Crew Factory is the outlet brand of J. Crew, and while it’s of lesser quality, I appreciate that they come out with brighter, preppier items than their higher-end counterpart. There are even many items from there that are a lot better quality than I’d expect, so it really depends on the item itself. Like most outlet stores, you’ll find everything is a certain percentage off already. I normally don’t shop the sale rack because it’s very sparse compared to regular J. Crew’s sale section, but if you have luck, you’ll be able to combine the marked down prices with your student discount (15%). While I don’t subscribe to their emails, I do get postcards in the mail with offers that are better than their emails, so make sure you’re on the mailing list.

I occasionally shop online if the item isn’t in stores, or at my nearest store, and I’ve been really impressed with the sales they run. They currently have up to 50% off everything and I really like their new arrivals.

 

Overall, my tips aren’t groundbreaking, it’s just being patient and waiting for the sale. If you don’t have a student I.D., they also accept an email address if it ends in “.edu”, as well as a teacher discount if you’re a teacher.

Any tips on how you shop J. Crew?

April 8, 2015 by thedressdecoded | 1 Comment