Just in time for the rush of back to school shopping, Taubman Prestige Outlet opened its doors on Aug. 2. On Aug. 22, St. Louis Premium Outlets did the same. Within a span of three weeks, store options for student shoppers increased drastically.
“When I first heard about the outlets, I was really excited because there are some new stores that are not at the mall,” junior Natalie Dicker said.
Included in these new malls are several teen favorites, such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, BCBG, American Eagle, Pacific Sunwear and more. Though some of the stores at the two malls overlap, the majority of each outlet’s selection varies, leading to frontrunners for students.
“At the Premium Outlets, there are a lot more stores and stores that I like,” sophomore Tal Halperin said. “It also looks better with its plaza and everything.”
Freshman Will Jost agrees, due to the wider variety of stores in the Premium Outlet.
“The Premium Outlets was more crowded, but it had more sports stuff,” Jost said.
Nike and Adidas are among the stores exclusive to the Premium Outlet. Freshman Emilia Cytron said the food court was another positive aspect of that mall.
Although many students preferred the Premium Outlet, some saw benefits to the Taubman Outlet as well. Dicker’s favorite outlet store, American Eagle, is only at the Taubman outlet, as is Polo Ralph Lauren and several smaller scale speciality shops. In addition, the specific selection in stores is a plus.
“There is more in the Premium Outlets, but the deals aren’t as good as in Taubman,” Halperin said.
With the new availability of sale items, some students believe other retail areas may decrease in popularity. Both senior Andrea Chelist and Dicker think they will frequent their usual stores, such as local malls or Target, less because of the existence of the outlets.
While the outlets have now been open for weeks, and the hype has died down some, the opening weekends of each were major attractions. Checkout lines wrapped around stores and major traffic issues plagued shoppers.
“The first day was crazy,” junior Laura Stecher said. “There was no parking, and I waited in line at the Polo store for two and a half hours.”
The Taubman Outlet is located of off Highway 40 in the Chesterfield Valley, and the St. Louis Premium Outlets is closer to the Daniel Boone Bridge off of Chesterfield Airport Road.
