If you are reading this you may be considering coming to Victorinox but I should warn you, there are three types of reviews here:
1) People who bought something (mailorder, online) and have never been to this location but just want to complain about the company in general
2) People who come to the small factory store that operates here year-round
3) People who come to the annual factory clearance sale (usually in late fall)
I have had all three types of interactions with this company but I feel it's only appropriate to discuss #2 and #3 here:
#2: This is a small (one medium-sized room) factory store that is attached to a large warehouse/business office. I have been here maybe a half-dozen times and I've noticed that it is rare to get good deals here. You might figure that a factory outlet store would have scratch-n-dent or discontinued items but I have only rarely found that here. Usually, as another reviewer pointed out, the items in the store are just the regular full-retail-price items that Victorinox sells online or elsewhere. Still, if I'm in the area, I like to try to stop by and see if there are any sale/clearance items available. Also, while I'm here, I usually see one or two people bringing in a watch or knife for repair. So if you live locally, I guess that's an advantage of having Victorinox close by; you don't have to wait or ship your item for repair.
#3: Once a year they have a huge factory sale. For this, you don't deal with the small on-site store (in fact I think they close it during this sale). Instead, they set up a dozen registers in the back of the warehouse. The sale is enormous and goes for several days (over the weekend). I have a hard time finding the dates announced online but if you call them, they'll tell you the next dates. I assume the dates are always late fall so as to capture Christmas/Holiday shoppers.
If you come to the sale, be prepared to wait outside on a long line before getting into the sale. They put up some canopies outside to keep the weather off you, but the line extends way beyond the canopies. Once inside, it's pretty crowded (though they do try to keep the number of people inside to a certain limit) and you'll be elbow-to-elbow with other shoppers, looking at boxes of items with prices printed on the front of the box.
Some prices are good - mostly the cheaper stuff imported from China. The watches were discounted, but I still didn't feel they were worth it. If you're a lover of Victorinox watches and you've been paying retail prices for them, then it may be worth it for you to check out this sale. The knives are discounted a good amount (pocket "Swiss Army" as well as kitchen and utility knives). They have a surprising amount of other items such as kitchen gadgets too.
I noticed that they also sell coffee and donuts (it looks like a local bakery comes in and caters this) but it's only available at the end of your shopping experience, after you check out (I guess they don't want people spilling coffee all over their warehouse!)
I don't really have any pro tips for the warehouse sale except to be prepared to wait on line, and do your research online ahead of time, so you know what you are looking for and what is a good deal vs. what's not. read more
