St. Jacobs Factory Outlet Mall

A friend of mine always has great outfits on when she comes to visit. When I ask her where she bought it her reply is almost always “the Jones New York outlet in Waterloo, you should come visit me sometime and we’ll go there.” So I finally hopped the bus to Kitchener and met up with her for a visit and a day of shopping at the outlet mall.
I can’t believe I waited this long to go! Where to start?

Jones New York Factory Store – regular, petite and plus sizes available. They already had lots of fall/winter stock in and reduced by at least 40%. The first time reductions aren’t bad, but the clearance section at the back of the store is even better. There were 2-3 racks of summer items marked way down but they had also started extra price reductions on their fall items. I pretty much liked everything I saw in this store. The casual tops were all made of super soft jersey, the pants were beautifully tailored, there was a variety of jacket styles to choose from and the colour palette was rich and vibrant.

Kodiak – men’s and women’s rugged apparel. I only checked out the women’s wear in this store and was impressed with the super cheap prices of their end of summer items. They had sleeveless t-shirts marked down to $7 – great for outdoor exercising or yoga class! Some of their early fall stuff was also marked down, such as ¾ length and long sleeved t-shirts in a variety of colours for a mere $13. It’s a fairly large store well stocked with lots of merchandise.

LEGO – if only to see the dinosaur made entirely of Legos or the life-sized Batman. This store carries Lego, Duplo and Bionicles. Most of the Lego is sold in sets/kits, but they do have a small selection of bulk Lego if there are specific pieces you need to complete your set. The Duplo blocks came in handy storage buckets in a variety of sizes. The 128 piece zoo bucket was $24.99 and the 405 piece bucket was $32.99. I was amazed at all the different sets Lego has to offer. They had everything from Sponge Bob, to Spiderman to Hogwarts Hall.

Liz Claiborne – regular, petite and plus sizes available. I was disappointed with this store in regards to their marked down prices - still rather high for my liking, but the selection of clothing didn’t disappoint. Lots of great items for fall/winter in wonderful colours. Unfortunately they don’t have a clearance section, but it’s worth stopping in to check out the purses.

Oxford Mills – the place to go for towels. They also have bed linens and bathroom accessories, but the real reason you shop here is for the fabulous prices on towels. You can get towels in every size, colour and quality here. At the lower end you can find fingertip towels for $1.69, facecloths for $0.99 and bath towels at a very reasonable $6.99. Their luxury line is also reasonably priced with bath sheets selling for $15 or less. You can pick up great bath mats starting at $7.99.

Tootsies Factory Shoe Market – I’m not a lover of loafers but the purple leather ones they had for $39.99 were fabulous. I could have easily expanded my shoe collection by shopping just at this store if it weren’t for my size 10 wide feet. Tootsies has something for everyone. The women’s section is quite large and the men’s section is a good size too and a small children’s section can be found at the back. Definitely check out the women’s slipper section; lot’s of styles and colours to choose from starting at $7.00. They also have a small clearance section.

Some other stores of interest: Corningware Corelle, Paderno, Royal Dalton, Reebok and Rockport
25 Benjamin Rd, Waterloo ON