The J. Crew Warehouse Sale…(heaven does exist on earth)

I’ve been taunting you about the J.Crew Warehouse sale. You’ve been very patient and I know many of you are dying to hear about it, so without further ado…

The J.Crew Warehouse sale consists of previous season’s items, sample items, photo shoot items, some returned items, overstocked items, etc. Some items have made it into stores and some never did. Which is kind of cool. You’ll feel all exclusive and such. At least I did. And the clothes are dirt cheap. Actually cheaper than dirt.

Anyway, here’s how it goes. First, you have to wake up really early. Like 5 AM. Because Asheville is 2.5 hours away. A least for me. And you’ll get bored on the car ride so you’ll take sleepy-faced pictures.

You need to get there a few hours before the sale opens at 10 AM because you really want to be in the first group of people that get in. And the first group is only 150 people. To our dismay, there were already about 100 people in front of us when we arrived. We thought we’d be at the front of the line with our early start. But these folks knew what they were doing – blankets, chairs, coffee, snacks. We were so unprepared.

But oh so happy to be there, despite our early start and long drive. [Courtney, I miss you! COME BACK!!!!]

Then you realize that you have 2 hours in front of you with nothing planned, no blankets, no sustenance. So you google the nearest Starbucks for muffins…

And coffee…because this event requires coffee. And not some wimpy Tall coffee. Grande baby. And you squint in the sun because every good outing requires a hideous pictures.

Then you glance at the suckers behind you and think, “Psh…they are sooo inexperienced thinking they could arrive this late…”About 45 minutes before the sale starts, employees will hand out a huge garbage sack and a price sheet to each person. Are you ready for this?? Really, are you? No, I don’t think you are…but here here are the prices…[The prices for Bottoms got cut off, but it was $10…or $15…ridiculous either way. I think suit pants and swimsuits are the absolute best deals. I got 3 swimsuits – $4 each! Insane! Their swimsuits are so nice!]

When the doors open at 10 AM, you file in…they count off 150 people for the first group and make the rest wait until other shoppers exit so it doesn’t get too crowded. Luckily, we were like #141-143. Phew.

You go into a a big warehouse with boxes on tables…and you start to dig. And dig. And dig. You don’t have time to be picky. If you think you like something, it looks like your size, throw it in your bag and move on. It’s sort of organized…tops, bottoms, swimsuits, shoes, accessories. But not sorted by size at all. You gotta work to find your goods.After you have a bag full of goodness, you try stuff on. There ain’t no dressing rooms. So you wear minimal, tight clothing and throw things on right over the the top. That’s right folks – I put on swimsuits over my leggings and white top. It was sexy, trust me. But don’t worry – everyone is doing it. I swear.

There also ain’t no mirrors so you’ve got to go with someone you know who can tell if that gorgeous suiting dress is going to be cute when you don’t have black leggings and a shirt bunched up under it. [At these prices, you can afford a few mess ups.] But still…go with someone to help you out.

You’ll keep a lot, you’ll discard a lot, you’ll dig through others’ discard piles, and you’ll still feel like you only saw 1/8 of what was there. But it’s OK…because there is always next time. Once you have your final haul after you’ve tried everything on and decided what to keep, you get in line.

You’ll go to a table with two employees – they’ll dump out the contents of your bag, count off your items by category and the other tallies it all up. Then you’ll go to a cash register to pay. The final bill might be a shock…but then you realize that you just got a new wardrobe and about $3000 worth of clothing (quite literally) for the price of what only 2-3 outfits would cost in a retail J.Crew store and you feel much better.

And when you leave after shopping for FOUR HOURS, you’ll be freaking starving. I highly recommend a stop at Salsas in Asheville. And order the ginger-hibiscus tea.

When you get home that night and try stuff on, you might start find few disappointing things. Like the hole in your cashmere sweater. Or the fact that the pocket on a super-cute striped top is totally off-center. [I tried this top on in front of a mirror at home and didn’t even realize the issue until Courtney sent this picture to me with the subject “Is yours like this too?” hahaha! I still fully intend to wear it.]

So, what all was in this pile?

My stuff

• 7 cotton shirts (some short-sleeved, some long-sleeved)

• 3 cardigans (1 cotton, 1 wool, 1 cashmere)
• 2 skirts
• 1 casual dress
• 2 pairs of suit pants
• 1 Super 120s suit dress
• 3 swimsuits
• 1 silk tank
• 1 cozy hoodie
• 1 blazer/jacket
• 2 button-down dress shirts

Rob’s stuff

• 4 t-shirts
• 3 casual button-down shirts
• 1 sweet cargo jacket
• 1 pair of shorts
• 1 wool sweater
• 1 cashmere sweater

Ok, yeah, Rob got a little shafted…but I was exhausted by the time I finished with my goods and Brent and I scavenged the best we could for him. He’ll come along next time! 🙂

Some items from the sale I’ve worn recently:

Pink silk top (also seen here) and dark denim pencil skirt (I wore this outfit to work today).

White & gray blazer

The lavender dress – pardon the terrible picture of both me and my dad but we’re focusing on the dress here. 😉

The gray hoodie…

The floral t-shirt and blue cardigan (that you can’t really see)

Not too shabby eh?

All the credit for this haul goes to Courtney for discovering the J.Crew Warehouse sale on this blog. This post about How to Survive a J.Crew Warehouse Sale is extremely helpful. Check it out.

Final tips:

• Wear leggings or even better, spandex/some type of tight short shorts. Seriously.
• Go with a friend.
• Take a water bottle.
• Take a blanket and food for the wait.
• Arrive early. Very early. It’s worth it.
• Expect a large dry cleaning bill after you get everything because it will all need to be laundered.

So, how do you find out about the next sale? Call this number: 828-687-6475. But if you tell anyone where you got it, I’ll have to hack into your blog and crash it. [I kid, I kid…]

And where is it? 1 Clifford Way, Arden, NC 28704

Apparently this sale is kind of a big secret…I’m sharing it with ya because I love ya and because you leave me nice comments on my blog. 😉 But if I see you at the next sale, I’ll act like I don’t know you and snatch a gorgeous leather purse out of your hands if the opportunity presents itself. All bets – and manners — are off when there are goods like this involved.

[But seriously, some woman really did snatch a gorgeous leather purse out of my hand at the sale. I was too shocked to respond. And then I realized I should have fought back – it could have been an epic scene.]

Would you go to a J.Crew Warehouse sale? I usually hate chaos and messy stores. Heck, I can hardly handle department stores because I think they are too big with too much stuff. But this was soooo worth it.