Wednesday, March 11, 2009

WATCH YOUR BACK!!!


If your like me and frequented the mid-west region of North America then you may know a few things about Burlington Coat Factory. I swear there is about 600 Burlington Coat Factory in Ohio alone.
Burlington Coat Factory has been synonymous for selling designer jackets, coats, and some clothing (towards the latter years) at extremely marked down prices. Burlington Website states,
At Burlington Coat Factory, you’ll find a large assortment of current, high-quality, designer and name-brand merchandise at up to 60% less than other department stores. Choose from a large selection of coats, clothing, and shoes for the entire family. And don’t forget our great assortment of linens and home décor, PLUS everything you need for baby, from baby bottles to cribs! Burlington Coat Factory -- a convenient one-stop shopping experience with the labels you love, at prices you’ll love even more!
Since the New Jersey based company Burlington Coat Factory's 1924 start as a wholesale company of ladies coats and junior suits, Burlington Coat Factory has filled a niche that few companies could compete with, in-season marked down prices. Even the most fashion forward customer at one time purchased a jacket from Burlington Coat Factory. Burlington Coat Factory success within the market lead them to expand outside of the jacket and coat market to linens, men's and women's wear, and even baby goods. Personally never shopped Burlington Coat Factory much but one year I bought 2 jackets and they lasted pretty long. I still have the Notre Dame Starter jacket with the front zip pouch I bought there from back in the days.
A Connecticut customer has exposed Burlington Coat Factory for passing off low-priced Wal-Mart coats as premium Perry Ellis and Joseph Abboud garments. In Connecticut alone, all but one of the Burlington Coat Factory locations were passing off the faux coats, originally made by George and Amalfi, a private Macy's brand.

It's hard to believe Burlington Coat Factory thought they could get away with it. A full-price Perry Ellis version jacket would retail for about $200. Burlington Coat Factory was selling the fake labeled coats for less than $70. Seems a like a good deal, right?Except the original Wal-Mart coat, before that pasted label, cost about $30. All it took was a customer noticing that his label appeared to be pasted on. With a simple tug of the label, the whole scam unraveled: Cheaper coats were being passed off as name-brand high fashion. This news is very disheartening to hear especially at such a time in our economy. Times are tough, and the temptation to pass off schwag is stronger than ever for unscrupulous vendors. We should all be looking more deeply behind the true meaning of the labels on our back.

Nonetheless, Burlington Coat Factory has backed away from responsibility for this blunder, blaming instead the Levy Group, a distributor for Burlington Coat Factory. The Levy Group, which has legitimate rights to Perry Ellis and Joseph Abboud labels has already tried to distance itself from the dirty play by blaming an Burlington Coat Factory employees, claiming the employees were acting on their own accord.

If you think you may have purchased one of these faulty coats, Burlington Coat factory is offering store credit or a refund plus a 20% off coupon until March 31st.

No comments: