west elm Outlet — Local services in New York

This a great store for getting steep (40% off) discounts on West Elm furniture! Sounds great, right? :)

Tl;dr - DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE. Check your products for defects BEFORE buying. All sales here are FINAL.

First of all, the staff here are very friendly and helpful, no questions asked. As this is a “warehouse style” outlet, you simply head into the store, browse the floor for something you want, and the first person to take a “ticket” for an item to the cash register gets it. The inventory is always rotating and updated based on what’s available (I was told this ranges from unsold product, to product that either had been returned or was never delivered for various reasons to whomever purchased it).

That being said, I came here in hopes of buying a West Elm futon. To my surprise, the EXACT one I wanted was there! I was so happy! At 40% off it was a no brainer. I began the purchase process, but before making the final sale, I just wanted to double check the futon to ensure it was functioning properly. Thankfully I did, because the right side of the futon’s locking mechanism DID NOT work. The staff and I tried several times to figure out if this was a defect, or human error. Eventually we came to the conclusion that, yes, it was broken. So I cancelled the sale.

What was surprising, however, was when I asked if it could be “fixed” by West Elm, the staff simply said “oh no, they won’t do that, this is being sold final sale.” So it is fair to say that West Elm is not sticking by the products they sell at this Outlet, at least from the conversations I had with their staff. The staff continued to allow the futon for sale, knowing full well the locking mechanism couldn’t be fixed (as west elm would not, and the locking mechanism is built into the futon, making it impossible to fix yourself without ruining the futon).

So please be extra careful when buying at this outlet. Even though the prices are very good for West Elm, they are still very high for defective products. Just know that...

TLDR: Great deals, but watch out for scammers

If you like West Elm style and cannot afford the full price, this is the place for you. But pay attention to the small defects in them. You might have to go a few times to find the item you are looking for.

One thing to keep an eye for. While most of the staff are super helpful (I went there 7 times in two weeks, bought 10 items, most workers I dealt with were amazing). However, there are 2 people who are certainly running a scam. They will try to steer you away from really really good deals so they can get it for themselves and sell it online or something. One made sure not to mention the 40% discount when I specifically asked her if there's an extra discount on an item. The other, who is a seasonal worker during the holidays, and I know that because he told me while talking non stop for 30 minutes trying to convince me not buy anything from west elm, also flat out lied about the prices of items that had no tag on them when I asked him to provide prices.

I felt something was fishy, so asked another worker, a sweet lady, who was not involved in the situation, and she very normally told me the prices and told me about the discount, then went and rang them for me. The two scammers looked at me angry in...

Four stars for a nice large space to navigate and the great deals you can get for some items (the best ones are often the ones still in their original cardboard shipping boxes, tape intact). You do have to dig, and there isn't a customer service rep every 5 feet to help you out, but this is an outlet space so I don't mind so much. Another user pointed out disarray in the textiles section; it is rather messy but that's because people are constantly rifling through the goods and there is so much stock it must be difficult to keep that area clean all the time. Again, for the deal I'm getting, I rather enjoy the search. The reps I did speak to were very helpful! They also match with their website prices so if you find a better deal on their website they'll match that price in store for you. Taking off one star for the dust that accumulates on unsold stock and gives me a sneezing fit (I'm also quite sensitive to that) and the poor condition of some of the items they are selling that don't make the discount worth it. It's a bit of a hit and miss with your finds, so if you take pleasure in searching, stop on by! If you don't, shop online or in their city...