Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale

I first heard about this seemingly mythical Lilly Pulitzer mega sale several years ago. All I knew was the venue was big, the clothes were cheap, and much like Christmas it only came once a year.

Well, Merry Christmas!

Wednesday (June 11) kicked off the sale and it goes all weekend. Is it worth the road trip to the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, PA? Only if you consider 70+% discounts a good deal!

Since this was my first time, I made quite a few interesting observations and still have some questions about the whole event.

First, it is necessary to note that the doors opened at 5:00 AM on Wednesday morning. Rumor has it that much like George Washington and his troops camped at Valley Forge, so do eager shoppers in search of Lilly for less.

My shopping buddies and I arrived around 1:oo PM. We did have to wait in line for about 10 minutes to get in, but time passed quickly as we observed people leaving with big shopping bags and even bigger smiles. While waiting in line we also discovered that you could buy little pink shopping carts with a Lilly Pulitzer plaque on the front. My friend Kiri obviously had to have one; everyone at the grocery store will totally be green with envy (at least green goes well with pink!). The sale itself was in a ballroom, and when you finally made it to the entrance you were given this gigantic pink mesh bag (I'm around 5'5" and with the handles on my shoulder the bottom of the bag touched the ground!) to fill with all sorts of goodies.

Everything was extremely well organized with women's clothes to the left, shoes even further left, home items towards the back, mens to the back and slightly right (this was a rather small section), and then kids clothes were in the back right corner.

In the women's section there were tables set up with boxes on them arranged in clusters by size. These boxes were where you would find sweaters, polos, and other assorted tops; prices ranged from $5-$50 depending on the item. Beyond the tables were clothing racks not only grouped by type (dresses, skirts, tops, pants, etc.) but each rack was organized also organized by size. Pants in general ranged from $30-$50, skirts were around $50, and dresses were as low as $15 and I didn't see any over $90. Not too shabby when you consider $250+ the cost of a full-priced Lilly dress.

And if all that sounds a little too organized for the adventurous shoppers who want to dig and find the $300 dress for $10 fret not. In the one back corner is a sample/clearance section. This area was a total free-for-all, but rather exciting none the less.

All in all it was a very productive day and I managed to come in well under budget!

The one lingering issue I dont understand is what is there at 5:00 AM that is worth camping out for? In my book 70+% is a good deal and there was plenty of that to go around without pulling an all-nighter. However, there is a very small part of me that wants to know...

I've pasted the hours below. The sale ends on Saturday, so you better hurry! Oh, and I've heard that they may be doing another warehouse sale in the fall...

6/11(Wednesday) - 5am - 8pm
6/12 (Thursday) - 7am - 8pm
6/13 (Friday) - 7am - 8pm
6/14 (Saturday) - 9am - 2pm