kathmandu clearance shop

[wayno]

never ceases to amaze me, truckloads of stuff in there up to 75% off and with the member card they were still knocking another $20 off..... i dont think i'll bother to go to their main shops again...

[bluey17]

same here, got a microfibre towel for $10. RRP was 25.

[wayno]

the girlfriend bought $350 for $90, mind you their RRP stands for recommended rip of price..... they price everything as if it was the most top quality available its ridiculous at the moment, their sales are now almost non stop, they cant sell anything at rrp. the market is more competitive
we can still get better deals at mountain designs that are on lower discount.....
sad thing is there were few people in the kathmandu shop. they opened a shop in a better location down the road and people are going to that one and paying more money...... too many people shopping on impluse, well that used to be me as well....
another big chain here recycled recreation had a big sale on ski gear Except in queenstown where theres more of a captive audience of impulse buyers where they can charge top dollar.... when the recession hit, queenstown just put it's prices up to cover for the drop in business....
has to be a pretty good deal for me to buy from a shop now., i compare the prices with whats online overseas on sale, the only exception is when it's a piece of kit that consider i really want that i can't buy locally then i might buy it online at full price, just comes down to shopping around.... the patient ones who do their homework, shop around and wait are the winners. those that dont are the shorn sheep... i say sheep because they are just doing with the crowd and not using their brains enough. every year without fail they get shorn....
clearance shops are a way of hiding the cheapest gear from as many people as possible. and catching the impulse buyers, instead of having a bigger clearance rack in each shop, theres little or none of that and only those who make the extra trip to the clearance outlet which are few and far between will get the deal...

[pazzar]

sad thing is there were few people in the kathmandu shop. they opened a shop in a better location down the road and people are going to that one and paying more money...... too many people shopping on impluse

That is just good business! It is sad to see the customer losing out, but at least the retail industry is getting a boost out of it.

[ULWalkingPhil]

I read on here about the overpriced and poor quality of the products sold at Kathmandu. I had no idea, till i purchased a moisture wicking shorts RRP 135.00 sold for $65.00.

After wearing for a few hours while out shopping the following day at Shopping centre, the shorts where starting to full apart on me.

There happened to be a store in the shopping centre, not the one I purchased from.
so i went in and queried about them. I told them, I am not happy with the quality of the shorts and showed them the material was coming apart. Wow, did i get a lecture, the store manager started raving on about how great there products are, and theres nothing wrong with them, she was going red in the face, Ive never encountered anyone like this with so much anger, I could not get a word in, she wouldn't stop or let me out of that store till i accepted that sometimes a fault can pass there so called quality control. I walked out that store, quick smart. And somewhat shocked.

The following day, i returned to the store i purchased the pants, showed them the fabric coming apart, they gave my money back, no questions asked, they said they don't refund, but in this case, because there was a fault in the shorts, they did, I did not mention the episode I had at the pacific fair store.

I will not be walking into there stores again.

[wayno]

its all hit and miss with with big chain stores like that... as you saw two stores, two totally different reactions.
the staff person int he first store sholdnt be working there.. you shold complain to their head office.

kathmandu i'd never trust anything the staff there tell me from experience. a lot of them dont have a clue about outdoors gear and the gear they are pedalling, i only get stuff there on special when i'm pretty sure of the quality of the material.
the last fleeces i bought there are polartec/altica. i know that stuff is good quality usually, but something thats made of fabric i'm not familiar with I steer clear of. they were selling quick dry undies and the sizings were far to tight, it was a joke....
i've got a few items from there my girlfirend has a few jackets of theres all no problems, just a case of 'caviat emptor" (buyer beware)

[PeterJ]

I read on here about the overpriced and poor quality of the products sold at Kathmandu. I had no idea, till i purchased a moisture wicking shorts ............I will not be walking into there stores again.

Report to the head office, you shouldn't have to put up with staff berating you.

[wayno]

the large company i work for , staff have been known to be frog marched out the door if they loose their rag with clients.. there's zero tolerance for it. they'd be up on a warning at the minimum

[ULWalkingPhil]

It's very disappointing when you receive poor service and a lecture to boot, particularly when your from a country town and not used to such behaviour in people, I should report this to the management. Certainly not the response I had expected.

A big Thumbs up to the store I purchased from, they where very professional and offered an exchange or a refund. I taken the refund.

Walked into the Nike Store nearby and purchased a pair of Nike Trainers on sale, from the livestrong range. It appears Nike are heavily discounting there Lance Armstrong Range of Clothing after the Drug cheating fiasco. The Material is a lot better and so cool to wear and comfortable and very lightweight to boot.

[PeterJ]

.......I should report this to the management. Certainly not the response I had expected. .......

I reckon you should email Choice magazine with details, they usually print a few letters about customers bad treatment each month. Other people need to know about such a crumby store.

[wayno]

point out your reaction that it has put you right off kathmandu, it will give them an idea just how much of an impression the experience has had...

[Franco]

Had a look around town yesterday both in Smith St (Collingwood) where the clearance shops are and in Lt Bourke St.
One item that I was vaguely interested in was a LW down vest.
I used one this winter at camp with another thin down top as well as for my pillow (stuffed inside a silk pillow sleeve)
(loved that pillow...)
Anyway one vest that caught my attention was a $189, 300g version from a well known brand.
Back home I weighed my $70 Kathmandu vest ( thicker) ,turns out to be 380g.
So Kathmandu can be good value if you buy at the right time.

[wayno]

yup if you have an eye for the quality and value of what you're looking at, its not all bad...
so if as it seems altica is something to do with polartec then you know you're getting good quality fabric when you see the altica label....

[Franco]

Good point.
I would not want to send an inexperienced person there to buy their first kit.

A pet peeve of mine in photo retail was when pretend experts came in to buy a camera with and for a friend , that happens in outdoor shops too , so my suggestion would be to spend a bit of time doing some research first and go with someone that is not stuck on the "great gear that was available in the good old days"...

On a different tack from my previous comment, yesterday at the "up to 60% off" I still could not find much at all that was reasonable value.

[wayno]

because 60% off is the real retail value..... their rrp has gone up a lot in recent years.....
if you look at moutnain designs their rrp tends to be a fair bit lower than kmandu, when they have sales then its usually good value....

[wayno]

choosing gear isnt easy now, so much of it is ideally suited for certain weathr conditions and not suited for a broad range of conditions... its easy to make a mistake, each shop rally has to have someone who is experienced in what they are selling and they should be imparting some of their knowledge on to other staff.. who knows how many people walk out of shops with incorrect gear... . too light that they shred it quickly or freeze in it, too heavy that they are overburdoned or swelter in it.......
when i started replacing old gear a few years back and had more limited knowledge of the latest gear, a kmandu shop worker told me i had to have a stormfront hardshell jacket if i was a tramper,,, it weighed kilo, it was overkill for anyone who wasnt going to bush bash or be in seriously sub zero conditions.... it was either a lead weight taking up too much space in my pack or it was a sauna on my back..... i never relied on the opinion of another shop worker from kamandu again.... for the same price i bought two other hardshells that were far more suited to the different conditions i would tramp in... my brother in law now uses the storm front as a sailing jacket. something its probably better suited to than tramping..