California Apparel News

Providing options for discount buyers, the Feb. 3–6 edition of the Offprice show saw attendees from around the world at the Sands Expo Convention Center. With an array of products across categories for women, men, children, misses, footwear, swim and an elevated experience referred to as Boutique, the event had products to meet the needs of every discount buyer.

As an annual visitor who prefers the February show, Barbara Akindayomi placed orders for women’s goods, including jewelry, for her Trendi Boutique located in Nigeria. A retailer for 15 years, Akindayomi found deals for pants, tops and biker shorts. During her visit, she kept in mind the needs of her customers, who live in a hot climate, and, as confident women, prefer brighter colors in hues of baby pink, blue and lilac.

“The pieces are unique and different. The prices are quite good, too,” Akindayomi said. “The pieces are not really things you see around. If you look properly, you will see things that you will not see everywhere.”

At the Almost Nothing Inc. booth, Los Angeles–based sales representative Roxsana Chicuate was selling basics. She revealed that most of the buyers she saw were interested in Spring as she fielded interest from attendees hailing from L.A., New York, Florida, West Virginia and Mexico.

“We’re doing mostly Spring. They’re still taking Immediates. I believe some people wrote for pack and hold but not a lot,” she said. “For us, we get in a lot of merchandise in the beginning of the year, which hits that target.”

Visiting Las Vegas from Brooklyn, N.Y., buyer Deanna Battista was shopping for Telco Stores. The regional, city-based discount retailer has doors in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island that carry brands such as Calvin Klein, Kenneth Cole, DKNY and Jones New York. Selling goods across categories, Battista was searching for an array of products to meet the needs of customers shopping for misses, juniors, men’s, boys’, lingerie, scrubs, handbags and shoes.

“I got a couple of good deals,” she said. “I am doing Immediates, and if I find Fall goods I will take them also to pack and hold.

As a regular attendee who attends both the August and February shows, Battista enjoyed the camaraderie she experiences during the event through buying from vendors she has worked with for years in addition to her hopes of finding a few new resources.

“We try to make it as fun as possible because we do it every six months. We have very good relationships with everybody. All the buyers have good relationships with their vendors,” she said. “After I go to all of my regular appointments, I walk the aisles and see if I can catch anybody new. I like to see if they have anything for me.”