Heading back to the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend, I happened to spot a sign for a Le Creuset store at the Gilroy Outlets. Now, I’m not your typical shopping/outlets kind of guy, but I had no idea that Le Creuset outlets existed! Needless to say, after pinning down the location with my trusty iPhone, I stopped off at the Gilroy Premium Outlets and wandered into the Le Creuset Factory Store.
The Le Creuset outlets are where you can find discontinued colors and factory seconds. The seconds are of quite good quality with only minor finish problems. These are fully covered by the lifetime warranty as well (And I see at least one person has successfully sent a piece in). Pricing runs around 15-50% off retail depending on the condition. This is nice, but for those penny pinchers and those who don’t really care about the color, they’re currently taking an additional 20% off all pieces in Caribbean, which is a sort of sky blue/teal color.
The other trick is that if you’re willing to sign up for their mailing list, they’ll give you 35% off one piece, provided you purchase two other items, and these two items can be anything, including little things like spatulas or potholders. I walked out with a 6.75qt oval French oven in cobalt for $148, which at retail is $270. There’s a little bubble in the enamel, but nothing major. They even tossed in a coupon for 40% off another single item, so I’ll have to think about what to get next…
I’ve always wanted a Le Creuset oven, but made a hefty investment in All Clad Stainless some years ago at the annual All Clad factory sale in Canonsburg, PA. This included the All-Clad Stainless 8-Quart Stockpot
You can find your nearest Le Creuset Factory store here. Le Creuset also has Signature Stores, which is where they show off their latest and greatest stuff.
If you’re looking for the Le Creuset store at the Gilroy Outlets, it’s located on the southeast side of the 101/Leavesley Road junction. Exit on to Leavesley heading east and turn right at Arroyo. Enter the shopping complex on your right. The Le Creuset store is next to the Nike outlet.