New Walmart Offering - Harris Tweed

[mookien]

How on God's green earth are they able to make and sell these things out of Harris tweed? The cost of the tweed alne exceeds the original price.

Could it be old stock fabric that was purchased at a discount to create inventory space for this year's weaves?

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that the cost of a Harris Tweed jacket can be broken down from highest to lowest as follows: retail markup, sewing, distribution, and cloth. A huge company like Walmart will pay rock bottom (producer cost + a negotiated profit for the weaver) for LOTS of cloth, ship it to a 3rd-world country for sewing, and then distribute and sell it through their own wholesale channel and retail "shops".

They save money at all four steps and largely control the quality at each step, eg assure that the quality of the cloth and sewing meets their minimum standard before final payment. Because they sell retail in very large volume, their unit mark up can be much less than the "average" clothing store. At $75 per jacket, they clearly are not selling at a loss.

Now, if someone who knows the actual answer would weigh in and tell us the "real story".

[TheOfficialBren]

That makes sense to me.

[Bill aka Mole]

While I'm not an expert on Harris Tweed, my local Walmart also has these jackets. The jackets here have similar style tags to the ones for sale on the Official Harris Tweed site that are used to identify the style or name of the jacket.

[Bob C]

I've gone into every Walmart I've passed since this thread first showed up, and I've yet to see these. I wish they offered them online.

[Nile]

Bob, I'm surprised that you can't find them up there in New York. Even, our Walmart here in Seaford, (lower, slower) Delaware has them. I bought a beige one a couple of months ago at the original price of $74.99 and I bought a black & gray herring bone one this week on sale for $50.00. They are beautiful jackets and both of them fit me like they were made for me. I wear a 40s and they fit perfect. The light blue one is really nice as well, but they didn't have any left in my size or I'd have bought one of those too at that price.
The Walmart here has approximately 30 left (half of them beige ones) in mostly the larger sizes (44 & up).
I think it's worth seeking out a Walmart that has them.
Nile

[gKeith]

I have another link for you...

Here's an example of a local place in Indy that has a better tweed selection than Wal-Mart - http://www.valueworld.net/

I've purchased FOUR tweed jackets from them in the past month. One was manufactured by Harris Tweed in the 1970s, complete with the cross logo sewn into the lining and everything. Cost me between $1.29 and $8.69 a pop.

The other three were manufactured by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America

[Bill aka Mole]

Had to do it, bought one in the blue slate color. Found the inside label that has the Harris Tweed label but on the other side was THE label: Fabric made in Scotland, Jacket made in China. Still not a bad buy at $50.

[Kiltedbiker]

I bought one of these Jackets on sale!! $50. Hard to beat and great fit. Not usually a fan of Wally-world but if you are careful the deals can be found

[MonsterDon]

I happed to stop by my local Walmart (San Antonio) tonight and I spotted a rack of these jackets on sale for $50. Wanting to know what all the fuss was about I meandered over to check them out. After selecting one that was closest to my size I tried it on. I must say that it fit very well in all the right places and looked pretty sharp. However, after about a minute I felt like I was in my car in August cover in fire ants. It was the hottest, most itchy jacket I have ever tried on. This is not a southern climate garment. This also tells me I don't even need to think about getting a heavy weight kilt.

[Ruanaidh]

I happed to stop by my local Walmart (San Antonio) tonight and I spotted a rack of these jackets on sale for $50. Wanting to know what all the fuss was about I meandered over to check them out. After selecting one that was closest to my size I tried it on. I must say that it fit very well in all the right places and looked pretty sharp. However, after about a minute I felt like I was in my car in August cover in fire ants. It was the hottest, most itchy jacket I have ever tried on. This is not a southern climate garment. This also tells me I don't even need to think about getting a heavy weight kilt.

My guess is it isn't the heat but the humidity. Here in super dry El Paso I've had no problems with tweeds or heavy weight kilts. Of course when the temperature is 110 F you don't want to be out in the sun regardless of what you're wearing.