First look: Bloomingdale’s Outlet opens in Liberty Place ahead of schedule

Surprise, shoppers! Just in time for the height of the holiday buying season,Bloomingdale’s Outlet in the Shops at Liberty Place in Center City held an unexpected soft opening today, a day ahead of the scheduled opening. The bi-level, 22,700-square-foot store is the first Bloomingdale’s Outlet in Pennsylvania, and the first Bloomingdale’s location in the city (there’s one in the King of Prussia mall).

The store even gets its own street entrance, at 17th and Chestnut, in addition to access from within Liberty Place.

“You’ll see our iconic black and white floor,” said Michelle Israel, senior vice president of Bloomingdale’s Outlets, from within the store. “And we thought, ‘How do we give a nod to New York?’ We came up with our signature color, which is the taxi cab yellow.”Bright yellow mannequins stand out amid rack after rack of colorful sweaters, cocktail dresses and winter accessories.

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The outlet also features a small housewares section and menswear from designers like Hugo Boss.

This weekend, shoppers get scratch-off coupons good for 15 to 50 percent discounts.

“You never know what you’re going to get,” Israel said. “It’s all about furs this season. When we opened the New York store two weeks ago, I said that I had never seen so many pieces of leather and fur leave the store in about 12 hours.”

This is the third Bloomingdale’s Outlet to open in the past few weeks.The New York location opened Nov. 20, and the San Diego outpost opened the next day.