LOFT on Austin St. (Photo: Google Maps)
June 7, 2018 By Tara Law
The LOFT store on Austin Street will convert to an outlet, a spokesperson for LOFT’s parent company Ann Inc. confirmed Thursday.
LOFT, which was formerly Ann Taylor Loft, is an extension of the Ann Taylor women’s clothing brand.
The Forest Hills store located at 70-31 Austin St. closed for modifications on June 2, and will reopen as a LOFT Outlet on June 30, the spokesperson said.
LOFT, established in 1996, is known for offering office-appropriate clothing for women. The brand targets a somewhat younger clientele than Ann Taylor.
The LOFT store is the latest big-name retailer to have opened an outlet in Queens, or to have converted a shop into an outlet.
The stores that have converted into an outlet include Ann Taylor’s Austin Street shop, which it changed into a factory store in 2014. Additionally, Banana Republic and Gap have both opened factory stores on 82nd Street in Jackson Heights in recent years.
5 Comments
How about a Coach store that isn’t an outlet? Outlet stores are fine, if you want to purchase sub-par quality product. The items sold in outlets are not overstock. They are more cheaply manufactured items that are made expressly for sale in Outlet locations. This used to be considered a more upscale neighborhood. Now we are filled with outlet stores (Banana Republic, Gap — yes, this too is now a Factory store!, Ann Taylor, Loft) and Target. We’ve certainly come about as far as we can get from the days of Beau Brummel.
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The good thing is if you are larger than a size 2 the outlet stores will now be able to accommodate you as they have extra large and size 18. Finally able to get clothes in my neighborhood from Ann Taylor and Banana Republic……and they are not in the style of strippers!
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Why is forest hills getting so cheap? Bargain stores, bad restaurants Clothing stores that look as though made for strippers. This is not good.
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Now if only they would open a Coach outlet in forest hills. That would be awesome.
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both gap and banana republic turned their forest hills stores into outlets as well…not just jackson heights
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