COS Sample Sale Brings In Blocks’ Worth of Customers to Booming Chelsea Outlet
The line stretched across the street at the 260 Sample Sale with hopeful customers vying for the chance to buy clothes priced no higher than $50.
| 30 Aug 2024 | 11:36
The COS New York blowout at the popular Sample Sale 260 outlet in Chelsea began on Aug. 27, and customers waited for so long that a line outside stretched for several blocks as customers waited for hours to get inside. (
)
Those waiting across the street from the actual store still had two and a half blocks of waiting ahead of them once they crossed the street. (
)
Customers near the front of the line within the first hour of the store opening said they had already been waiting about an hour, if not longer, to get inside. (
)
There is no retail slump at this booming sample sale outlet in Chelsea.
Droves of customers lined up for blocks along the streets outside of the 260 Sample Sale on the first day of the COS New York Sample Sale on Aug. 27.
“The first day is the day that they have more stuff that’s way better,” said Maria Cortez, who had been waiting in line with her friend Maria Andareta for an hour, and still had about two and a half blocks to go. “I feel that sometimes with these brands, when they are that cheap and stuff’s on sale, it’s always worth it, [to] wait.”
COS is a clothing brand, which has several national stores. Its flagship location is on 5th Avenue, between 28th and 29th, and is running a sample sale with items no more expensive than $50 from Aug. 27 through Sept. 1.
On Aug. 27, just over an hour after the store opened, the line had stretched almost three and a half blocks in length. It rounded the half-block between the store entrance and the corner of 28th and 5th, lasted the full block to the corner of 28th and Broadway, circled the entire block’s length back, and continued across the street and almost lasted the full block’s length again.
“It’s the first day, so we’re just hoping there’s some stuff still there by the time we get in,” said a customer named Jessica who did not provide a last name. Jessica was waiting with another customer, Orli, on the line’s third block.
The line moved extremely slowly, with one party being let in at a time. However, not everyone had the same expectations of their remaining wait times. Andaretta expected another hour, but across the street, far further back in line, Orli only expected 20-30 minutes.
“We have nothing better to do — that’s basically it,” said Jessica, explaining that she found out about the sale on the 260 Sample Sale Instagram page.
Many in line did not even know what they were in line for. Some knew they would find “apparel” or “clothes,” but not anything more specific, while others said they would find out once inside the store. Some knew more specifically what was being sold, but had not decided what they would buy just yet.
“Some blazers, maybe some T-shirts and maybe some dresses, some bags...” Cortez listed. This stands in sharp contrast with Andaretta, who confidently knew she was looking for “just blazers.”
“There’s a shirt I’ve been looking for,” said a customer from Brooklyn, a fair bit behind Orli and Jessica in line. “It’s, like, a denim ... painter’s top.”
This customer was willing to wait for blocks for the chance at this shirt, and had no expectation of how long the wait would be, saying that only “time will tell.”