In Other News: Inside UAL, The South’s Regional Off-Price Luxury Chain
In a story tantalizingly headlined, “Inside the Discount Designer Paradise You’ve Never Heard Of,” the shopping blog Rackedprofiles Hattiesburg, Miss.-based United Apparel Liquidators, a 25-year-old off-price business that boasts an impressive designer brand roster.
“UAL has remained the South’s best-kept fashion secret for more than 35 years—in fact, the company’s success relies on this secrecy,” writes Racked reporter Liza Darwin. “Today the chain has five stores scattered across the region. Along with Nashville, there are outposts in New Orleans and Austin, as well as Covington, Louisiana and Hattiesburg, Mississippi.”
Melody Cohen, who founded UAL with her husband, has established UAL as a discount luxury retailer of the old school, with true overstock rather than product designed for the off-price market. She credited her long relationships and word of mouth.
“A manager might call us and say, ‘I bought too much,’ or shipments might get stuck on the dock in LA, and when merchandise comes in too late, what do you do?” she explains. “People say, ‘Try UAL.’”
Read the whole story at Racked.com.
The video above (posted in 2011) gives a short tour of the Nashville store and its menswear section.
