Outlet shopping is a marathon of long lines, sore feet, and complex word and math problems, the likes of which you haven't seen since high school. (If a set of 550-count Polo sheets is 20 percent off, and Amanda has two coupons, one for $25 and one for 7 percent off, and they can't be used together, which is the better deal?) The holy grail that awaits: that one perfect deal, a luxury-quality item at a steep discount.
That's the promise, anyway. But do they deliver? Getting an early start to holiday shopping, I hit two drastically different New England outlet centers to comparison-shop.
Wrentham Village Premium Outlets
Like many other women do, I "volunteered" my husband, Christopher, to come along on a shopping expedition to Wrentham one Sunday. It was raining, and the traffic crawled at a stately pace, thanks to the New England Patriots, who were playing a home game just a few exits away.
Wrentham is a destination development built explicitly for daylong spending sprees -- a strip mall-cum-faux village with shops in identical buildings, formed into five courtyards with names like Liberty, Patriot, and Colonial. All the courtyards open up onto the pseudo-small town "Wrentham Street."
A quick check of the directory at the entrance let us know that the two restaurants were at the other end of Wrentham Street, and we marched past scores of stores on our way to lunch: Versace, Wedgwood, Ralph Lauren, Barneys, Jones New York, Etienne Aigner, Hugo Boss, Off 5th - Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet, indeed.
Unfortunately, the luxe atmosphere did not extend to the restaurants. Our choices, Ruby Tuesday's and Friendly's, were pedestrian, but because they were the only options aside from the busy food court, the wait was 45 minutes.
