Nordstrom, Macy's See Benefits From Keeping Their Discount Stores Close

Off-price retailing owes a nod to the basement below Filene's, a Boston department store that figured out a way in the early 1900s to get rid of excess inventory at a discount in a stripped-down space below the fancy sales floors upstairs. In the first decade of the last century, few customers would have had cars to drive to an outlet mall in the middle of a corn field somewhere.