Shopping in the United States: outlets, taxes, bargains and customs on the way home

Jeans, trainers, sportswear, hiking gear: some American brands cost markedly less at home, especially in factory stores. Other purchases are false bargains once you’ve added sales tax at the till.

Here’s how to sort one from the other.

Prices are displayed before tax

It’s the basic rule: the price tag shows the price before sales tax, which is added at the till. It combines state, county and city taxes, and ranges from 0 to more than 10%.

Situation	States or cities
No state sales tax	Oregon, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Alaska (where some municipalities apply one)
Moderate tax, 4 to 6%	Hawaii, Wyoming, Colorado outside the big cities
Medium tax, 6 to 8%	Florida, Utah, Arizona, Nevada (8.4% in Las Vegas)
High tax, 8 to 10% and more	New York (8.9%), California (9.5 to 10.25% in Los Angeles), Chicago, Seattle

A few useful peculiarities:

• In New York, clothes and shoes under 110 dollars per item are exempt from tax.
• Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota don’t tax most clothing.
• Portland, in Oregon, is a city with no sales tax at all: a good place for an expensive purchase.

Outlets

Outlets are open-air shopping centres on the outskirts of cities, where brands sell at reduced prices. The two big networks are Premium Outlets and Tanger Outlets.

Some of the best known

• Woodbury Common, an hour north of New York.
• Las Vegas North and South Premium Outlets.
• Desert Hills, near Palm Springs, and Camarillo, between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
• Orlando Vineland and International Premium Outlets.
• Sawgrass Mills, near Fort Lauderdale, one of the largest in the country. We stopped there between Vero Beach and Miami.
• San Marcos, between Austin and San Antonio.

What to know before you go

• A good share of the items are made specially for the outlets, with simpler materials. It isn’t the boutique collection at half price. The labels sometimes indicate it with a small symbol or the word Factory.
• The real bargains are at the back of the store, on the Clearance racks.
• The coupon book: sign up for free to the centre’s club on its website before you come, to get additional discounts of 10 to 20%.
• Come on a weekday, at opening time. At weekends, it’s packed.
• Compare with the price in Belgium, tax included, before going to the till.

What is worth it, and what isn’t

Often worthwhile

• Levi’s jeans, half the price they are in Europe.
• Trainers and sportswear from American brands (Nike, New Balance, Converse, Under Armour).
• American clothing brands: Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Gap, Abercrombie.
• Outdoor gear: The North Face, Patagonia, Columbia, and the retailer REI.
• Cowboy boots and hats, in the West and in Texas.
• Beauty products and vitamins, in the big stores.

To look at closely

• Electronics. Prices are sometimes lower, but the keyboard is QWERTY, the charger has an American plug, and the warranty doesn’t always apply in Europe. VAT on your return often wipes out the difference.
• Phones: some American models don’t support all frequencies or physical SIM cards.
• Heating appliances (hairdryers, straighteners, food processors): they run on 110 volts and will burn out in Belgium.
• DVDs and Blu-rays, often locked to the American region.

Sizes don’t correspond to ours: our conversion sheet gives the equivalents for clothes and shoes.

The stores to know

• Department stores: Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Saks.
• Off-price stores: Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Burlington. Unsold branded stock in no particular order, to rummage through. Nordstrom Rack and Saks Off 5th for the upmarket end.
• Target and Walmart, for basics, toys and camping items.
• REI, for hiking, with serious advice.
• National park shops, for quality souvenirs whose profits fund the parks.

Sales periods

There are no regulated sales as there are at home: promotions are permanent, with high points.

• Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November), and the Cyber Monday that follows.
• Long weekends: Presidents’ Day (February), Memorial Day (late May), the Fourth of July, Labor Day (early September).
• The day after Christmas and the whole of January.
• Back to school, in August. Some states then suspend sales tax for a few days on clothes and school supplies.

Paying and returning items

• Refuse to pay in euros when the terminal offers it: always choose dollars (see money and payments).
• Returns are easy. Most stores take back and refund an unworn item for 30 days or more, on presentation of the receipt. Keep your receipts until the end of the trip.
• The store credit cards you’re offered at the till are reserved for residents. Simply say no.
• “Price adjustments”: if the price drops in the days that follow, some stores refund the difference.

Customs on your return to Belgium

The rules that matter

• Allowances can’t be combined on a single item. An 800-euro laptop bought between two people isn’t covered by two 430-euro allowances: it’s taxed on its full value.
• It’s assessed item by item: several articles can go through as long as their total stays under 430 euros per person.
• Personal belongings taken with you on the way out don’t count. For a recent camera or laptop, keep proof of purchase in Belgium.
• Keep your receipts. Without proof of the price, customs estimates the value itself.
• Removing the labels and throwing away the boxes changes nothing about your obligations, and customs officers know the trick.

Alcohol and tobacco, in addition to the 430 euros, from the age of 17:

• 1 litre of spirits, or 2 litres of alcohol under 22%;
• 4 litres of wine and 16 litres of beer;
• 200 cigarettes, or 50 cigars, or 250 grams of tobacco.

Banned or tightly regulated: meat and dairy products, counterfeit goods, protected species (certain exotic leathers, ivory, shells and corals), weapons, including certain knives.

The amounts may change: check on the website of the Belgian Federal Public Service Finance before you leave. If you’re checked, undeclared goods cost you the tax, plus a fine.

Fitting it all in the suitcase

• Leave with a half-empty suitcase, or slip a foldable bag in the bottom (see packing).
• Weigh your bags before the airport: the limit is 23 kg per suitcase in economy class, and the surcharge often exceeds 100 dollars.
• Buying a suitcase there costs less than excess baggage. Ross and TJ Maxx sell them from 50 dollars.
• Do your shopping at the end of the trip, so that you aren’t carrying it around in the boot for three weeks.

For our part, we mostly buy clothes, in the outlets.