The holidays are over. You’ve been good to everyone. Now you can go be good to yourself and not feel guilty.  Here are some of our favorite outlet stores.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory
1111 139th Avenue (at Rose Drive
San Leandro, CA 94578
510-346-3146
Mon – Sat 10 am – 6 pm; Sun noon – 6 pm
                 
Here you can have it all – quality chocolate in quantity at bargain prices. Ghirardelli, the famed San Francisco chocolate firm, has produced its own premium line here since the Gold Rush days.  It remains one of the few American manufacturers that make chocolate, starting from the cocoa bean through to finished products, with even the beans roasted in-house.

At 25% to 75% off retail price, you can stock up to your chocoholic heart’s content on 60% cacao bars, flavored chocolate squares, gift tins, hot cocoa powder, baking supplies, sundae sauces plus Ghirardelli signature cookbooks, aprons and mitts. No “seconds” here, just the good stuff.

Crate and Barrel Outlet Store
1785 Fourth Street (between Hearst and Virginia)
Berkeley, CA 94710
Mon – Sun 10 am – 6 pm

This is Crate and Barrel’s only Northern California outlet store.  You’ll find overstocks, discontinued and out-of-season items. There’s a little bit of everything and lots of bargain-priced glassware, cookware, kitchen gadgets, garden gear, candles, vases, flatware, bedding and fabric – fabulous fabric, some of it Marimekko.

A backroom holds damaged furniture and floor models for sale but the prices aren’t as good as those for smaller items in the store’s main room. It’s hit or miss. Go with an open mind and be prepared to find something you didn’t know you needed until you found it. 

Mycra Pac Designer Wear Outlet
535 Center Street
Moraga CA 94556
925-631-6878
Mon – Fri 11 am to 4 pm

Not only made in U.S.A. but made in Moraga. Who knew? Swooping through here on an ordinary weekday might net you one of the company’s high end designer raincoats. These tend to be lightweight, reversible, water repellant, packable, washable, generously-sized and made from a rainbow of shimmering fabrics. Some are jacket or stadium length. They also cost hundreds of dollars but here discontinued styles, samples and seconds can be had for 20% to 60% lower than retail. A twice yearly sale offers half off wholesale prices.

North Face Outlet
1238 Fifth Street (between Gilman and Harrison)
Berkeley, CA 94710
510-526-3530
Mon – Sat 10 am – 7 pm, Sun 11 am – 5 pm

Okay, how much difference is there really between last year’s backpack styles and this year’s? Last year’s parka and this year’s?  Right. Not much. You can head to the peaks or a bone-chilling ferry ride around the Bay outfitted head to toe in bargain-priced top of the line outerwear.

There’s a North Face retail store on Post Street and one in Palo Alto in case you want to comparison shop. One proviso, items purchased at the outlet store do not qualify for North Face’s lifetime warranty. But at 60% or more off retail, that may not matter.

Heath Ceramics Factory Store
400 Gate Five Road
Sausalito CA 94965
415-332-3732
Sun – Wed 10 a. – 5 pm, Thurs – Sat 10 am – 6 pm

Prestigious Heath Ceramics, revered in the highest echelons of modern design, was started in the 1940s by ceramics artist Edith Head in Sausalito. And in Sausalito it remains to this day.

Heath pieces are part of museum collections and retail at places like Barney’s New York and Gump’s. In fact Gump’s gave Heath her first commercial order after seeing her work in a museum exhibit at the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  So even at 30% discount in the factory store, you’re still looking at a chunk of change to own a Heath. For example a chic little brown coffee cup lined in eggshell blue costs $19.25 instead of $27.50. A pumpkin orange serving bowl runs $84 instead of its original $120.

Jessica McClintock Outlet Store
25 15th Street (between De Haro and Carolina Streets)
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-553-8390
Daily 10 am to 5 pm

Who doesn’t want something pretty for spring?  And remember the only thing standing between a Jessica McClintock bridal dress priced at $15 and a party dress may be a box of RIT dye. San Francisco icon Jessica McClintock’s signature dressy dresses’ factories aren’t here but the company’s main offices are – and have been since the 70s when McClintock first made a name for herself with the Gunne Sax line of calico and lace “granny” dresses favored by Haight Ashbury hippies and later by prom queens and brides across the country.

One of only two outlet stores (the other’s near L.A.), this one features overstocks, past season merchandise, seconds, damaged goods and samples of prom, wedding, cocktail and children’s dresses. A promotion at press time offered, “All fall dresses 50% off, buy two and get the third for $10.”