Wanted to share experience of the Outlet City in Metzingen, about 2 hrs drive from Zurich in the south of Germany.

It is one of the biggest outlet centres in Europe and the scale and variety of goods/clothes on offer was impressive. People quickly call something an outlet centre or outlet city but this really lived up to its expectations.
The website lists the brands available, all in single-brand stores. From the website I couldn't quite estimate how big or small the place actually is. And it's big. For example the Tommy Hilfiger store, which looks like a small widget on the plan is actually a huge 3-story store, the biggest anywhere from Hilfiger in Europe. Discount prices of at least 30%. I bought two suits for total of €600 which in the Bahnhofstrasse would buy you just one.

Apart from that there is a huge Hugo Boss outlet (men+women) and for women esp. stores from Esprit, Marc O'Polo, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Lacoste etc.
Lots of sports stores to: huge Nike store, Peak Performance and also from Adidas and Puma. There's also a Burberry and Bally store.

According to the brochure, measured by tax-free sales the town of Metzingen matches Berlin -- to illustrate how populare this outlet city has become over the years with tourists from UK, Asia and Russia. Apparantly from the UK there are special charter flights to Stuttgart. Metzingen advertises itself as "the most important flagship outlet centre in Europe" and by far the biggest I've ever been to. This is almost un-European in size and Sihlcity shopping centre is just a boutique compared to Metzingen.

It's recommendable if you go on a Saturday to make sure you arrive say before 11am. It became crowded from around 2pm onward. Worth the drive and refreshing to see so much variety and choice at discounted prices!

Hey Vince,

Thanks for the good tip - sounds like a must do for any expat living in Zurich area.
How about the taxes, can you get them back at the border? Shops fill in the "Global Refund" form that you get stamped at the German border side... but then you need to get is stamped at the Swiss custom too, right?

Is this really worth then all in all? Cause you get the German VAT back but you loose it from the Swiss, or just couple of %...

Any clarification here would be much appreciated

German VAT is 19.0%
Swiss VAT is 7.6%

On the purchases you do in Metzingen, if you ask for a VAT refund form on average you get about 10% back. Reason is that they work with brackets, ie a purchase of €40 and one of €50 would give you both back only €4.
It's quite easy:
1) You ask in the shop the VAT refund cheque which they quickly fill in and staple your receipt to.
2) Passing the border in Singen back into CH, park the car 10m after the border (you are then already in Switzerland) and cross the road to the ugly yellow-ish German customs office, where a man bang-bang-bang stamps each form within about 10 sec.
3) You then walk back to your car where a sudden loss-of-memory might strike you so you'll forget to go into the Swiss customs office (on the side where you parked the car) to pay the 7.6% import duty
4) At home you fill in the last bits of the voucher (name, address, etc) and post it to the Global Refund office in Vienna, which will then credit your credit card with the VAT amounts.

It is clear what you are suggesting, which is of course illegal / smuggling if your purchases are over the CHF 300 limit.
Do this at your own risk. Think about it carefully if you are here on a work permit, hoping to one day get swiss citizenship etc. It's only 7.6% (one of the lowest around) and you've just got back up to 19% (less if you have to use Global refund), so is it really worth the risk for the amount concerned?

You are also hoping that the DE & CH customs never compare notes (you have to put your address on the form - it is rejected without). You may think it unlikely but I know someone who some months later got contacted and then fined by customs about failing to declare an imported watch who had done exactly what you "suggested". (Although it was not DE->CH but UK->NO, but proves it happens)

BEWARE!

P.S. I prefer shopping in stores that don't use global refund but give you a normal export form, which is stamped in the same way at the border and you take/send back to the shop and get all your VAT percentage back. Compared to the above I probably profit more than global refund / smuggling, and stay the right side of the law.

just a quick question - has anyone been here recently?
is it still any good/do they have large sales on etc?

just wondering before i drive from geneva...

I was there last weekend. They're on their summer clearance right now. We (husband and I) spent about 450 Euros, in return for which we got:

About half a dozen shirts for him (french cuffed, hugo boss and ralph lauren)
Half a dozen work tops for me (hugo boss, marco polo)
2 perfumes. (one YSL and the other Hermes)
A ladies trenchcoat style raincoat (Boss, again)
2 pairs of boss jeans

... Oh, and an Esprit skirt for 7 Euros that I'd forgotten about. Originally 89 Euros.

Its really good value. Get there early (if possible).

Just a few tips:
Parking is easily available- its about 4.50 for the day, I think. There's a few reasonable restaurants around (Olio E Pane is pretty decent and well priced) If you need alterations done on any of the clothing you buy, there's a tailor in Metzingen town itself (just walk along the mainstreet of the town) who will do basic alterations, like taking up or letting down pants legs in an hour, for 8 Euros. Bargain

Also, if you get time- we went to the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart afterwards. It was amazing.

thanks - hopefully there is something left!!

My wife and I were there over Christmas and bought a ton of stuff. Definitely worth the drive from Geneva.

ive been before but its seems a lot longer than 5 hours!!

I plan to go there tomorrow. I hope it is a good outlet.
I have this problem that i cannot buy things anywhere in west europe, coz I used to buy stuff from usa, especially NH (no vat for clothing, electronics and such..) and the price differences are just crazy in the extend that i feel my self stupid buying anything over 300chf in europe
Do they have electronic stuff (photo cameras and so on) in Metzingen? As i saw in the website, it is probably only for clothing, parfumes etc.

I don't recall seeing any electronics stores. Compared to US prices- Metzingen is still pretty expensive. But comparing it to the cost of brand name gear elsewhere in Europe, it really is good value.

Another tip I forgot to mention earlier is make sure you look at the item you're buying very carefully. Sometimes the items are seconds, and sometimes they're just stock that hasn't sold before. This is not to say the seconds are terrible- but its always a good idea to carefully look over the item to see if the flaw is one you can live with.

A shirt my husband bought was a second- it had a label a few millimeters off center- and it was reduced by 90% of its RRP, as a result.

Been there recently and recommended if you are brand-oriented and wanna buy enough to justify travel costs.
A town filled with outlets. There is a free parking near a roundabout in the entrance of the town, 5 min. walk to the shops, otherwise other parkings are paid one.
If you wanna stay in countryside there is a quite nice hotel (around 100 Eur. for double) 5 min. drive :
http://www.stausee-hotel.de/

My boyfriend and I, living in Luzern were going to make a trip to the outlets hopefully some weekend this summer. Does anyone know a less expensive way to go than by train, I'm thinking renting a car for the day is cheaper than train. Any thoughts ideas??

Thanks for bumping this thread up, just when I looked for it :-)

If you rent a car, I may be interested in joining you to go up there.

Doc.

While looking for outlet stores nearby, I happened to found this Directory.

http://www.factory-outlets.org/www/d...t_nach_firmen/

Hope its useful for other people too :-)

Doc.

I'm in France at present and as I've got the car how is easy is the place to get to by train from ZH?

Easy..???!!! It must be Zürich - Schaffhausen - Singen (well, that's still easy) - Tübingen - Reutlingen - Metzingen; in about... Take the car!

LOL, but I'd have a round trip drive of 2200 kms from France to give Mama G the car... hence I asked about the train. Also as she'd have to lug what she bought it may limit her excesses

may be popping up this weekend to Metzingen - does anyone know if there are still sales on? or is it that awkward time when all the summer stuff is gone and the winter stuff has yet to come out!?