Factory 2-U in San Francisco, California: A Discount Shopping Review

Factory 2-U is part of a Western chain owned by National Stores Inc. including Fallas Discount Stores, Fallas Kid Stores and Fallas Paredes. Though the names differ the theme of selling overstock at steeply reduced prices runs through all of these stores. This particular location is in San Francisco's Mission district, on Mission street not far from the 24th and Mission BART station.

What you'll find inside is mostly clothing, and most of that focusing on ladies, girls, children, infants and toddlers. There's an OK sized selection of men's shirts and pants, and a few shelves of various housewares and domestics items toward the back, but the major focus of the store seems to be clothing for the women and the children.

The store is open from nine A.M. to nine P.M. seven days, and it's probably best to go as early as possible, before the huge families arrive and shred the store. It never seems to be too crowded at night after six P.M. or so, but by then the stock has been depleted and the place is still pretty tore up from the afternoon's fun and games.

In terms of deals to be found here, I can't speak to the women's clothes, since I don't roll that kinky despite living in San Francisco. Nor do I have kids so I'm not up on that one either, but you can check up on major sales all through the National Stores network by clicking this URL which highlights whatever big batch of special deals they currently have. At the moment they seem to be getting ready for the upcoming school year and school uniforms for kids with shirts at like two to five bucks, and pants and dresses for about five to seven. So if you have some kids heading back in fall, now's a good time to investigate this place apparently.

I'll focus on evaluating the deals to be found in men's clothes here, since that is my particular area of expertise and firsthand experience. I've had some OK luck with basic men's shirts here, in the way of solid color tees and baseball jersey type things with longer sleeves and two colors. Nice casual stuff for a hot day or for the gym and all that. Socks I don't advise picking up here, they have some big bags of generic white socks at a low price, but they are super thin and every one of them that I've had ripped at the heel within a couple of months (not just wore away, I mean totally ripped while I was putting them on ... ultimate cheapness.) They seem to have some briefs but no deals on boxers or boxer briefs to be enjoyed here. As far as pants go, most of the selection seems to be the bigger plus sizes. Average and smaller sized guys might find a deal on some work jeans or slacks, but don't expect anything particularly fashionable or comfortable here on the pants end of things. Collared work shirts are also good here, at a price of two to four bucks or so depending on what they have on hand at the moment.

I'd have to say I've overall had more misses than hits here, and it's not one of my favored discount stores in the Mission area, but there's still enough to be make it worth a look when I happen to be through the area shopping in the early A.M. hours. Those seeking children's and women's clothes will likely have better luck and may find it to be a worthwhile regular discount clothing stop to add to the bargain rotation.

Factory 2-U
2664 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94101
# 415-642-3651
http://www.factory2-u.com/