Show us your pearly whites

When I was in the US last week I got to indulge in one of my favourite past times  – shopping.  The great thing about shopping  in America (and Canada) is that you can do it in a ‘mall’.  In one stop you can enter this heaven haven that contains restaurants, movie theatres, clothing-music-shoe-drug-home-toy stores where you can shop/hang out to your heart’s content no matter the weather.

Before you start commenting, yes, the UK does have malls but they aren’t as plentiful as in North America.  Street shopping seems is more popular in the UK where you find all the shops you need down one street with no protection from the elements ie weather, cars.  It is nice when the weather is good but not always practical for somewhere like Canada where it is below zero for 5 months of the year.

I do think though, that the ‘malls’ may be taking this one shop stopping aspect a bit far when I saw this last week

Yup, a teeth whitening booth.  For the low low price of $149 you too can look like a smiling radioactive oddball in the middle of a mall – dare I ask what’s next?

I love a good bargain..

and I am so glad my parents didn’t let me drop math (or maths as they call it here, not kidding, no idea where the ’s’ came from) in school otherwise I might have missed out on great deals like this one;

Buy one for 88p but two for £1.99….the pricing manager in charge of this deserves a raise.

Lifestyles of the rich and hairy

So we stopped by Harrods the other day as they had their annual sale on with lots of things 70%off and let’s face it, normal people can only afford Harrods stuff at 70-99%off.  We didn’t’ find anything exciting (read: cheap enough) but as we were about to leave I saw a sign for ‘Pet Kingdom’ and, like a kid in a toy store, I was off.

It was absolutely unbelievable (okay to be fair it should have been believable as Harrods sells a real life monopoly game with real British pounds as cash so a few fancy pet beds should be believable).   They had everything from dog beer to beds to fancy dress costumes to jewel studded leashes because seriously, if your owners are shopping in Harrods they obviously have some extra cash to quench your thirst for a brewski and understand your need for a little bling when out in the dog park.  Observe:

I did almost have one of those moments when you lie on the floor and kick your hands and feet and cry until your parents hubby buys you what you want because when I walked up to the live puppy area I saw that they had a Border Terrier for sale.  I immediately ran at the glass and pressed my nose up against it looking for my new bundle of cuteness only to find out it had been sold and that the area only contained hyper active daschunds..the hubby was lucky this time. Although, after seeing what Harrods was charging for them I think we might have to look for a second hand or irregular Border Terrier to fit within our budget.

Retail therapy at its best

I was in one of my favourite UK stores the other day (standing in a return queue for 45 minutes mind you) but as usual I was amazed by the pure number of people wandering around this store (not to mention the  hundreds of people in front of me in the queue).  The store is called Primark and is essentially the cheapest clothing store I have ever seen that sells fairly trendy clothes and knock offs of high street fashion from places like Top Shop.

It seems Primark has been around for ages but in the past 2 years it has really become a much trendier more sought after place (think Biway if it ever got trendy) and new stores are popping up everywhere…like the massive department store sized one near Marble Arch that essentially cause a riot when it opened.  The store is predominantly aimed at the 18-35 market but certainly draws a crowd much older and younger than that.  There always massive queues to pay, try on clothes and return items but everyone tolerates it as they know that for around£20 you can end up with a few tops, a shirt, shoes and a necklace.  Its the perfect cure when you are craving a little retail therapy.

The clothing quality is definitely lower than that of other stores but but for the prices you basically wear it a few times until it rips or disintegrates right on your body but you can’t really be too mad as for £4 you certainly got your money’s worth.   They carry women’s, men’s and children clothing, bags, shoes, accessories, pyjamas, lingerie, sheets, towels and other housewares….all at prices you just can’t match anywhere else.

The other thing which I am still not sure how they get away with is how closely they mimic brand name fashion. I purchased a wrap jumper (sweater) and a cardigan from a TOP shop in London and found almost identical ones in Primark for £8, and actually the quality wasn’t much different as the the ones from this TOP shop as one has already gone bally and looks a bit scruffy and I certainly paid more than £8 for it. 

You do have to go to Primark on a day where you can handle being walked in to, hit with large bags/baskets/handbags and are willing to fight for the last pair of shoes/top/skirt in your size then retreating to nurse your battle wounds in a 20 minute queue to pay.  Its all worth it though when the cashier rings in the items, piles the items into their famous giant paper bags and you stride out with 13 items which together only cost £30, much cheaper than an hour therapy session.

Old school catalogue shopping

Its funny when you come to one country and find a concept that works quite well but realise the same concept failed miserably somewhere else.  One specific instance is the Consumers Distributing retail model….save money by not having expensive retail space replace it with a smaller storefront with catalogue stands, golf pencils and little pads of paper and a huge warehouse at the back for the merchandise.   That retail concept has been gone for quite a few years now in Canada (I am showing my age, I did I mention I turn 30 this year?  please send gifts) with no one trying to resurrect it which surprises me a bit as it is alive and well in the UK.

I still fondly remember going to Consumers Distributing to get whatever toy was hot at the time (Cabbage Patch Kids, Care Bears, Super Mario Bros, 2 or 3).  With the catalogue page number memorised we would grab the little order slip, desperately search for a pencil (which they always ran out of) then stand in line terrified that they would sell out of my new toy by the time I got to the front of the line.

In the UK, the store is called Argos and is set up exactly like Consumers Distributing with the rows of catalogues, papers and pens (Yes, they have upgraded from golf pencils to little blue pens – but they still tend to run out of them).   However the concept has evolved a bit and now there are little ’stock checker’ boxes located beside the catalogues allowing you to key in the item number and see if it is in stock (allowing kids to the ‘it’s out of stock’ hissy fit beside the catalogues versus in front of the cashier – probably better for employee morale). 

My favourite bit is when you are waiting in store with your reciept with your order number in hand as it always feels like you am in some huge game of bingo.  You look around and it seems everyone is clutching their receipt starring at the TV screens willing their number to come up to complete a line and shout BINGO.   When your number is finally called, it blinks on the TV screen and is accompanied by this lovely English voice telling you to go to your pick up point.  I always feel like I have won something when my number comes up and I go bounding to my pick up point only to be handed some wooden hangers and plastic storage buckets….oh well maybe next time they will mix up my order and I’ll get a BBQ or new TV. 

Anyway not too sure why it didn’t work so well in Canada but I do enjoy the simplicity of it all and still enjoy getting the new quarterly catalogue to see what new toys the kids will throw their out of stock hissy fits over.

No I didn’t win…

Unfortunately I have not been off spending my £94 million but I did win £12.40 which did come in handy at the pub.

I have actually spent the last few days hanging around London with one of my best friends who was visiting from Canada.  As usual we hit Oxford Street for some serious shopping however on our way I think we detoured and ended up in 1986…while perusing the shops we came across Converse sneakers, 80’s style Reeboks (I think they were called high top princess) and leg warmers. 

 

Up until this point of my life I thought I was too young to ever mutter the phrase ‘everything old is new again’.  I officially said it on the weekend while buying a pair of hot pink leg warmers, maybe I will wear them when the New Kids on the Block come to town for their reunion tour.  I ♥ Donnie Wahlberg.