I have been to two American Apparels in the UK - the AA on Oxford Street, and the AA in Cabot Circus, Bristol. I browsed the products on Oxford Street but actually made a purchase at Cabot Circus, so my review will be based on that.

Despite visiting Bristol often, we had never been to the 'new' Cabot Circus, and only made our first trip this past month. I had been eyeing a number of AA products on the website - the fleece zip hoodie, and the pleated school girl skirt - so I decided to go in and finally try them on and see if they were actually worth the extra money.

The staff were incredibly helpful when I went in - I am very petite (which is one of the reasons I am such a big fan of AA - the sizes run true and go to the smallest sizes) so I went straight to one of the girls working to ask her if they had an XXS in stock. They actually happened to have one on the racks in the front of the store, but she was very polite about it and still helped me find it. Later, when I was having my items rung up, I inquired about yoga bottoms, and the boy ringing me up offered to put my purchases aside so I could look at the yoga products they had - and then pay for everything together. This was on a Sunday afternoon, mind, when the store wasn't exactly full to capacity but it wasn't exactly empty, either. When I came back yoga-trouser-less, he was just as genial and completed my purchase happily.

This was a marked difference from my experience of AA stores in the US - where the staff were typically too-cool-for-school and let you know it.

I was incredibly happy with my experience at the Cabot Circus American Apparel and will definitely be back in the future.