Money Money Money (Harrods)

Member Name: AJ26

Product:	Harrods
Date:	13/02/09 (246 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting to look round, large shop, nice foodhalls

Disadvantages: Expensive, busy, sells animals, hard to find your way around

Harrods is probably the most famous department store in the UK and is found on Bromptorn Road in the Knightsbridge area of London. The store is huge is the largest department store in the UK.

The best way to visit Harrods is via the tube on the Piccadilly line and get off at Knightsbridge. Harrods is on Brompton Road close to the station. The store is open from 10am until 8pm Monday to Saturday. On Sundays it is open from 11.30am until 6pm but you can't make any purchases until 12 noon. The foodhall is open from 9am until 9pm on a Monday to Saturday and same times as the rest of the store on a Sunday.

The Harrods motto is "Omnia Omnibus Ubique" which translates as " All Things for All People, Everywhere." Personally I find this slightly ironic as this really is not the case, in my mind Harrods is for rich people or for tourists (or a combination of the two!). Sadly it was for the second reason and not the first that I have visited Harrods!

Harrods has been around since back in 1849 although at this time it was a small grocery shop and not the huge impressive building that it is now. In 1985 Harrods was bought by the Fayeds and continues to be owned and run by them.

The department store is a massive building with hundreds of different departments selling all sorts of things from clothing, furniture, televisions, toys, perfume and pets (and yes I mean pets and not just accessories but more of that later!).

Harrods has guidelines for customers visiting their store which are on their website and are worth reading! They are quite extensive but the things I found amusing where that visitors should wear clothing that is clean and presentable and should wear shoes at all times. "Intimate parts of the body" should not be displayed. Visitors should not sing loudly, shout or use obscene language or behave inappropriately. So if you are one of those people who go around shops doing those things stay away or you will be asked to leave! The dress code goes on to further say that you will not be allowed in if you are wearing "high-cut, Bermuda or beach shorts; swimwear; athletic singlets; cycling shorts; flip flops or thong sandals; with a bare midriff or bare feet; or wearing dirty or unkempt clothing."

We did get past the security guards although my husband was asked to carry his small rucksack whilst in the store which he found became a bit annoying after a while. We managed to refrain from singing loudly and behaving inappropriately whilst in the shop!

Harrods is an impressive store to visit, firstly because of its size but secondly because of its lavish interior. Al Fayed has developed an Egyptian theme to many of the rooms with statues in the rooms and by the escalators. There are also two memorials to Dodi Fayed and Diana Princess of Wales. One being a large bronze statue of the pair and another which has photographs, the ring Dodi bought the day before the accident and a glass smudged with Dianas lipstick, I didn't see the second memorial so I'm not sure where that was but I had read about it. It did sound slightly bizarre to me.

The part of the store I like the best is the foodhall. It is room after room of impressive food displays with everything from fish and shellfish to amazing cakes and chocolates. If I had lots of money it would be an amazing place to shop. Sadly I don't so it's a nice place to wander round and look but not touch! There are also lots of places to stop and eat including a sushi bar.

The rest of the shop I have to say I don't really like, it's a really difficult place to navigate, things aren't very well signposted and we found ourselves wandering around trying to get to different departments. On the ground floor there is a big tourist section which gets really busy mainly with foreign tourists buying expensive Harrod souvenir shopping bags, teddy bears and aprons. The clothes departments have lots of designer names but as I am not in the market for that I gave them a miss. My husband persuaded me to look round the technology department with the huge widescreen televisions, then I reminded him we had come by train so how were we going to get it home!

We did wander up to the Pet Kingdom which is up near the childrens section. The first bit we came to to was an amazing (and slightly scary) room full of dog outfits. There were loads to choose from if you are the kind of person who likes to dress your chihuahua in a pink tutu or a pirates of the carribean costume and don't mind paying upwards of £40 to do so. Our dog is not the kind of dog to dress up (and we are not the kind of people to dress him up even if he was a smaller dog than he is) so we were not tempted in the slightest! Its quite an amazing department, the things you can buy for your dog there was some dog fragrance (smelt quite nice actually) and an amazing array of dog treats including a little counter selling dog cupcakes which looked good enough for humans to eat. This is the place for people with lots of money and who treat their dog like a child.

This was all rather fun and enjoyable but then we realised that not only do they sell accessories but they actually sell pets too. One assistant was actually walking two gorgeous little black cocker spaniel puppies through the department much to the delight of the other shoppers. I couldn't help but think that a department store is not the place to be buying dogs or other animals. There was a sign which I read briefly which said I think that the breeders of the animals may want to visit your home, that the animals were well cared for and that when the store was closed the security guards checked on the animals every half hour. That might be so but I still think that its no place for puppies to be and was quite shocked. Even if I had the money I would never buy a dog from them.

The shop can get very busy at times because as well as a shop it is a big tourist attraction. I think Harrods is a place which if you are visiting London for the first time its worth going to have a look. Its one of the London sights that you want to tick off but apart from that I don't personally think it's a place that the large majority of people would want to shop in.

Summary: Harrods a shop for the rich and the rich tourists