Book of essential value (Argos)

Member Name: dthpsb

Product:	Argos
Date:	17/09/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sells everything, check&reserve, thousands of products.

Disadvantages: Some items may be of poor quality.

The Argos is a shop you will probably find in every town or city. It is the only shop you can go in and have access to thousands of products. The Argos is essentially a catalogue store, twice a year they will issue a catalogue; Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter and in this catalogue there are over 18,500 products. When you find the product you want you go in to store, pay for it and after a short wait will receive your item.

The Argos catalogue is a really big book filled with many different items, it calls itself 'the essential book of value.' In this book there are ten different departments to choose from:
Jewellery and watches
Kitchen and Laundry
Garden and DIY
Sports and Leisure
Home and Furniture
Health and personal Care
Gifts and Hobbies
Photo, Office and Phones
Home Entertainment and Sat Nav
Toys, Games and Nursery

I think it is safe to say that with 10 departments and over 18,500 products you can basically find anything in this book. The toys section is my favourite as you can always find something to buy the kids. I remember when I was a child and whenever a new addition of the Argos book came out I would spend ages looking at the toys and deciding what I wanted.

When you go into store you need to find the seven digit catalogue number from the book and write this on a piece of paper. They also have little computers where if you type the number into them this will tell you if the item is in stock, this is really helpful and can save you queueing for ages just to be told the item you want is not available.

Once you have paid at the tills you will be given an order number and a machine will tell you when it is ready to be collected, usually from collection point A or B. If it is a large item you are ordering then you normally have the option to collect from the back of the store.

Another great service offered by Argos is Check and Reserve. This can be done in three ways:
* www.argos.co.uk - Check online to see the latest prices and whether the items you want are available. Then click on reserve and note down your reservation number, this item will then be reserved for you in store for a couple of days until you collect it. Just hand over the reservation number to the cashier.
* Call 0845 640 1010 - Following simple instructions, as long as you have the catalogue number you will be able to check and reserve the item you want.
* Text 61201 - If you text providing the information of the item you want you will receive a text back giving you the option to reserve this item.

I love this service and have used it many times, over the phone and online.

The only other thing to mention about the Argos is delivery. You can have any item delivered if you request and pay for it but some items you have to have delivered because they are simply too big for the store. The cost is £5.80 but most places who deliver will charge you for it anyway.

I think Argos is great and have shopped there many times over the years, if there are any negatives it may be the quality of certain items, but if you pay cheap you get cheap.

It is such a great concept to have a catalogue store and the success of Argos shows that many people agree. I bet most homes have an Argos catalogue somewhere.

Summary: Convenient way to shop