Just shop and smile! (Bicester Shopping Village)

Member Name: chaviane

Product:	Bicester Shopping Village
Date:	07/07/03 (13898 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of Brands to choose, Relaxing Atmosphere, Great Service

Disadvantages: Its Far!!!

Ok....I have to admit that I just LOVE LOVE and LOVE shopping!!!! but what I love the most is when I can shop in cheaper price places (so I dont feel so poor when I shop!). Everytime I visit a new country, the place that I'll try to locate is their factory outlets.

Although, I like to do "window shopping" in Harrods, Selfriges or Harvey Nichols, I can say that Bicester Shopping Village is the place where I actually buy something (hum...sometimes many things!!! *giggle*) I've been to quiet many outlet shopping places, like Portsmorth, Hatfield and the one in Florence, Italy....but Bicester is my favorite!

I went there for the first time with 5 other girls. We study the same major and we lives in residence hall in our campus. We learned about this place when I read GLAMOUR magazine (instead of our text book!) and it mentioned about how nice this shopping place is. At that time I was'nt so tempted, but when its says discounted designer stuff....I got excited and told other girls about it. We agreed that if we can speed up to finish our assignment, we can go to Bicester in two days! (yeah, its so sad that shopping is the only way for us to do our assignment!). The result??? We all love to shop there!

LOCATION

Bicester Shopping Village located in Oxfordshire, between London and Birmingham. We went there from London Marlybone for about 1,5 hours (sometimes longer, depends on what train you're taking). The fares is about GBP.9.50 with young person rail card. Once one of my friend drove us there, it took us about 1 hour drive from Egham (Surrey).

When we arrived, we saw a shuttle bus with "Bicester Village" written on it. So, we took that. We was suprised that it was free service!! the interior of the bus itself designed in such a way so you can talk and chat with your friends, feels like you're in your own bus!! According to the bus driver, he will be running between the shopping villag
e and the station every half an hour. He drove us exactly infront of it. Very convinience, dont you think??

When we went there some other time, we missed the bus. But we saw a "taxi bus"....basically its new a mini van that running around bicester. With only GBP.1 (yes, one pounds!) they took us to the village. There's plenty of them at the station, so no need to worry if you missed the bus.

WHAT YOU WILL SEE

Bicester Village basically like a little cowboy town (like you've seen in western movie!). Their shops mostly made from wood. Its like typical American outlets. Once you arrived you can go straight to the receiption (the people there are so nice!!!), get their brochure with the map of their shops, find if they have any discount vouchers at the moment and its better if you just seperate with your friends because so many shops to see!!!

The front side, you will see Penhaligon's, a wonderful place for smellies lover. You can buy almost all of their collections with anbelievable price. I bought bottles of their perfumes for GBP.15 where its usually over GBP.24. In the same line you'll see Molton Brown, and Tag Heuer (they also sells other brand such as Dior watch, half price!).

When you enter you will see many well-known brands that it might took me a while to type it all, but I'll tell you my favorites! you will see brands outlets like Escada (Nice trousers!), Ralph Lauren, Versace, Tod's (cool colours loafers), Karen Millen, Fat Face, Earl Jeans, Timberland, Ferragamo (love love love!), Burberry (if you ever want their bags, better to get it from here!), Mulberry, Diesel, La Perla (sexy undies!), L.K Bennet, Charles Jourdan, Dunhill, Nicole Farhi, Paul Smith, Ted Baker, Jaeger, Loewe (Oooh...so soft dreamy bags..), CK, Donna Karan, Benneton, MaxMara, French Connection, Hobbs, Camper....and plenty more!!!!

But Bicester is not only about fashion. If you just started to live
in a new apartement or you just want to decorate your home. Bicester have something for you too. They have The white company (for crisp linens), Bodum (trendy kitchen wear!), they also have Oneida and Kenneth Turner, beside, many of the designer outlet have the home section as well, such as Ralph Lauren and Versace.

THE ATHMOSPHERE

I certainly recommends to go to Bicester in weekdays because its not so crowded. You can just peeps into each shop with no rush and spend more time to think about what you want to get. I went there once on weekend, its just too many people!!. Bicester is a great place to relax, so when you came with bunch of girlfriends, you can just spend all day there. There's several places selling jacket potatoes and drinks....but they also have Pret-a-manger and Sturbucks cafe where you can have a nice discussion with your friends.

Since the prices are cheaper than the high street, I thought their toilet will be the last place I want to visit. But I was wrong. You can feel luxury in their ladies room. One of their toilets (there's 3 places) are really big.They have table inside where you can put your shopping bags. In general, no matter which side, its really clean and well-maintained. The best of all that they use Molton Brown hand soap and hand cream in each one of them! (yeah, thats the reason why I have Molton Brown hand creame & soap as well...hehehehe).

SHOPPING IN OUTLET

Eventhough the prices in Bicester Shopping Village is lower than the high street prices (from 25% to 60% off!) but be reasonable. I personally have to tight on my budget everytime I shop in any factory outlet. Since everything seems cheaper, it is not easy to think clearly. Dont buy anything to quickly because you might see something else after that. Just do window shopping to all the shops and brands, and then decide what you really wants. Thats also a good reason to go to factory outlet when you have times and not in hurr
y.

The first time, I really spent too much and made me really shocked when I got back. Now what I did is, I made a limit to certain amount of money and try to shop only to that budget. Eventhough, the price is cheap and the product truly tempting, if my budget is not enough (even GBP.5 more!) I will try to forget it! *sigh*

The idea in factory outlet that they might only have very limited stock makes you think that you must buy it at that time. But that was wrong, even if they dont have it anymore next time you came, you will find something else that you might like. If I dont think this way, usually, I ended up having many stuff that I dont even need. You can always return the stuff you dont like but since Bicester is far, its better to control your spending instead.

Another thing is that make sure you buy something that worth to get from an outlet. For example, I want a Versace bag that already 30% off (the whole time) in Bicester, but the price is still over my budget, then I saw the same bag in Harrods for 50% off (summer sale only!). Sometimes that happened. But one of my friend bought a Donna Karan Men's suit for GBP.150 when the original price is aboutGBP.800....thats a bargain!

Same like regular shops. Factory outlet also having sale. The only difference is that in the outlets their sale are quiet often, not seasonal. Once, I really want to get a Tod's bag...the regular price is over GBP.400, but they sell it for over GBP.200 in outlet. Still expensive to me, so I didn't buy it. Then the next time I went there, the bag already discounted again to GBP.175! thats the time when I finally bought it. Even the colour choices became very limited. But I saved some money this way. Places like burberry, sometimes they sells their bags (especially the winter design bag) already discounted, but then you can have another 50% off....so I have a wool burberry shoulder bag that I paid for only about GBP.40

Now....you&
#39;ve know everything about Bicester and outlet shopping...lets shop!!!

To know more about Bicester Shopping Village, you can visit their website:
www.Bicester-Village.co.uk

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