Come out smelling pretty. (Boots Stores)

Member Name: Autarkis

Product:	Boots Stores
Date:	24/10/08 (245 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Advantage points, good range of products.

Disadvantages: Bad experience with delivery.

Boots has become one of my most visited shops whilst I'm out and about shopping.

The store is well laid out, and it is always very clean and tidy. It is a large store that is on two floors. It is very spacious and it is pushchair and wheel chair friendly, there are automatic doors, lifts and escalators. The staff are always very helpful and seem to have a good knowledge of what they are selling.

Boots offer a range of services which include a pharmacy, opticians, and photo processing.

The pharmacy is well stocked with first aid essentials, and a wide range of medication, they also offer a free prescription collection service. The pharmacists are always very helpful in assisting you in what medication you may need. They always offer very good advice too. They can usually help with simple medical problems.

Boots photo processing offer a number of different services such as film processing, and they also have digital photo processing units where you can take your photos in on either a CD or memory stick, and either have the photos processed immediately or in a one hour or 24 hour time frame. They also do photo gifts, where you can create your own photo book, calendars or diaries using your photos, and you can have your favourite picture put onto a cup, mouse mat, and other gifts too. The photo service is good quality, and I have always been happy with the prints I have had done here.

As well as all the different services that boots provides, they also have a vast array of products in store ranging from toiletries, health and beauty products, perfumes, babies and children's clothing, toys and gifts, and even sandwiches.

Boots have an advantage card, which offers a good point system you get 4 points for every £1 you spend. Each point equals one pence, however there are certain items that are exempt from there points scheme such as stage 1 baby milk, in all my time of shopping with boots this is the only item that I have ever purchased that has been exempt from the points scheme, so there are only very few items that are exempt. They also have good promotions where you can earn more points from buying certain products, the promotions change quite frequently.

They also have a lot of good offers on, such as buy one get on free and 3 for 2 on goods in the different departments. They stock their own brand of products too, which are very reasonably priced.

After collecting points on your card you can use these to spend in store, in order to redeem these you must have enough points for you to purchase the product that you wish to buy with your points in full, as part payments is not accepted in regards to points based transactions. Items which may be purchased with your points will be denoted buy a small asterisks symbol upon the price label which is displayed under the product.

As well as the points based scheme, the card also offers other promotions in regards to it, such as at the moment if your purchase 5 meal deals within a month boots will give you the sixth one free of charge.

Certain products that you can purchase carry additional point's value to them as well as in store promotions, which occasionally will reward customers with additional points for spending certain amounts in store in a single transaction.

Boots also provide different clubs within their advantage card scheme; these include the Mother and baby Club and the Health club.

You can sign up to the mother and baby club during your pregnancy, you will then receive a coupon to use when you buy a newborn pack of pampers nappies and you will get a free changing bag. They also send out magazines monthly and money off coupons, you will also be provided with a coupon that once activated it will give you double points upon a number of different branded baby products and boots own range of baby products, making it more worthwhile buying your baby products from here.
I have found the baby club to be very good; I have had some very good deals through them.

The main reason I shop at boots is for the baby section, they have a good selection of baby items that are reasonably priced, they sell all of the every day essentials, and nursery items too, they only have a select few pushchairs in store for you to try out all of their nursery equipment can be found on their online website. I have only ordered nursery equipment from them once, and was not happy with this service as the delivery time was not clear and when they delivered my goods, I was out at the time and when I arrived home I had found they had left my delivery in between my bins, I don't have a garden to the front of my house just an area for my bins which is not enclosed, I found this to be very careless of them, and I was lucky that my goods were still there when I got home, when I spoke to customer services they didn't seem to find this a problem! So I will never order from them again. Despite the problems that I had with the delivery service itself, I was happy with the goods that I ordered and found them to be of a very good quality. However this has not put me off from shopping in store.

The mother and baby section has a good range of toys and games for baby's and children. Every thing you need for nappy changing and bathing, they have a large selection of bath time products from branded to there own brand which is just as good in my opinion. They also stock a wide range of baby formula's, from ready made to powdered, baby food and baby juices, they have more variety than my local supermarket, although I don't buy ready made baby food. I do however buy the organic snacks and have tasted many myself.

The clothing section has a good amount of clothes for girls and boys, and their prices are pretty good too. The quality has always been very good, and I find there baby clothes wash well.

They have a huge range of beauty products, of all different brands and prices, the staff are always very helpful when you need make up and skin care advice, making it easy to know which products will best be suited to your skin. Also from time to time when you spend a certain amount in store on any products they give vouchers for No7 and the Ruby and Millie range for £5, so I have had many good bargains using these. Just lately they have been running a 3 for 2 promotions on the No 7 range making it very good value for money when using the voucher with this offer.

They also sell all of your every day essentials for both men and women, so I find I can get everything I need whilst shopping here. I tend to buy a lot of products when they are on promotion, I find it's nice to try out different products and save myself some money at the same time.

My advantage card points soon add up quickly, with all the baby products and every day essential's, so I really enjoy finding a nice treat or something that I need for free!

They also have some fantastic sales, every now and then they have a clearance sale on certain baby items, I have had many T shirts for a £1, and quite often you can find perfumes on sale and other items that have good discounts, it's always good to look out for these.

On the lead up to Christmas boots stock a good range of Christmas gifts, and gift sets for children and adults, the majority of which are part of a 3 for 2 offer all the selected items have a green Christmas present sticker on to help you identify the gifts that you can mix and match. I find I can buy a lot of my gifts for a very good price.

I highly recommend Boots for anyone that hasn't shopped here. It's definitely worth getting yourself an advantage card so you can use your points for nice pampering treats.

Summary: For all your everyday essentials, boots has it all!