Lakeland - A Wonderful Shop With A Fascinating History (Lakeland)

Member Name: Machair1

Product:	Lakeland
Date:	19/10/08 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything You Can Imagine For Your Home and KItchen

Disadvantages: None

Lakeland is one of my favourite shops. I love cooking and have bought some really good quality items from them over the years.
They are a family business.

The other reason I love them is that you may have guessed from reading my other reviews that I am a great fan of companies who have made a name for themselves out of humble beginnings.
This company used to be called Lakeland Plastics because in the 60s that is exactly what they were a company supplying plastic bags to farmers who wanted to sell their produce frozen at the farm gate. They also sold other plastic sheeting such as covers for silage and haystacks. They operated firstly from their garage and later from Windermere Station in the Lake District. They rented the Station Master's house and took orders from the front room whilst the customer records were stored in the bathroom in a cast iron bath! In the 70s they expanded and sold freezers and the company started to sell everything for home cooking and baking. The rest is history and you can read it all in detail on their website at www.lakeland.co.uk.

I have a passion for the way the company operates as it has a great customer service team who are dedicated to helping you.

The products are very unique and I shall be writing about them on dooyoo in length over the next few months as many have become my firm favourites.

Some items are sold for a while and if you see them it is worth buying them quickly in case they are not repeated. One of my best purchases a few years ago was a scone tin for making the most delicious home made scones. They come out perfect every time and the tin is as good today as it was then.
The customer service team are always ready to listen to any suggestions for products and if there is enough demand they will stock them for you. One of these is called Lavender Wool mix. If you look it up on the website you will read "Since Vera Patterson of Newtownabbey introduced us to this Australian 'laundry must-have', thousands of you have been converted." I am one of the converted and I will tell you all about this product in a later review but it is a really great laundry liquid for delicates and it leaves them smelling like they have been lying in lavender fields in Provence.

The website is superb and they have many catalogues each year to browse through at home. Delivery is free if you spend over £50 and if you need to return anything they are second to none. It is free there are no questions asked and if something arrives damaged it is refunded or replaced immediately.

What I tend to do now I have been shopping with them for many years is I wait until I need some of my old favourites and I order these and then top the order up to £50 with new items I haven't tried before so the postage is free.

The sales are brilliant and you can get some really great items. Last year I bought a half price German frying pan which makes pancakes to die for. They never stick and it makes welsh cakes as good as ones cooked on an Aga.

Our nearest store is some miles away but I love to go to the one in Glasgow when I visit one of my daughters in Scotland. The staff are so helpful and it is great to see the items and to enjoy the ambiance and atmosphere of a shop which has captivated my attention since I was newly married in the early 80s.

You don't have to be passionate about cooking either.They do great things for picnics. The cool bags are made from Flectalon lining, a high performance insulating material, developed as part of the NASA space research programme. I can honestly say they keep my food cold and fresh on journeys I regularly make from Essex to The Outer Hebrides a journey of over 16 hours.

So next time one of their catalogues drops through your letterbox I would say have a good look through. Hopefully I will fulfil my promise to review as many of their products as I can over the coming months.
I have one review on their rose and violet creams already on dooyoo and more to follow.

I think companies like these should be rewarded for their genesis from humble beginnings to where they are today. Sheer hard work has helped them but more than that I think it is their philosophy which puts the customer first.

I think it's time to get some scones in the oven!

Summary: A Company With Excellent Customer Service and A 40 Year Histrory.