I'm not cheap, I'm not expensive, I am Matalan (Matalan)

Member Name: CAFCGirl

Product:	Matalan
Date:	22/12/08 (251 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good sale discounts

Disadvantages: Mens range boring, sizing erratic, you have to belong to "the club".

Matalan in Canterbury have today earned themselves 1 hour of mine and my mums time, and £50 of our cash too.

Good god I hear you say, what were they buying!?
Well a bit of background first and foremost.
I can only comment on the Canterbury,Kent store as its the only one I've ever been to.
I went there at 12pm today, 22nd December and to be perfectly honest I expected absolute carnage!
Thankfully there was no such thing.
Located in an out of town retail park on the Sturry Road, it houses a large selections of ladies wear, childrens clothing is the probably the second largest section, followed by menswear and homewares.
Having recently undergone a refit, it now also offers a large section dedicated to party wares, so invitations, paper plates, streamers, fancy dress, items for hen and stag parties, helium balloons, and plenty more besides, I was quite shocked to see it there in fact, and I just walked through it because I wasnt in the marker for a barbie polystrene cup, but when I am, I'll know where to go!!!!

Womenswear is obviously the big money maker for them and so occupies the largest section of the store.
Over te past 4 or 5 years that I've been visiting Matalan I've seen the ranges improve drastically but at the same time I have also seen the prices creep up ever so slightly. Its still a lot cheaper than Next, H&M, Zara, Debenhams and the such like, but its more expensive than Primark and Peacocks.

The range has also got a lot more fashion-savy over the years but still generally focuses on the 30+ market. There are some more fashion-wear ranges, but you can always rely on certain constants in there like the more business range suiting, and the granny knits and longer skirts.
As a lucky person who has never grown since being about 14, I find the sizing to be very generous and as such I do have to be careful with some things, as their 8 is more like a 10, but then there 12 is a tight 14, but then after that they stay quite true to size as my mum and nan inform me.

I have bought some clothes from there especially for work, as I begrudge spending money on black trousers for work, so £6 a pair suits me fine!
The accessories range is also very reasonable with complentary colour ranges in their jewellery. Dont expect it to last forever, after all it is only fashion jewellery!
The underwear range has in my opinion dwindled in the past few years which is a shame, and I much prefer visiting Primark for these kind of things now.

Homewares however today is where it redeemed itself for me.
They have a 1/2 Price Sale on today with homewares and their seasonal product and I did really well on stocking up on items for next Christmas, wrapping paper and cards.

I'll shortly be moving home as well and so needed to pick up some new items such as tupperware, and am pleased with the quality of these items.
I have before now also bought duvet covers, but these seemed to be fewer in range perhaps to make way for their festive offering.

There are also lots of little things to pick up such as scented candles, lamps, rugs and cushions. Which I deemed as good buys now, as they were half price but I would have been annoyed paying the full price for these, as they arent in my opinion that competitive with the offerings from Debenhams etc.

Queues can be through the roof one minute and then practically noone there the next. Staffing is also very erractic, and you'll be hard pushed to find anyone in the aisles or shopfloor and generally end up either asking the staff in the fitting rooms or on the till.

You do have to hold a matalan card to shop there. Years ago Im sure this was to reap back on the discounts you were given as signing up used to cost £1. I signed up to my own card about 2 years ago (normally just used my mums), and it didnt cost me a penny.

From what I can gather now, the swiping on your card simply means they can keep tabs on your spending habits and therefore send you promotional material in the post which is normally just a small seasonal catalogue.

I havent checked recently (in the last month), but you can't shop online but you can browse a small selection of their ranges on their website.

Not really a lot else I can say really. Quality of goods is the general high street standard, stores can get a bit messy after big trading weekends, but so can everywhere, you can sign up for a card there and then, so you dont have to wait for it to come in the post, sales are generally pretty good discounts, so perfect to use for stocking up ahead, as I have done today.
Clothing doesnt really do a lot for me as I struggle with the sizing but I do enjoy rooting through their homewares.
Price wise, I'd try Primark first, and then to Matalan....

Summary: Based on my experience of the Canterbury store 22/12/2008