Discount, Outlet...what are we waiting for?! (McArthur Glen Designer Outlets)

Member Name: The Daz

Product:	McArthur Glen Designer Outlets
Date:	27/01/09 (355 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact and well designed

Disadvantages: You may need a wallet transplant

McArthur Glen - York.

Apologies for the blatant cheek that appears later on - I'm obviously not that sexist, else I'd be single!

If, like me, you have spent many hours loitering outside a shop whilst your better half pops in for what is described as 'just a quick look', that slowly becomes a lengthy visit, then you will know that the layout, design and planning of shopping centres is fairly important. Without the opportunity to look at something whilst standing there helplessly, or a design feature to ponder, or even a few benches to park yourself on, such visits quickly become soul sapping and lead to endless arguments, mainly concerning the male belief that they are a taxi and wallet service, and the female belief that their partners whine too much and could do with a few smarter clothes themselves anyway....

Located on the outskirts of York, this compact but well appointed Outlet Retail Mall is a pleasant oasis of 'guilt-free shopping', as the literature would have you believe. Containing over 70 outlet versions of high street and boutique names, the mall is different to the usual out of town centres crammed full of the same shops that already exist in your own town. Part of a European wide chain, they are one of the leading outlet retail companies.

Positioned just off the A64 at the southern end of York's Ring Road, it is well signposted and good traffic planning avoids heavy congestion on the access roads to/from the ring road. If you've ever tried to shop in York, you'll know that your best option is the nearby Park & Ride scheme anyway. Those Romans didn't have multi-storeys in mind when they stuck the walls up....

In the mall you can find the usual out of town shopping centre suspects: Next Clearance, M&S Outlet, Whittards (but not for long!), The Works, and also the more bespoke: Armani collections, Osprey, Karen Millen, Nitya, Intimas, and many other random names that make my wife's eyes light up. There's even a Starbucks on the ground floor at one end, with an excess of seating (handy!), and a Caffe Nero at the other end, to conveniently allow idle time to be passed with a newspaper and a coffee.

Set around one large ground floor, with one long looping corridor (and a clever shortcut in the Armani store), and a spacious first floor food court overlooking the full height gallery with excellent views (usually of the sunset when I'm still there!), and decorated with hints of York's Viking heritage (check out the full sized replica longboat that hangs over one entrance), the mall is easy on the eye as well as the wallet.

If you have a toddler who proves hard to keep occupied (and which ones aren't?!), then they also have those sit in plastic cars with a top mounted shopping basket so that you can push them around safely, and they can pretend they're trying to race the other toddlers. Ah, simple pleasures...

Actually - I should qualify that. For the male readers this means that you will be attempting to pack your car boot on leaving in a manner akin to a Krypton Factor contest, carefully weighing up the size and weight of each bag as you try to fit them all in.
For female readers - All the outlets are discounted - some as much as 70%! Think how much you've saved! Well done you....

With 2 large car parks, a huge outdoors play park for kids (complete with metal slides - I thought H&S had banned them!), and a good range of food outlets (McDonalds, Pizza Express, Bagel Nash, Pizza Hut, the place that does filled jacket potatoes etc) to keep the husbands and children happy, this is a good day out shopping for all the family.
For regional comparison - It's not as flash as the Trafford Centre, but is considerably more fun than J32 at Castleford.

Open until 8pm most nights, and 6pm on Sundays, there really is no excuse not to visit.

Summary: A less torturous day out than visiting the City Centre.