At Bangladeshi prices on a high street near you! (Primark)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Primark
Date:	10/12/08 (308 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap but good qualirty

Disadvantages: Dads jeans

According to a female lifestyle magazine of some repute (Jade Goody wouldn't be in it), women make 70% off all purchases on the planet. Whenever you watch TV commercials or go down to your local Mall (excuse the ghastly American expression) it does seem to be women mostly buying things - things they probably don't need if they are honest. The same magazine states that women think about shopping as much as men think about sex! That was certainly the case in my last meaningful relationship. No time for sex boyfriend I need shoes! Man, 'Sex in the City' has a lot to answer for. Emancipated women my ass!

Most TV ads will show the women making the family purchases and portray the male as a feeble character in that relationship, not able to pick or choose the correct products without her help, a disapproving look, or a sharp elbow or two in the ribs, the advertising agencies skillfully 'dumbing' down the male of the species so the women feel empowered by the same adverts to go out and do just that, spend, which the 70% statistic seems to confirm. So powerful is that advertising machine that they even get working-class lads to wear pink Pringle sweaters! Now that is the ultimate humbling of boy racer. I bet those clear glasses wearing Sachi execs art still chuckling at that campaign now. They really can get the sheep to do anything.

The same survey found that 30% of those things women buy, they never actually use, or should I say wear. As guys well know, women buy lots of accessories and most of that stuff seems to be about making the bedroom cupboards and dressers look pretty rather than their partners, or so it seems, keeping them in, and then quickly out of the latest fashions that come thick n fast these days and so their half of the rent late again. It's always baffled me why people want to follow fashions in the first place, desperate to be individuals but all looking the same as the other individuals in the fashion pack and so not individuals? I suppose some are easily influenced and so want to belong to a tribe for friendship and so nothing wrong with that but get a grip of the prices guys. Yes I very occasionally buy fashion surf wear for its pastel colors as a treat to perhaps project the phlegmatic lifestyle it suggest I may live and the act, but you won't catch me wearing a huge kipper tie or a woolly hat because Beck's did it on a billboard somewhere in Japan. In fact no one should dress like Japanese youth.lol. Have you seen those guys?

I would proudly say I'm an upper working-class guy that's not influenced by labels and fashion, and places like Primark have the casual stuff I need. Some of the working class guys I know who have money really do spend on clothes as if that can somehow make them more appealing and prestigious a catch for women, boosting their status in the world, and so vow never to set foot in places like Primark. But I look pretty good in a pair of neat fit jeans and a casual long sleeve shirt and so don't feel the need to put out any signals to be something I'm not. No Alan Partridge comments please..

I think it's fair to say that any clothes women buy in Primark they are probably going to wear, that 70% we started out with, the budget store more about practical purchases than fashion, definitely the case with guys, in my experience. For me it's a place to buy cheap undies and socks and that around the house stuff. Winter wear is what they are all about.

As I have said before in other reviews the economic downturn and the ever increasingly low paid work force here in places like Northampton means most people can only really afford to buy cheap stuff and I think stores like Primark are great news and the chance for the white-collar classes to get off the habit of buying brands that are mostly about making themselves feel more superior to other people. With both M&S and Primark, obviously from opposite ends of the shopping demographic, 'allegedly' in trouble for buying clothes made in the third world by children as young as seven, then you can clearly see all this stuff is made in the same places and so not worth paying extra for those brands. You're paying for the label not the quality guys. Ten years old Seta doesn't pocket the difference in Bhata. Ok, I'm not asking the middle-class to stop buying cotton and start buying polyester, heavens forbid, but at least get around the snobbery and buy your basics at the prices where the big fashion houses can't trouser huge mark ups of the stooped backs of little Bangladeshi kids knee high in water and s**t every winter. They practice bonded labor on the sub-continent and that means some impoverished families rent their children out to gang masters for a sum, and they only get the kid back when the said kid has repaid that cash amount in hours worked. It's very common in the third world. Primark and M&S are very aware of that yet still sending their buyers to those parts of the world because labor is so cheap there. When you buy the big sports brands you are contributing and encouraging that exploitation guys, as you are when you buy and take Class A drugs in trendy London, black kids ending up getting shot in the head in South London to get you high. You can't just wipe your hands of it.

-In the stores-

Where as some stores are hiding the savings from the recent VAT drop and taking it off at the till, Primark are using the rather pathetic drop to their advantage and selling goods at prices like £1:91 and £2:13, an odd sight indeed in British stores, and not even the correct deductions if you do the match for the 2.5% drop. The way it's going, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be bringing back halfpennies soon!

I can only comment on the men's section in Primark as I have no kids (that I know about) and so no reason to venture into the children's or ladies bit. From a far there seems to be a lot of 'chav' pink in these section, especially the underwear section, of which I am I'm banned by the burley in-store security guards you get these days in chain stores, another Americanism we have seen in the shopping malls of late. Since druggies are running wild now and we have also let certain EU countries citizens into Britain to work we have sadly seen a huge increase in shop theft and credit card fraud in Northampton stores and so have to suffer these heavies.

Fleeces are Primarks staple men's product, followed by 'dad jeans' (38+ waist) and reasonably stylish and cut winter jackets, the fleeces between four and six quid and the thick coats under £20. Socks and undies are market stall prices and they also do some decent T-Shirt hybrids of the fashion look from those recent trends. I'm generally not into those retro 70s American university brand or beach scene T-shirts in garish primary colors, a Primark favorite, or the ones with those silly statements on like 'pick me up from the gutter Im drunk', type thing, but will occasionally pick out a couple if they can be worn with a jacket and jeans and you don't look too cliché and fashion conscious. I'm confident enough to get away with smart causal.

What I like most about Primark is they are sell cheap products that retain some sort of quality, none of that cheap and polyester looking stuff you normally get with cut price products. They clearly are the most stylish and cheap store on the high street. Primark have mastered the right balance between presentable fashion and price and that's why their profits are up15% in 2008 and BHS are down by the same amount, yet both similar customer demographics. Primarks pile it high and cheap ethos has worked a treat and judged the temperature perfectly of a nation plunging into a long dark recession.

-Ratings-

Coats 4/5
T-Shirts 3/5
Undies3/5
Socks 3/5
Shorts 2/5
Trousers 2/5
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www.Primark.com

Summary: Cheap and cheerful