A bargain shopper's delight (Primark)

Member Name: caz-3124

Product:	Primark
Date:	20/03/09 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: Unpleasant stores, labour problems

Primark is a budget clothing retailer which operates here in the UK, in Ireland, in Spain and in the Netherlands and has 187 stores. It's actually an Irish company and has a different trading name there - Penneys. Now I'd not heard of Primark until about four years ago, maybe I was going through a Topshop-only phase, blind to all other alternatives, but apparently it's been around since the 1980s. Now though I haven't been aware of it for long even I have noticed that's it has become big in all senses of the word. In my local shopping centre it's impossible to go down the street without seeing one of those brown paper bags. It's talked about in the news, it's mentioned in magazines (even Vogue), all of your friends seem to go there and even celebrities go out and about in their Primark bargains revelling in the fact that everyone thought it was a designer piece.

Now Primark has been in the news twice of late that I remember not including general updates on trading performance. Firstly was the report that Primark were involved in unethical working practices. Now Primark has been held up on this before even going back to 2005 but lately the reports have been of a more shocking nature because it was discovered that the company Primark had contracted had sub contracted and was using child labour in three of its factories in India. Not only were these young children of school age but the pay and working conditions were terrible with incredibly long days. Needless to say when this was reported Primark announced it was cutting all ties and said it was doing its best to ensure anyone working producing their items was employed in satisfactory conditions. It's important to note however that Primark certainly isn't the only company with questionnable working practices, it just seems that they seem to be bearing the brunt of this storm. Secondly was last year when Primark opened its biggest ever store up on Oxford Street and caused stampedes of overly eager shoppers who were thrilled at the idea of a brand new mega size store to devour. Of course people love new clothes and love the idea of a brand new shop and people on Oxford Street are pretty much there for one thing only anyway but add in a rumour to the mix that everything would cost just £1 on opening day and you can understand why it was referred to as a stampede and not simply a large crowd. One of the managers got knocked to the floor and the doors to the store came off their hinges. Some (crazy) people even queued for two hours just to be allowed in the store. On a more general note Primark has been in the news over the past few months for a more positive reason, that of its sales performance. Unlike most businesses, especially in retail, Primark is actually doing well. They are one of very few companies to report not only a surge in sales (probably due to people being more strapped for cash than usual) but that they are opening new stores and taking on new staff. A real credit crunch success story.

Primark runs on a few basic principles: no advertising, source supply cheaply, make items in the mainstream sizes only, use basic fabrics and patterns, and most importantly buy in bulk. This is why their turnover of stock is so high because it really does just get churned out. In fact their production is so quick I've heard it nicknamed Pri-Marni because of the way they bring out copies of the catwalk designs so quickly. As it all sells so cheaply it is seen as a real budget store, sometimes people refer to them as throw away clothes, as in wear it once and then throw it away which sounds really wasteful to me not that I keep clothes for ages but I think there is a happy medium.

Primark stores vary in size of course but the ones I've been in have been quite big. Departments within the store include womenswear, menswear, footwear, kidswear, footwear, accessories, lingerie, hoisery, household, toiletries, makeup, gifts and sportswear. The smaller stores tend not to carry the home or toiletry ranges. Theres normally at least one till bank which have about eight tills each. The queues here get very long especially if people have baskets full to the brim as many do. However they are normally well-staffed so move at a reasonable speed. I amuse myself in the queue by checking out other peoples' purchases and see if they've found anything good I didn't spot. Sometimes there's a queue for the changing rooms too and again due to the high number of garments people take in this can be a long wait. They can also be quite grubby. The staff definitely vary, some clearly can't be bothered and some are really helpful. Stores are often quite messy too as many of the clothing ranges are displayed on tables which people wreck within a few minutes and it ends up all over the floor. I really have sympathy for the staff who have to keep folding up that jumper over and over.

And so to the clothes. I've only ever bought items from the womens' section. The clothes are pretty standard and everyday, mostly jeans trousers, tracksuits, tops, teeshirts, skirts and dresses. Though there is normally a good choice of colours, the design tends to be pretty basic and you don't get the interesting pieces with unusual patterns and designs that you would in Topshop. As I said pieces tend to fly off the shelves so if you see someting you quite like don't say 'oh i'll think about it' and come back in an hour as there's a good chance it won't still be there. Also be aware the most popular sizes the 10s, 12s and 14s go fast. I often find all there is is size 8 or 16. However Primark deliveries are quite frequent I understand so it'll probably soon come back in. The fit of the clothes vary, sone of the items I have bought have lost their shape after one wash while others are fine. Fabrics are not the softest but that doesn't really bother me. You have to be careful with sizes though as you can vary depending on what you're trying on, even their jeans vary according to the style, though as a general rule I find going one size down from what you are in say Topshop, River Island or Krisp is a good rule of thumb. If you do get the wrong size you can change or refund it at the Customer Service Desks. Some of their items aren't so great like the slightly chavvy velour fuschia tracksuits but a lot of their clothing is great value especially for things like vest tops which you can buy in bulk and wear under other possibly more expensive clothing. In fact I even got a suit from there and was surprised at how nice it was.

Prices start at £1 for things like gloves. A t-shirt will cost you £3, a vest top £2, jeans from £6, party dresses from £10 and so on. An excellent example was their best-selling cashmere cardigan, a fantastic buy at £22 considering one at Brora would set you back about £120. One of their main rivals is perhaps New Look whose prices are markedly lower than most high-street rivals but even they can't beat those rock bottom prices offered by Primark. As an example grey tracksuit bottoms cost £6 at New Look which is cheap and yet there's Primark offering them for £3 (plus the VAT dscount at the till). With these kinds of prices I think people feel 'how can I go wrong?'

Primark, I think, splits people into two camps. There's those who love it (and there are many of them) and those who hate it a-la Marmite. Now if you ask people why they hate it some reasons often given are along the lines of 'it's smelly, it's dirty, the clothes are all over the floor and it's overcrowded'. I was one in the latter camp until not so long ago. My local store can be quite unpleasant and that really put me off. I'd be in there for about a minute and have to leave. But then I visited a different one and it was so much better and from then on seeing what bargains I had been missing out one, I decided to grin and bear it at my local store.

In conclusion, I'd say it has its upsides and downsides. Whilst the store is boosting the economy and providing jobs in the UK it has a bad track history with its foreign workforce and whilst the clothing is cheap and the choice vast, it isn't always a nice place to be. So am I a fan? Yes, a converted one. It's not a great shopping experience but I don't go there for that, I go for the bargains which certainly are plentiful.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, I certainly enjoyed writing it and I had a lot more to say about it than I had anticipated. It's certainly a contreversial little store...

Summary: I think most people will have formed their own opinion on this famous or should I say notorious stor