Cheap But Real Chic

I was in London last month doing the usual bit of shopping on Oxford Street. It is so crowded with tourists all over that the Londeners shudder to shop on that street. But a trip to London is not complete without shopping here. It has some of the choicest and classy stores. And in midst of these stores and jostling crowd what my eyes could not miss were the brown paper shopping bags labelled with "Primark." Rows of shoppers carried these bags full of clothes. After every few metres or so I could see these brown bags hung across both hands of shoppers. I just followed the bag trail without having to ask "where is Primark?"
There I was at Primarks flagship Oxford Street store bustling with shoppers. I had never seen so many people actually buying. The fitting rooms were so crammed that some people tried on clothes in front of the mirrors on the store floor. It seemed the shoppers had seized the store and the salesmen (nowhere to be seen) gone on hiding. The cash counters for payment about a dozen of them on each floor had atleast 30 persons in each row. While I had my eyes on the clothes, I had no guts to que up for the cash payment. Thus I left my shopping basket on the floor in disgust.

The slogan at Primark seems buy it cheap but buy chic. What makes this store different and customers interested is a keen eye for fashion trends. Some even call it Pradamark in honor of its acute fashion sense. The hot styles for clothes,shoes and bags are on the shelves here at a great speed. What you see in the show windows of some great fashion names, shoppers snap up here for as low as 15 pounds or $24. Tank tops for $1.60 is cheaper here than a bottle of mineral water in the kiosks on the streets of London. But a lot of eyebrows are raised about its quality. Our guide in the tourist bus pointed out at the store saying "you can buy very fashionable clothes here but not spend money washing them coz they will not last that long."
That was in a lighter vein. In reality, in these hard times and recession, Primark is bringing high fashion on the street. People dont mind queing up for hours. It pays to keep up appearances.