I enjoyed a leisurely wander round a big shopping centre with one of my neighbours at the weekend. We had taken a group of teens and pre-teens to the mall and while the girls helped my neighbours daughter spend her birthday money, we decided to have a wander round to kill time before mums taxi had to head home.
Neither of us really needed anything so we were free to pop into any shop which took our fancy without the usual stress of dashing round to find school uniform/shoes/birthday presents/items for tomorrows cookery lesson.
We started by ambling into the Apple store. OK, I admit it - I am a bit of an Apple tart (haha) and enjoy wandering round the store playing with all the lovely techy toys choosing what I would buy if I won the lottery. Everything in there is clean and shiny, all the staff members seemed happy and there was an atmosphere of reverent hushed excitement.
From there my friend and I mooched round the corner and even before I could see it, I could smell Lush. I love that this store takes natural products and turns them into exciting shimmery, smelly, soapy treats. My friend was new to the Lush experience and so we spent a happy half an hour touching, tasting and testing the goodies on offer.
We wandered further and I spotted L'Occitane. I have hand cream from this store. Well, actually I got the hand cream free with a magazine and I liked it so much I bought 3 more copies of that months issue just to get the cream!
Walking in we must have looked convincingly enough like genuine customers to warrant attention and were greeted with a big smile and were offered a champagne glass filled with sparking rose wine to sip as we browsed! Awesome! So we browsed and actually ended up buying more hand cream (OK it was the cheapest thing in the shop). We were asked if we would like to become VIP customers which seemed to just involve filling in a short form. This probably means even more random Asian chaps who say they are called Bob can spam us but we felt it was worth it as the cashier put our tiny tubes of hand cream into tissue paper into beautiful bags then added handfuls of sample sized sachets for good measure!
My neighbour and I were overjoyed. Barely out of sight of the shop we rummaged in our bags to see what freebies we had scored!
We completed our tour of the posh shops with a trip into a coffee and tea emporium where we were refreshed with free fruit tea, then on to a very trendy clothes shop where we regretfully declined the free tea and coffee on offer.
Walking back to where we had arranged to meet the girls we passed the stores I normally frequent. The shop where everything is £1. TK Maxx, the market. It made me wonder how people in there would react if they had the service we had enjoyed during our day of pretending to be posh. Imagine stepping through the doors of the bargain emporiums and being offered a beverage? Imagine having your cheap shampoo carefully wrapped in tissue and them throwing in a free face mask?
But although I enjoyed my taste of the high life I would never give up my bargain hunting, even if I did win the lottery. I love finding that I can buy many of the luxury products I like on the shelves of the bargain stores albeit in last season's packaging or with Arabic writing on it. I love seeing how much I have saved on the labels at TK Maxx. I am the Queen of coupons and always enjoy the thrill of the chase, the hunting down of sale items and discount offers. I proudly bear home my hard-sought bargains and enjoying totting up how much I've saved almost as much as I enjoy shopping in the first place.
But I would love, just once, to be offered a glass of Champagne to sip as I wander round Poundland.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored or review post - it is a pre-loved post from my first days in blogging revived.
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| Apple fruit (Photo credit: @Doug88888) |
We started by ambling into the Apple store. OK, I admit it - I am a bit of an Apple tart (haha) and enjoy wandering round the store playing with all the lovely techy toys choosing what I would buy if I won the lottery. Everything in there is clean and shiny, all the staff members seemed happy and there was an atmosphere of reverent hushed excitement.
From there my friend and I mooched round the corner and even before I could see it, I could smell Lush. I love that this store takes natural products and turns them into exciting shimmery, smelly, soapy treats. My friend was new to the Lush experience and so we spent a happy half an hour touching, tasting and testing the goodies on offer.
We wandered further and I spotted L'Occitane. I have hand cream from this store. Well, actually I got the hand cream free with a magazine and I liked it so much I bought 3 more copies of that months issue just to get the cream!
Walking in we must have looked convincingly enough like genuine customers to warrant attention and were greeted with a big smile and were offered a champagne glass filled with sparking rose wine to sip as we browsed! Awesome! So we browsed and actually ended up buying more hand cream (OK it was the cheapest thing in the shop). We were asked if we would like to become VIP customers which seemed to just involve filling in a short form. This probably means even more random Asian chaps who say they are called Bob can spam us but we felt it was worth it as the cashier put our tiny tubes of hand cream into tissue paper into beautiful bags then added handfuls of sample sized sachets for good measure!
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| L'Occitane en Provence store, Brive la Gaillarde, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
My neighbour and I were overjoyed. Barely out of sight of the shop we rummaged in our bags to see what freebies we had scored!
We completed our tour of the posh shops with a trip into a coffee and tea emporium where we were refreshed with free fruit tea, then on to a very trendy clothes shop where we regretfully declined the free tea and coffee on offer.
Walking back to where we had arranged to meet the girls we passed the stores I normally frequent. The shop where everything is £1. TK Maxx, the market. It made me wonder how people in there would react if they had the service we had enjoyed during our day of pretending to be posh. Imagine stepping through the doors of the bargain emporiums and being offered a beverage? Imagine having your cheap shampoo carefully wrapped in tissue and them throwing in a free face mask?
But I would love, just once, to be offered a glass of Champagne to sip as I wander round Poundland.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored or review post - it is a pre-loved post from my first days in blogging revived.
