Bicester Village, is it knockdown prices like an outlet?

[Eggybreadwithnuts]

Thinking of a visit. So can we

Spend a few hours there or is it 1 hour and you're done?

Grab lunch, what's there?

Prices, are they outlet prices, will we grab some bargains?

yes it’s an outlet, it’s very big! Would allow a few hours and get lunch

It has a number of high end outlet shops so might be cheap for the brand but not cheap compared to regular high street shops.

Where's best to eat

I think Bicester is very expensive. Only very few ‘high street’ luxury brands.
depending on what you’re looking for, have you looked at Gunwharf in Portsmouth? Much cheaper brands.

Check out the website, it will tell you which brands are there and what food places. IIRC it has the biggest Pret A Manger in Europe.

As PP have said, it’s high end brands so although the Mulberry bags are discounted, they’re still Mulberry bags.

Missing the point but how do you pronounce it?

Bister?

Scottish person in me reads it as By-Chester!

You might find a £900 coat for £450. Still way out of my price range.

Bisster. Yep!

Yes Bister I always thought it was Buy-sester 🤣

I live right next door. You can spend a good few hours in there. There’s a few food places too. Everything is cheaper than what it would be but it can still be expensive.

It’s nothing like the McArthur Glen outlets. I didn’t even buy a cup of coffee when I went. It was all really high end stuff.

What are you interested in OP? I go there pretty regularly but I certainly wouldn't say the stuff is cheap.

Food wise to be honest there's nothing great in the village itself.

It's not cheap by any stretch unless you are used to paying loads for clothes and shop at high end stores, it's not McArthur Glen.

Clarks village in Somerset is great

It’s mostly high end. But nice restaurants, you could definitely lose most of a day browsing .

Personally I prefer the McArthur Glen outlet in Swindon as it has a much bigger range but if you're looking for designer items then it is worth spending a couple of hours there. I have had plenty of times I've not bought anything there but have got the odd very good deal at DKNY and Gucci. It gets absolutely heaving busy though so I'd definitely recommend going early. I remember not being able to get a table in Pret last time I went and like a PP said the Pret there is massive.

Pret! It’s quick. All the restaurants are ok though. Look at their web site. Are you going by train or car? It gets really busy at times. I prefer late nights!

Some stores are very popular and you might need to book a slot. Gucci, Dior, Prada etc. I have been going since it opened and there are some good savings. It’s definitely 2 hours if you want a good shop, more if you want to eat. Plus nothing is cheap - they are high end brands mostly. It’s not High St shopping.

There's an Italian restaurant right at the one end that is amazing, we had the best pizzas we've ever eaten. I got £400 off a Mulberry handbag, and also got a £399 Barbour coat for £79 last time I went. It's a very nice place to spend 3 to 4 hours. The Pret is cavernous and great for coffee/snack on arrival. I'd disagree with the high end, there's lots of everyday brands too. Just be warned that the car park/road in is always very traffic heavy - we live about an hour away and no matter what day/time we've been, we've had to queue.Last time I went to a McArthur Glen, we got back in the car after 15 minutes, it was grim.

It depends what you mean by a bargain. If a handbag costing over a thousand is reduced to the high hundreds, is that a bargain to you? If so, fill your boots.

Last time I went, the place was full of people of high net worth appearance who had clearly flown in from Dubai with empty suitcases to fill (yes, you could see the 'DXB-LTN' tags on their suitcases). I'm guessing they'd travelled from Luton to Bicester in limousines and would be back in Dubai by bedtime. 😂

When it first opened there was a wide variety of retailers. Not so much now - it is nearly all high-end designer outlets.

"BISTER"
I grew up in the area and back in the old days of local adverts at the cinema there was one where the voice over said "Bye-ster" and the entire audience would always laugh or shout out "Bye-ster.... where's Bye-ster".
Sigh..... local memories 😂

No, it’s expensive. Very expensive. If you like paying over the odds for ordinary, last season things with a ‘designer’ label on them. I only saw one thing I liked which was a Holland and Cooper mac and it was still £500. Rituals was ok and Benefit. But the only thing we bought was from the Lindt shop on the way out!

In ye olde days you could get samples from Karen Millen - so felt like proper one offs, and Helly Hansen was fab too. Too high end for me now …. Second vote for Swindon

I went once. I was bored out of my mind.

Haven't been for a couple of years, so unless it's changed dramatically in that period, I didn't find it all high end labels.

There's a nice villeroy and boch, haribo, Tommy Hilfiger which has a great reduced kids bit, Timberland, some other kids salon type bit where DD got the best kenzo trousers for a few quid.

There was a Jimmy Choo, I think the Chandra bags were like £450...I think full retail was about £800. They were a bit scruffy though, like 500 people had picked them up and chucked them back down.

There's a fab M&S where I got loads for the kids. Also Tory Burch which seemed to have about 40% off.

Some bits are "designer" most of it wasn't. No, there isn't a Primark, it's stuff that's worth enough to have a decent discount on it - but that doesn't mean everything is Gucci.

The only two things I was tempted by the last time were a cup of coffee; and a seriously cool handbag in the Vivienne Westwood shop. I had a word with myself and just had the coffee.😁