The very idea that Primark has a special smell is utterly ridiculous
A perfect example, then, of truth being stranger than fiction.
Primark has such a strong burnt plastic smell that I frankly don't believe all these people who claim to be human sniffer dogs and yet can't detect it. Other places have a similar smell, but in Primark it's overpowering.
HoneyDragon explained why this is so - Primark stores are large, pile the stock high and don't use air freshener the way most other places do. Stands perfectly to reason, then, that it smells the way other shops would do if they had the same practice.
Sincerely, I do not know why so many people found this offensive. First of all, because Primark so clearly and truly DOES have this burnt plastic smell. Nobody could fail to notice it, although they might not find it off-putting. Secondly, because it's clearly a synthetic smell - it's not farts or BO - so I don't know why anyone would be implying that I think it's people.
Except that, I guess, they've made the connection between budget shoppers and a synthetic smell themselves. And rather than own that thought process and take a look at themselves, they'd rather project it onto someone who never implied anything of the sort.
Uglier than last season's hemlines, if you ask me.