To think swimwear is a basic year round purchase?

[MangosteenSoda]

I forgot DS’s granny had asked to take him swimming and left the house without his swim shorts. Once I remembered, it was easier to buy a cheap pair than dash back home again… or so I thought.

I tried Asda, Matalan and Morrisons with no luck. He ended up with a wetsuit from the middle of Aldi which was excellent value at £4.99 but is probably going to look a bit odd at the pool (he won’t care about that).

Surely swimming is a year round basic activity, especially for children. I’m really surprised I couldn’t find any swimwear.

@Malfi do you live in zone 1? Cos the rest of London has large size supermarkets everywhere.

@Malfi which isn't relevant to the OPs issue but I'm just curious....

I'll add to that 'and not wanting high cut legs, spaghetti straps, low cut front and your arse hanging out, preferably plain black and racer back above a size 10, no fucking fuschia pink, school uniform blue or purple and definitely no big florals'.

I've been trying to find a legsuit or shorts and full length top that actually fits me for a year now.

Yes that's annoying. They also seem to forget that people do go on holiday other times of the year as well

I’m zone 2 border. I’ve just looked at my Sainsbury’s, which I would consider a big supermarket. This is the biggest one near me that I use. It’s described as a superstore on their website. But no clothes at all. But intrigued now, I’ve just discovered that you can buy Sainsbury’s clothes via their Argos counter -but you’d have to order them and get them delivered to the shop.

They don’t have uniform either except at the start of term, I find. Like children don’t grow or get holes in stuff.

Looking for a year...but not really looking very hard. You can be a shorts style swimsuit in any sports direct, I got one last week. In the first place I tried.

buy not be

Nope. It's not available in my size online and has not been in the store in my town at all.

It’s a store space issue - if it sold well they’d stock it. They focus on items people buy more often - I imagine most people buy swimwear for a child once a year, if that, and mostly in spring/summer. It’s definitely seasonal.

If you want stuff out of season it’s readily available online or in actual sports shops. Expecting it at a supermarket is like expecting to be able to walk into Tesco and pick up some garden furniture and picnic stuff in October.

www.sportsdirect.com/slazenger-boyleg-swimsuit-ladies-354743#colcode=35474303

Every size available from 6 to 22. That just took me 3 seconds to find. It's even in two different colours.

That is an occasion for leisure center Speedos! You pay over the odds for your forgetfulness 🤣 I had to buy myself a towel and my nephew goggles once as I forgot them both. Think it was about £18 😫

@NeverDropYourMooncup they have them on Amazon

I feel this way about sunglasses too. It can be cold but bright and sunny. Could I find a pair in town for DC this weekend? Apparently no room for sunglasses in autumn stock.

I couldn't even get any in Primark the other day! It's huge, can't they have a small swimwear section?

Why are people so confused by this? Primark, and the other places, know what sells. Swimwear sells at a certain time of the year, and not at other times. They don't keep stock in for your convenience, but for their business needs. If swimwear sold in October, Primark would sell it!

Just go to a sports shop, of which there are many, nearly all of them selling swimsuits. It's not like its hard to buy a swimsuit year round.

This isn't difficult. Sportswear is found in sports shops. In other shops, swimwear is a seasonable item. This is not new.

Won't help you now OP, but might help other people - Amazon. Yes, I know, but needs must and the devil drives and all that.

I decided I needed new swimwear because I was too fat for my old ones about 3 days before we went on holiday a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't face trawling the shops to pick through the sale dregs, so I went on Amazon and ordered a range of bits in different sizes and brands, figuring that at least one of the 6 I'd ordered might fit, which one (just one!) did. I also found another that would have fit in a different size, so might go back for that one as it was really nice.

Tips/necessary disclaimers.

Read the reviews on sizing. The random Chinese? brands are all over the place. I found 2XLs that were too small and seemingly similar ones where a size L was too big. But the quality was fine, certainly at least as good as supermarket stuff. But they were cheap enough (about £20-25 for a tankini, which seems cheap to me when I'm used to paying ££££s for Fantasie bikinis but refuse to while I'm 20 pounds heavier than I'd like to be but am not doing anything constructive about it).

If you don't have Prime, they'll likely offer you it for free or very cheap for somewhere between a week and a month.

Yes I know not everyone can afford to order armfuls of bikinis to try on, but this is why people have credit cards. You order a few and return what you don't want, which will get refunded before you have to pay the bill. Plus there's also Klarna etc if you must, but I don't know if Amazon have Klarna.

Alternatively, try Decathlon or Sports Direct which should have affordable swimwear year round.

@CallTheMobWife but it ISN'T seasonal is it? We mostly swim in indoor pools, all year round. Primarks etc are generally huge, and full of identical piles of crappy T shirts - can they really not find one plinth for a small range of swimwear?

I'd hope you would avoid Primark, I'd be concerned if they did swimwear of a wardrobe malfunction.

High street retailers have been hit by the unfair business rates when compared with online warehouse retailers, and are on small margins unless food retailing I'd expect in many cases. So low stock or little of stock that might be a 'just in case' option I can understand why they might not carry them.

Acknowledging that like me, you'd prefer to shop locally not online.

Nothing wrong with Primark clothes I've got Primark clothes that have lasted years. I'm assuming you don't actually shop there.

So they are - at last! Thank you so much for posting this, they were still out of stock on payday (hence my ranting, I've been checking there and Amazon 2-3 times a month for the past year), but I've ordered one now.

It IS seasonal, for the majority of people. The vast majority of adults (and in fact kids) do not swim at all, anywhere. They buy swimwear for holidays.

Primark know exactlyh what they are doing,you can guarantee if the market was there for year round swimwear, they would stock it. It isn't. For the minority of people who do buy swimwear year round, it's incredibly easy to find it elsewhere.

I have never ever had a problem buying swim gear at any time of year, in a shop that would acrtually be expected to sell it.