Green eyed monster after being in Harrods

[Moneyjealousy]

Lighthearted (I think?!)

But this weekend I've been in London with adult DD's and we somehow ended up in Harrods champagne bar where we treated ourselves to a couple of cocktails before heading back to the nearest Wetherspoons type bar 😁

I have to say in advance that I am very lucky, I have a lovely dh, great dc all our bills are paid and even though we aren't living the high life I don't have to worry about food or heating the house.

After getting off the tube at Harrods though........OMG! Where does all the money come from?! The big houses and fancy cars outside the shop then once you get in the huge selection of jewellery/bags/clothes etc that I could never dream of affording.

Who are the people that shop there? Where do they get the money for it? How can you ever afford to buy a house and drive a Porsche across the road from Harrods?

I'm back home now in my northern house that I could never afford if it was moved 300 miles south but still have a feeling of not believing how the other half must live.

Can you afford a shopping trip at Harrods? Do you look down on people like me who pop in for a cocktail and post it on Facebook to remember it by 🤣

I'm not even really jealous I don't think it's just coming from where I do seeing such a big difference in others life styles is a bit of a culture shock.

This is what I was going to say. It’s not where your average Londoner shops or has drinks! And it’s a tiny minority. Likely a lot of oil based wealth sadly. And I can’t think of anything worse, being that rich doesn’t make your happy

Like everyone else says its the top 1/2%. Tiny minority of people. I don't envy people who can spend £1,000 on a bauble...I do envy people who are retired, no mortgage, enough money to travel, happily married and were smart enough not to get a dog! That's my green eye monster.

I like Harrods. The building is great, and wandering round the furniture displays seeing all the truly hideous bling which I could perhaps afford if I cleaned out a lifetimes savings but wouldn't want even if it was free is strangely reassuring. Money can buy you a lot of things but it can't buy taste.

When DS was young and loved supercars we used to go to Knightsbridge once a year in time to see the annual migration of extraordinarily wealthy young men from the Gulf who'd all come to London and drive their supercars in a loop round Harrods showing off. The money used to buy the cars was presumably deeply morally compromised but it gave DS innocent pleasure.

For actual high end shopping wealthy (and normally well-off) Londoners use Selfridges and Harvey Nicks. I love Liberty's but actually shop at John Lewis.

It’s targeted at the international rich- Russians and Arabs- and at tourists.

Liberty is much nicer, you can still gawp at designer stuff but it also has beautiful fabrics and haberdashery, a more beautiful building and things you might want and can afford that don’t have HARRODS printed on them.

I can’t think of anything less interesting than a splurge in Harrods. I think it’s horrible these days and big name designers such as Balenciaga make me feel ill. The whole thing is just so cynical with almost no focus on quality, beauty and timelessness.

I do like a wander around Liberty and Fortnums but overall give me a small jewel box of a shop where things are chosen with love and care any day. Or a dog walk.

We went as tourists had tea and cake, and a mooch round, some departments don't have prices on and we were asked if we were lost In the electrical department 😃
we were in the lift with an oldercouple who were only going for the ham he liked and why couldn't he just have waitrose ham! it is such a surreal place

I went there when I visited Britain in 1989. Back then I thought it was overpriced and mostly uninspiring - no better than Myer Melbourne (which is now also vastly overpriced and very dreary). I did get a little cat jack-in-the-box Christmas tree ornament, but that was it.

The last time I went to Harrods was for my sister's 18th birthday (14 years ago). We went to go to the Chocolate bar. Great range of hot chocolates and chocolate desserts. When I lived with my parents, our house was nearest to the Piccadilly line so it pretty simple.
I've taken a look at the Harrods website after reading the other messages, and honestly I am glad I never went back. I don't think I'd enjoy it. All that focus on designers (The Prada cafe 🙄)

I absolutely hate Harrods, OP!

I think it's vulgar and very 'nouveau riche' - sorry if that's snobbish. I think it's ridiculous and pathetic that they have (or used to have) people on the doors to judge your appearance and decide whether or not to allow you through the hallowed portals of conspicious consumerism. Plus I can't stand Mohammed Fayed (I know he sold it and is now no longer with us, but he was a nasty man).

Fenwicks is my favourite London store. Much less ostentatious, low-key, smaller and with a nice Carluccio's in the basement.

My Dbro is best mates with a couple who he met whilst living in London and is best mates with the female of the couple. They now live on an Island in the Med and fly him over to their place on private jets. They recently got married on the Island and hired out a swanky hotel for the weekend - the bill was over 1.5 million. They have an apartment in Knightsbridge that is just a stop over place for them when they visit and also a mews house near Harrods that Dbro stayed in for a while, he said it was a soulless place to live. The best though is that she sees my bro as a style guru and takes him shopping. When it was the wedding she flew with her personal stylist over to London and had private appointments in the top designer shops. Apparently they have rooms where the staff bring out champagne and the client tries all the couture stuff on with a seamstress there to do all the altering. She also flies on her jet every month to London just to have her hair done. The villa they live in is out of this world and yet my bro says they are both very down to earth people - the husband is the rich one with his own business. My bro is not rich at all we are from a working class family but they love him.

I merely look at the photos Dbro shows me and it makes me feels quite queasy at the level of money spent, my 69 year old Mother still works full time for minimum wage. The budget for the designer wedding trip alone was half a mil. It is another level of wealth that I have never witnessed before.

Conspicuous, not conspicious!!!

I think my favourite was the food hall and the caviar bar not that I bought anything it was totally how the other other half live !

My sons orthodontics is on that road.
That place is a dump.
Just rich arabs driving around. Beggers everywhere. Pollution and rubbish all over the floor.

I’m the same as u !! I have felt very out of place in posh settings or expensive hotels !!
And if I had a ton of money I’d join forces with u and get a free food truck and give out free food !! How can anybody not help others in need when they have soooo much wealth x

Do tell us more about the chocolate bar. What is it like? Sounds awesome.

Maybe encourage your DDs into the city💍

Haha or don’t if you want them to actually see their husband and not worry about their lack of work/life balance and health! I wish I added that to my original post too, actually…

It's a theme park for rich tourists and oligarchs.

Best avoided.

My dd had a thing for peppers and we bought a bell pepper in the food hall in Harrods, dreaming it would be the best thing ever. She threw it up half way down Bayswater road and declared that it was definitely not as good as Lidl's.

Twenty or more years ago Harrods used to be a high end department store where you could go to their home department and buy a washing machine or a vacuum cleaner. The difference from JL was they didn't stock cheaper brands - you had to have a Samsung or a Miele. They stocked every vaguely posh brand there so you didn’t have to trek all over London and the customer service was amazing. We ended up there one Sunday looking at beds because the bed shop was shut. We were very scruffily dressed and I was mortified but the staff were fantastic and we ended up buying from there. They volunteered that the sale was starting in a week and gave us the 40% off we’d have got if we bought it then.

It’s had a massive refurb and isn’t really a department store in the traditional sense any more. They do still sell furniture/china but it’s mostly designer bags, clothes, vastly expensive jewellery and then makeup and perfume. Except for the food hall it’s no different from Selfridges - they both stock the same designer brands. It’s still useful to a degree because you can buy a Mac lipstick for the same price as anywhere else. And I go there for a manicure because the prices are the same as anywhere in West London.

We go once a year, late afternoon pre-Xmas, to see the lights & decorations.
100% agree with others who prefer Liberty, and also Fortnum & M, including the perfume section upstairs.

Having cocktails there is fine. Posting it on FB is a bit Yikes...

We love to take trips to London as a family at Christmas. I have to say that I really dislike Harrods, I find it to be really tacky. I love Fortnum and Mason at Christmas time, it just seems much more welcoming and has a vintage/classic feel to it.

Just a different perspective. My mother (Russian) shopped at Harrods and would happily drop thousands of dollars on a handbag or bracelet each week/day. She would buy me designer clothes while growing up and if they weren’t pristine after wearing, she’d just chuck them away and buy more.

She was deeply unhappy, vapid and used to spend vast amounts of money to fill a void. Never worked and was highly critical of herself and everyone.

She taught me the best lesson in life: you cannot buy happiness. So I have spent my life experiencing as much as I can. I actually own very little. She’d be disappointed in me right now; I’m living in a caravan travelling Australia, and I intend to for the next few years. So enjoy your life OP x

I worked very close to Harrods in late eighties/early nineties.

It was far nicer then but still aspirational.

The thing I remember above all else is the freshly squeezed orange juice. I have honestly never tasted any juice as good before or since.

I used to live in Singapore and see very rich people like that. I think I kind of viewed it like a zoo! It was interesting to see who was shopping on orchard road but I’d be in the markets.

I think if anyone was jealous I’d think of it as a choice not to shop there. For example instead of our fortnight holiday I could have bought a very expensive bag. But to me that’s ridiculous- so I’ve chosen not to buy the bag rather than “can’t afford it”

also, a bags a bag. There are also cheaper versions of things, everything funnels down to people like me in the end! Its like the devil wears prada speech where they talk about the blue jumper

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