I thought I loved shopping until I went to Hollister

[Drywhiteplease]

I can clothes shop till I drop, but this evening I nearly had a teenaged melt down in Hellisterhollister where I took my teenagers after a similarly traumatic experience in Abercrombie and fuckwit Fitch, for a treat whilst on holidaying US.
It's horrendous and I thought I was going to cry;

Crap lighting ( longsighted so couldn't read any prices or judge colours)
Crap sales staff
One cashier so huge queue
Avarage quality, no better than Gap at hugely inflated prices
Annoying music
The stuff my kids liked on the mannequins was not available in store and could no way be removed from the dummy.

I calmed down after a splurge in Mac and half a bottle of Pinot Grigio and a peanut butter cheesecake ( damn!!)

Rant over, anyone else feel same about other stores?

[FactOfTheMatter]

If you really want to annoy Hollister staff, then go in with a huge buggy, preferably with loads of bags hanging off it.

[Designjunkie]

For ages I thought the Hollister branch in Brent X was a restaurant. Lol. From the outside all you can see is chandeliers and darkness. My idea of hell is H&M kids, the clothes are jammed onto rails, half of them are on the floor, you can never find an assistant and the queues are so long. Perversely I also hate over attentiveness from assistants. Selfridges and other high end shops are guilty of this. Offering to show you what that skirt will go with, other ranges. I just like to browse dammit!

[freddiefrog]

Designjunkie. Same here! I spent ages looking for the one in Southampton before I realised that the 'restaurant' I'd walked past a dozen times was in fact Hollister

[Iseeall]

Never go in there, send your teen in alone and wait for the text to say you can go in and pay.
You(an adult) will never be able to see the price
never be able to hear
never know the music playing
will never fit in the clothes
will never understand the fascination with the shop

Dorothy Perkins and Chelsea girl were never like this in my teens!

[FunnyLittleFrog]

This strange dark nightclub thing is a clever ploy to prevent oldies from straying in inadvertently

[Hulababy]

Visited A&F in London today. Was a little brighter than Hollister I found but much louder music and the perfume was stronger. No sign outside to even at what the shop was! Just saw a doorway with music playing ad lots of young people going in and out. There was indeed a semi dressed young male in the doorway where there was a queue for photos with him. Dd not yet reached the age to want that. We did get fleeced for a jumper for dd; she was cold - presumably as had ventured out for Sheffield for our London day trip in a little t shirt and the cotton jacket! Good planning it would seem, especially as we had dh with us who falls for it more!

[Doilooklikeatourist]

Went into Hollister with DS ( 18 today ! So an adult now )
He gets his iPhone out and tunes on the flashlight app !
Hahahahahahaha !

[Doilooklikeatourist]

TURNS ON .
Grrrrr

[Fedupnagging]

Chelsea Girl-there's a blast from the past- I loved that shop!

Hollister- looks like a brothel from the outside and is dark inside so you can't see the terrible quality of the clothes nor the outrageous price tag for a tiny piece of clothing!

Sports Direct is also a nightmare. The last time I went in with ds3, they would only bring out 1 trainer/football boot at a time, not a pair, just the one boot . Obviously, I had something to say about this (quite a lot actually) much to ds's mortification who really doesn't see the necessity of trying both the left and right foot at the same time!

Don't even get me started on shops where there are no staff to be seen for love nor money or shops where the staff have no idea about any of the products they are selling.......

And breathe!

[Drywhiteplease]

My God I used to love Chelsea Girl......and Saxone,Freeman Hardy Willis, ..........Dolcis

[Drywhiteplease]

Richard Shop was a bit granny but where did it go?
They all had lights on!

[thornrose]

Richard Shops, what a blast from the past.
Remember Etam?

[Drywhiteplease]

Bought my first bra in Etam.....think it still exists in France.

[thornrose]

My 13 yo hasn't yet learned of the delights of Hollister, she is also short sighted so I can rush her past our local one, for now........

[Hulababy]

I have to say that the clothes from Hollister ado all wear and wash very well.

[Fedupnagging]

I used to get smart work clothes from Richard shops . Saxone for shoes but if I was splashing out, I'd go to Sasha - are they still about?

[Manchesterhistorygirl]

Oh god I hate sports direct. Ds1 needed new shoes and I offers to buy him some nice ones from Vans, well laid out shop, nice staff but o he doesn't want those because they're not the right ones! So we had to go to sports direct.

We found him some shoes but I sneezed the whole way round,
Ad declared loudly I was obviously allergic to the hellhole and then complaind when he couldn't wear his new shoes and just take the box to the counter and then had to queue up with the other billion people in there and wait for the checkout assistant to find our box amongst the other billions of boxes shoved behind the counter! I rather got the rage I'm afraid! Shoe shopping for ds1 is a menace because he's an H fitting.

[HarrietSchulenberg]

Ds3 once spent a very half hour rearranging all, and I mean ALL, the shoes in Sports Direct so the £150 football boots were on the shekf labelled £15. Didn't twig what he was doing till too late as I was trying to find something that fitted Dses1&2. Under normal circumstances I would have helped him put everything back in the right place but the shop assistants had been so inattentive to us, prefering to chat each other up, that I left them with the pleasure of sorting them all out.

[HarrietSchulenberg]

"very HAPPY half hour".

[Fedupnagging]

I tend to view Sports Direct as a necessary evil - all the branded sports stuff is so cheap. Am not at all keen on paying the full price for Nike gear if all its doing is getting muddy, wet, ripped on a football or rugby pitch!

Am looking forward to a visit to John Lewis this week - a much more civilised shopping experience!

[Fluffycloudland77]

I genuinely thought Hollister in Touchwood was a bar/restaurant. No signage or proper window display.