Rubbish Shopping Experience Rant

[DublinDoris2000]

Hi all, I just wanted to rant a little about my shopping experience yesterday, in Dublin's fanciest shopping centre.
I have a corporate job and now we're back in the office I need some smart shoes, blazers etc. I would have dropped a fair bit of cash if I could have bought things to buy! I went early on a Saturday morning expecting the shops to be well stocked.

M&S: hundreds of viscose dresses that shrink in the wash, and are honestly too cold for 90% of the year
Zara: lots of nice blazers, none of which had stock left in a M or L
Massimo Dutti: no M or Ls
Clarkes: Ignored by staff
Office: Ignored by staff
Brown Thomas (fancy department store): don't do suits, no medium or large sizes on the rack
H&M: lots of stock but really inconsistent sizing and had to wander round the store to find somewhere to pay.
Next: Blimey, the quality has declined.
Hobbs: good service and helpful staff bought a lovely jacket.

I'm tall and not a standard size so need to try things on. Shopping is so frustrating!

Where are you go-tos for smart clothes?

I agree, it feels like the shops are giving up to the fact that you can order online but I really like to see fabrics and fit

I think I know the place you’re referring to. House of Fraser is a huge loss there.

Louis Copeland do a bespoke service and will make suits for women as well as men but that might be out of your price range.

The fabrics and quality are trash at the moment but I think it’s an understandable effect of the lockdowns, shipping crisis etc.

in the places that you find nice things in smaller sizes, could you order online, or ask them to source it from another store for you?

Wouldn't it be better if the stores managed their stock, so I didn't have to wait a week to find out a large doesn't fit either?
If physical stores want to bounce back from lockdown they need to provide better service than online.

I buy from Jigsaw but always online as shops are disappearing and limited sizes in dept stores and their own shops which are dwindling.

Dundrum. Yes it’s terrible now.

Brown Thomas (fancy department store): don't do suits, no medium or large sizes on the rack

i haven’t been in since the week or two after it opened, but when I went it was like a sample sale- just racks of one of each garment, all size 8s. Oh and no prices either. I saw one woman at the till with a jumper saying “700? 7 hundred euro?” to an embarrassed staff member who was muttering “Yes.. sorry”.

Even apart from BT, there’s nothing of note in there now.

Yes it is pretty miserable out there. The retailers are in a catch 22, where the less they have, the more people buy online. It’s almost like they are competing with themselves.

I also like to see clothes in the flesh. You can so quickly rule something out by touching it and holding it up against you. I don’t want to have to order and wait and return, I want a day shopping.

I live in London, quite centrally, so have for example about 12 Next stores in reasonable reach. When I check the store checker thing, it often says an item (Next own brand) is not available in any store near me, would I like to order. So often that is what a shopping trip consists of for me, ordering loads of stuff to various shops so I can just return it on the spot.

Overall I think retailers would be better off reducing their lines, there’s just so much on a site like Next and of course it can’t all be stocked in a shop.

I saw a jumper online in John Lewis (own brand) and they said it was in stock so I went to look at it. I could rule it out in five seconds. The colour was not as it appeared online and the fabric felt poor. If I hadn’t been able to do that it would have been a total waste of time for them and me ordering.

Given the reliance in online sales these days I am always mystified by the lack of product information to help you judge, eg length and basic dimensions. Why are we supposed to act like detectives? You get more info on eBay. Again maybe if they reduced their lines, more time could be spent on product information.

I also think that the retailers are not stocking that much smarter tailoring or corporate wear anyway, as there’s less demand with home working or hybrid. That combined with all the other factors others have said have made me give up physical shopping apart from using it to do rough size checks by trying on what they do have so I can hope for a better fit when I order online.

@DublinDoris2000
Did you go over to Harvey Nicks ?
It mystifies me how they are still there- or are they ? I haven't been to Dundrum for a while.

What my ex-au pair does is order stuff online to be collected from the shop (at the same shopping centre as you). He's really, really tall so they generally don't have his size in stock. He goes into the shop to collect it, tries it on in the shop and immediately returns anything that doesn't fit. I think it's genius.

@LadyEloise10 Harvey Nicks is a bit like the BT. Lots of fashiony, expensive concessions with nothing but size 8/10 o the rack.

I'm mystified by Harvey Nicks Edinburgh.

No advice I'm afraid but I agree with you. The staff in shops don't care about the customers, the quality of the clothing is shocking, and it is all blamed on Covid 😡

Normally I would agree with you (still would if we are talking about dresses). I am a size 20 and it really boils my piss that a store will have a few size 8, loads of 12 and 14, one 16 and if you are lucky one 18 and one 20.

I went to Sainsburys yesterday to buy some tops. no 18 or 20 it missed them out and then went to 24!!! in every single top! However, Westfield (White CIty) had loads of tops (t shirts) in the M&S in size 20 - even though again only one on the shelf in everything! So at least I have several tops now!

You've pretty much summed up my go to. Hobbs. I buy them when they have a sale. They wash well and last ages. Unless the moths get to them!

I was in Cardiff yesterday - everything looked like rags in a jumble sale, especially H&M. Has no one ever heard of a clothes steamer in these places? Back when I was a youngster and working in a shop, we had to get the crinkles out of stock before putting it on the shop floor!
You would think that post covid businesses might be wanting people to spend money. Dd was looking for a pair of trousers - there were millions of size 6 and nothing else in the ones she wanted. Everything is tatty and nasty fabrics, but they still want plenty of money for it!
Ive given up and am sticking to Primark and Tu, with occasional forays into M&S.

I have bought many things from Hobbs over the years- less so in the last decade, but still the odd piece. The assistants, without exception, have all been lovely and helpful.

Hobbs clothes last for ages- both in terms of quality and not going out of style. I have Hobbs shoes, which as they were never high fashion in the first place are still nice, neat, elegant patent courts years after being purchased. I've got a dark raspberry silk brocade jacket that looks like something Louis XIV or Charles II might have worn and is at least 25 years old. It's still beautiful (although no longer fits)

Try shopping in person for maternity clothes. It's impossible apart from about 10 items in H&M. I remember as a teenager many shops and department stores sections such as petite, tall, maternity. Not any more. The local giant retail park Next is massive but yet not 1 rack of maternity. Such a waste of time and effort ordering, returning, ordering again.