Reply With Quoteif you are an AMEX customer you can get another £100 off (or rather 10% of any purchase upto £100 credit).Originally Posted by joe narvey
I had to visit the final resting place of the parka coats from the 70s, the home of gold flip flops and some very familiar belstaff and barbour coats.
Anyway..
Watchfinder seem to have a place there now with overpriced watches. They seem to be participating in a 10% off promo but prices are shown on an iPad so could be changed easily so not sure any real discounts.
Breitling still have a shop and they have some familiar popular models, including this tinker:
The discounting seems consistent across the models they have.
if you are an AMEX customer you can get another £100 off (or rather 10% of any purchase upto £100 credit).
I actually went to buy some Villeroy and Boch crockery.
The label was approx 25% discount, signed up for V&B mailing list another 10% off, Bicester mailing list another 10%, cost was over £500 so another 10% off and paid with Amex cash back card.
Helped take the pain out of spending over £500 on plates when we have some perfectly serviceable white ones.
I think at over £500 this must be how the trend to serve things one roofing slate, shovel or a plank of wood must have started.
Funnily enough I was there yesterday too. The Watchfinder shop is fairly recent but seems to be the place where they send their less desirable stock. Much like the Breitling shop.
It's years since I've been to Bicester Village but used to go a lot when the old fella lived in Long Crendon. I have to say though, that Breitling is awesome!
Not sure how BV survives now that tax free shopping has been scrapped. It was never bargain central, but more of lasts season’s stock in irregular sizes flogged to tourists making the pilgrimage from London.
A lot of the clothing at these places is specifically manufactured to be sold at outlet, rather than clearing out old stock etc.
Often indicated in the bar code on the tag
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The fact that the sign posts at Bicester Village station are dual language gives a good clue at their anticipated clientele.
What's the other language?
I am guessing Chinese Mandarin as before Covid Bicester Village was the top destination for them. Coach loads by the dozen on a daily basis.
Strange isn’t it. You spend 10 hour on a plane and cross 8 time zones, and your priority is to shop at a discount mall type place in the middle of nowhere.
They paid a lot of money towards refurbing one of the two train stations in Bicester, which was renamed Bicester Village (from Bicester Town), with signage and announcements in Mandarin and Arabic as well as English on the lines out from London. It attracts a lot of tourist trade, and I believe made the list of the top 10 tourist destinations in the UK at one point a few years ago. I live about 10 miles away, when I first moved to the area about 20 years ago it was an outlet place, and actually a good spot to pick up a decent suit or some outdoors gear, but it moved very heavily towards the designer market (and the tourist trade) years ago now and they make a significant amount of money doing so.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Yep, the US owner Value Retail heavily promotes the place in China I believe.
The attraction was being able to claim back VAT. I know that from experience of managing client delegation who insisted a visit be a formal part of the program, and they also scheduled in time to reclaim the VAT. They did say with VAT it wasn’t worth their while. And some spent thousands on désigner clothes. The next day it looked like they got dressed in the darks such was the mush mash of colours and design. No accounting for taste I guess. Or the mass fascination with Tissot.
hi, any picks?
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
With the growing weakness in the pound since 2008 against the dollar and yuan, I'm surprised that VAT-free shopping is such a decisive thing...I would have thought the UK was a competitive place to shop for tourists anyway. I was surprised when they were having that argument about VAT free shopping after it was removed in 2021 and the talk of subsequent reinstatement. For the government to reconsider, I guess someone must have done the maths though on sales volumes verses loss in tax.
Coming soon to a SC near you !
VAT or not it’s still cheaper to buy than in their home countries. A quick scan through Zara for example when I was in Dubai & India a few years ago made me realise they pay almost twice as much as in the UK (which is already 1.5x higher than in Spain).
I was there last year and on a whim visited the Montblanc store. On another whim I asked if they had a Heritage 1912 pen and amazed to be offered 2 - 1 badly worn and 1 pristine. One and only time I have dropped very, very lucky there.
I didn’t go in. I don’t need anything and I have mastered the knack of buying jackets that are my size, so afraid I can’t help.
Last edited by joe narvey; 17th April 2023 at 21:53.
Outlet malls are trading pretty well in general, even with reduced tourist/VAT benefits.
Don't suppose these had any super oceans in did they
what was the breitling store like? a company i work for are doing a stone island store there soon so may pop in. any super ocean heritages in there?
Went a few weeks back and the choice was terrible
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