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Shoppers brave the rain queueing in Mandela Street at the French Connection sale on Friday |
Bargain hunters brave the cold economic climate
Shoppers queue for hours to snap up discount clothes from fashion warehouse
IN a Camden Town back street, under grey skies and a chilly economic climate, they queued in their hundreds.
Many were missing jobs and appointments to be there. Others had woken early to wait in the rain and cold for a pole position. Some had not shopped in days, even weeks.
The French Connection Sample Sale began on Friday morning as it meant to go on all weekend – with lines of shoppers snaking the length of Mandela Street.
“I’m dying to go shopping” muttered one woman.
“Don’t grab,” her friend reminded.
With the economic downturn starting to bite, unprecedented crowds gathered outside the fashion store’s Camden warehouse in search of a bargain buy.
Security guards kept the peace, controlling the human traffic with bag checks, single-file lines and staggered entry.
“The last time I came here there wasn’t a queue,” complained an office clerk from Oxford Street who had told her bosses she was sick that morning.
“But it’s bound to get more popular as people are feeling the pinch,” she added.
One bouncer, who boasted he had seen his share of sales scrums, said riots and fights between shoppers were not uncommon at the event, where some of the items were reduced by up to 90 per cent of the normal retail price.
“Wait until Sunday,” he said.“That’s when the tussling starts, when people get worried the stock is running out.”
With a recession looming, Northern Rock-style queues and warehouse sales may soon become a familiar sight as shoppers shun costly High Street options in favour of discounted off-cuts, samples, and last season’s fashions.
Veterinary students Becky Lynch and Annalese Jones, both 18, were missing an ethics lecture for the chance to bag a cheap winter coat.
Another woman, who did not wish to be named, said: “Why go to the High Street? It’s lots more fun rummaging around in boxes. You can really find a bargain.
“You see some people just buying everything. You can buy a year’s clothes here and they’re quite good quality.”
French Connection, like its customers, is also feeling the pinch.
In October the retailer reported a widening of losses, up to £3.5million over the past six months from £2.5m in the previous six months.The company described its half-year performance as “disappointing”, the latest in a string of gloomy announcements from the high street.
Last week the Camden entrepreneur Bill Hubbard declared his two furniture showrooms in Gray’s Inn Road had gone into voluntary liquidation after 42 years. |
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