History --------------- Primark Stores Limited is a retail chain store with over 148 stores within the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Spain. The company's main headquarters are based in the Republic of Ireland where they trade there shops under the name Penneys. The company is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods (ABF) plc and employs over 14,000 people throughout there branches. The first Penneys store was located in Mary Street in Dublin and was opened in 1969 with the first UK store named Primark opening in 1973. Since then they have gone from strength to strength with a further 23 stores due to be opened before March 2007. Primark targets young, fashion-conscious under 35's, offering them fashion at basics prices with value for money. Almost half of sales are in Primark are from there range of womenswear.
My Local Primark. --------------------------------
Very rare are my visits to the City Centre these days, but when I do I always try to build up enough energy to prepare myself for a visit to my local Primark store. They are a great store with a good variety of clothing, which are of good quality and value for money. Some pricing examples are children's trousers £3-£4, Teenage skirts £8-10, women's t-shirts £4-£5 and mens sweatshirts £7-£10. Great Value!!!
My local Primark store is located on Commercial Street in Newport, which is the main street for
all the top high street retailers in Newport. It went through a major refurbishment about twelve months ago and this has made a great improvement to the store. The new front features for the store include a full frontal facelift and new access door to enter through. These doors include new wide opening automatic doors for easy access for the disabled. There is always a good stack of baskets for customers to use at the door entrance but they are set out in a good way without causing an obstruction.
Primark stocks a full range of clothing, nightwear, underwear and shoes for women as well as a good selection of bags and accessories. Menswear has a good selection of men's clothes, nightwear, underwear and socks with the babies and children's section offering the same variety. Primark also stock a limited selection of homeware textiles for there customers. They offer good quality products at great prices and regularly have a reduced rail for clearance clothing.
Prior to the facelift, this store had serious space issues and upon entering, you would know you were in for a fight to the finish just to try to browse around the store. Since its new refurbishment the store has now opened a second floor and made great improvements to the space and display issues. You are greeted with a large central aisle running straight down the store with all the clothing racks and displays shelves evenly spread throughout the sides with plenty of room between them for easy access. The shelving displays are great as it is circular and is set out as follows. There is a circular tear system like on a wedding cake with each tear containing a set size of clothing, size 18-20 are on the bottom tear, size 14-16 on the next tear up, size 10-12 on the next tear and size 8 on the top tear. A well-displayed item of the clothing on the top tops all this. Easy to get to and easy to find the size you want, but most important a vast improvement on the previous system.
The store is always clean in appearance and the floor litter free and clean. There are no longer any stock issues in this Primark either with a well maintained stock level always clearly visible and ample staff in clear view should you require assistance. The store is well lit throughout to ensure there is ample lighting and the large new windows at the front of the store aid this.
The ground floor of my local Primark is set out as follows with the women's clothing taking up two thirds of the ground floor and the men section which is separated by an arch system are in the other third of the ground floor. Downstairs has access to the upper floors via a customer lift, an escalator going up only and a stairwell system to come back downstairs. Ground floor also has six changing rooms for customers to use and barriers off checkout queuing system with five tills for trying to eliminate over long queues.
The second floor of Newport Primark is the area for the entire baby and children's clothing and the area to find the accessories, footwear and homewares that Primark sell. There are another two customer changing rooms on this floor and this is where the customer services department is located as well. The spacing on this floor is a little closer together than on the ground floor but is still always well maintained and fully stocked. The cashier system is the same as the ground floor with four till on a barrier queuing system to help with queuing elimination.
The escalator is well maintained and whenever I go in there always working well and rubbish free and clean, but I have to use the lifts myself. The lift is large enough for three prams or eight customers, it is clean, well lit, well maintained and has a very clean and fresh smell. There are all mirrors in the lift making it look larger than it is to stop you feeling so enclosed and these are always kept clean and smear free.
Now I never venture to the stairwell myself but in the interest of my reviews I took a look from the ground and first floor and my daughter came down the stairs to check them for me. They were clean, well maintained and litter free with all the chrome rails gleaming and the air containing a fresh, clean smell. There is a clear presence of security in the store but on saying that these guards are always helpful, polite, pleasant and well presented.
I have always found the staff in my local Primark very polite, helpful and well presented. They are always happy to help and greet you pleasantly with a smile and for the rare times I have had to go to the customer services they have always been very helpful and done everything to resolve any problems I have had. I must say prior to the facelift that Primark in Newport had, I used to dread the idea of paying it a visit. Yet they have taken a great deal of time and money to resolve this problem and have done a brilliant job with the new look and set out of the store. I give them thumbs up and hope they keep up the good work.
Nov 3rd, 2006
very helpful by (100%):
