Primark (Shop) > Reviews (182)

There is only one shop in the world that lures me in as soon as I see the sign, or indeed makes me run round looking for it as soon as I see someone with a bag and that's Primark. As soon as I enter through the door I am filled with a sense of happiness combined with a sort of annoyance, I guess you could sort of say I have a bit of a love hater relationship with Primark, and this is why:

I LOVE Primark!:
Primark is the one shop in the world where I can not feel guilty about buying myself a new pair of jeans. Where I can buy myself a top for £3 and not have to be embarrassed about the bag it comes in. It's not a shop filled with older people or people who clearly have no money, it's a place where people can get the most recent trends for bargain prices. One day I was out shopping in Sheffield and I passed Top Shop, now I'm not really a big fan but I had a £20 voucher to spend in there so in I went, like I say I'm not really a big fan and find that not much in there is really my style, so I picked up 4 tops of the same style, they were in the sale for £5 each but should have been £15. I knew I liked the style because I'd already bought myself one very similar from Primark a couple of months before, for £4 - full price. The best thing was that when I got home and tried on my new buys, I also mixed in my Primark top and my friend actually commented that he liked that one more!
I think what I'm trying to say is that shopping in Primark is almost guilt free, you know that you will get something good for a fraction of the price you would pay elsewhere, and they do keep up with all the latest fashions.
I especially love Primark when holiday time comes around, you can pick up shorts, t-shirts, strappy tops, sunglasses, towels, bikini's, swim dresses or wrap arounds! You can actually just go in there, spend about £50 and come out with a new summer wardrobe! And what's more you know it will be stylish!

I HATE Primark!:
The minute I walk in all I want to do is get back out again, it's claustrophobic especially on a weekend when you can't move for people barging around getting in front of you, grabbing the clothes that you are looking at. Shouting at each other, trying to push prams through the store when it's cramped enough as it is and generally just barging around making a lot of noise and a mess. Now being quite a timid person, this is my living nightmare as it means I'm constantly going round saying "oh sorry," "excuse me", "oops, sorry didn't see you there" (pushing your pram into my ankles and reaching round me to grab clothes when I can't get out because theres a crowd of 10 people trying to get hold of the same top). It's almost like when people go in there something comes over them, they turn from sensible friendly shoppers going about their daily shopping, to manic women crazily grabbing, pushing, knocking over and throwing things on the floor. Which leads me to the next point; the mess!
The mess, oh the mess! Now don't get me wrong, I have two friends who used to work in Primark and both of them have mentioned to me just how difficult it is to keep things under wraps, especially the shoes!

And I can see that this is true from the state of the shoe section in just about every shop I've ever been into. There's something about Primark that makes people think, try the shoes on and then throw them on the floor! May I say I haven't very often witnessed people doing this in shops like Clarkes or even stores like Marks and Spencers, no it just seems to be poor Primark. I suppose you could argue that while 3 + staff manage a small Clarkes store, one staff member is left to look after the whole shoe section alone in Primark, which is about the size of a small shoe shop. And I do understand that it must be the most annoying of jobs to have to stack shoes, only for them to be dumped on the floor again, it would drive me mad.
Speaking of being driven mad, let's talk about the queues. No matter what time of day or night you go, what section you attempt to pay in (yes I have traveled up three escalators to attempt to pay for my skirt in the home section) there is always a massive queue. Normally there are lots of tills, 6 + is about normal, however they never seem to be all on. On an average day you can expect to be in the queue behind 5+ people, which isn't a lot if they're all paying for 1or 2 items each, but when you get Mr and Mrs we've bought everything in the shop and 4+ items don't have tags on them things just get annoying. There have been occasions before where I have put my shopping bag down and left because I've been waiting so long, I've got Mrs shout to your friend in front of me, Mrs Pram behind me and the queuing system which normally is in an S shape does make you feel extra claustrophobic.

Weighing it up!
Looking at the positive and negative points of Primark it all boils down to one question; how much are you willing to put yourself through for cheap, stylish clothes?
Me? I'm a student. I'd do anything.