I spend a lot of my time visiting shops and assessing them (in a vain attempt not have to work in one) in order to fund the ever increasing costs of my education. (So far, its been relatively unsuccessful but if I had a penny for every time I had said ‘Why am I doing this?’ with regards my education then I’m sure I could fund it easily!)
That’s why I tend to avoid writing about shops for Ciao. Most of the time, I’m so sick of them that I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to write about them.
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However there is one particular shop that I’ve been hearing a lot about and have recently discovered myself is well worth a visit.

The store in question is Savers Heath and Beauty, a growing force in the toiletries market, with over 190 stores in the UK and further plans for expansion. It has been trading since 1988 (previously just under the name ‘Savers’) so it is no newbie to the toiletries game, but only recently has it commenced the aggressive expansion plan that finds it popping up on virtually every high street recently.

As the name suggests the stores sell health and beauty products as well as fine fragrances, household products, photo processing accessories and erm… tights.
But before you think that this store is just another Boots wannabe, think again. A more accurate description of Savers would be the lovechild of Boots and Poundland!

If you are looking for retail therapy this is not the store for you. The layout is very basic and nasty looking; it isn’t a pleasant and relaxing shopping experience. The company claim on their web site that the look of the stores is ‘clean, crisp and contemporary’, ‘tidy, clean and light’ and ‘carefully laid out to provide the ideal environment for our customers.’ I can only assume that the writer of that description had wandered into Boots by mistake. No Savers store I have ever visited could be described in any way as ‘contemporary.’ The stores a certainly large enough but they always seem quite gloomy. On their web site there is a photo of the inside of the store in soft focus and it looks quite inviting.
My only advice to Savers on this one would be to hand out soft focus spectacles at the door, then maybe your store would live up to the slightly over ambitious vision you have for it!!

The aisle layout is the same in all the stores that I have visited and the access for wheelchairs and prams is good.
There are always plenty of hand baskets available, but no trolleys provided.
The atmosphere in the store is not great. In fact, I would say there was no atmosphere. It’s just what you would expect really, cheap and not so cheerful.
As both of my local Savers seem to have a permanent advertisement in the window, I have drawn my own conclusions as to what its like to work for as a company, but that’s nothing to do with my main concern here, which is of course SHOPPING!!

So why shop in Savers? There is a simple answer to this one – its very cheap!!

Savers don’t have own brand products. They provide named brands at reduced prices. Very often you will find products several pounds cheaper than Boots or Superdrug.
Many top names are represented on the shelves of Savers – I’m not going to reel off a huge list of the savings you can make there, I’m not their unpaid advertising flyer, but just to give you an idea of the saving that can be made, L’Oreal Visible Results Cream (the one with Natalie Imbruglia and her airbrushed skin in the advert) is £10.99 in Boots and Superdrug and £7.99 in Savers. Not a huge saving, admittedly, but why would you pay an extra £3 for nothing?
Not everything is cheaper, so you have to be wary, but certainly nothing is any more expensive than high street stores.
Some products they don’t stock. Instead of the John Frieda Frizz Easy range, they stock a similar line called Zero Frizz, which does the same job, just in a cheap and nastier way.

Obviously being a discount store, Savers has no loyalty card scheme and for an Advantage Card addict such as myself, this is quite a difficult concept. The sensible me has to regularly try and explain to the Boots addicted me that the £3 I save on a product by buying it from Savers would be the equivalent of 12 advantage points which is only 12p so of course I’m better off with the cash, but I’ve been thoroughly brainwashed by Boots over the years and I’m sure I’m not alone!!

Their range of fine fragrances is pretty good although it does seem to change quite often and you will rarely find the very top of the range perfumes in there. They don’t have testers to keep costs down, but this is OK if you already know what you want.
I must admit I’ve never bought perfume from Savers but only because they have never stocked the one I wear.

They have a photo processing service, but this is no cheaper than anywhere else on the high street, so I don’t really see why you would chose them over others. I think I’d feel happier entrusting my films to a specialist photo processing store.
However, their range of camera film is really good and very cheap so that’s well worth a look (I paid £1.99 for a 40 exposure Kodak APS film recently that was still well in date. I am starting to sound like an advertising flyer, I should be contacting Savers and demanding commission for product placement!!)

‘Savers’ is a great store if you are watching the pennies but don’t want to compromise of the quality of products you are buying.
It isn’t a great store if you like a bit of luxury and to feel pampered when you are shopping for toiletries. It doesn’t have that warmth that you find in stores like Boots. It is functional and practical.
It doesn’t have that lovely powdery ‘toiletries’ smell about it that some other shops have that entices me and other weak willed people to BUY.BUY.BUY. This lack of smell could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.

I would certainly recommend a visit to Savers, like Marmite you will either love it or hate it!