The shirt is reduced from pounds 69 to pounds 24
The shirt is reduced from pounds 69 to pounds 24.99 and the trousers from pounds 89 to pounds 29. Charlotte is a student in London and would never usually be able to afford pounds 200 for a jacket. For Jacqueline Fothergill, who usually shops at Marks & Spencer and local designer boutiques in Weybridge, the shop provides a range of choice that is unavailable to her elsewhere. She looks out for French and German labels that are cut for taller women.Charlotte pulls out a fitted jacket by Ally Capellino, reduced from pounds 200 to pounds 100.
There is also one in red linen by Nicole Farhi that catches her eye. Most are situated within shopping malls where rents are cheap. But marketing manager Deborah Dolce says that TK Maxx is like nothing else on the British high street It is, she says, a “classless shopping environment”. Jacqueline Fothergill and her 25-year-old daughter were in search of something for Charlotte to wear for a part-time teaching job. “I come here once a month,” says Jacqueline, who was introduced to the store by her mother who is 65. “You really have to delve in – you can’t just judge it by first appearances.”Indeed at first glance, the brightly lit stores look like the sort of places you would want to avoid. The first branch opened two years ago in Bristol, closely followed by another in Liverpool, which has built up a loyal and growing following of shopaholics.
The Independent visited the Woking store in the Peacocks shopping mall last week in pursuit of fashion bargains.
With investment capital of pounds 25m, and the aim to open one hundred stores in this country over the next few years, TK Maxx promises to be on a high street near you soon. The shops are no-frills affairs with clothes grouped by size and item to make rummaging through the 50,000 pieces of stock that fill each store in any one day as easy as possible. Across America, the company is as well known as Woolworth’s; there are more than 1,000 branches with sales for this year projected to exceed $6bn. This month, new branches open in Bournemouth, Croydon and Hull, making a total of 13 stores in the UK. TK Maxx, the American “off-price” shopping experience that offers designer labels and brand names up to 60 per cent cheaper than usual, has arrived in Britain. And all the other relations too.Who said family gatherings were dull?Book prizes for the best solutions to both puzzles to: J Leech, Ian Kay, Christopher Godwin Adam Sobey, MJ Wilcock and Oliver Pereira..
