Reply to: Harrods sold by Al Fayed

[original PM]

I don't know about a Greggs but you can rest assured that there is a McDonalds and a Starbucks on the Champs-Elysées so there is no need to force any of that foreign french muck down your throat.

It is interesting how we are all different. I have a huge soft-spot for Paris mostly because I always felt I had eaten very well when visiting.

Yep has been there since ooh must be 1989 if not before - went there to get a Royale with Cheese - after getting some cassettes and Tshirts from the virgin megastore

[Churchill]

That'll teach the fugging fuggers to fug off.

Or something.

Tiny Rowland must be spinning in his fugging grave, the fugger.

Get to fug!

[Churchill]

Does that mean we can deport the dodgy arms dealer?

[SantaClaus]

Got to say, I will miss Harrods under the operation of Al Fayed.

The sales assistants are friendly and courteous, which is more than can be said of Selfridges. I guess it must be because Al Fayed personally walks around the store to check the service is up to scratch.

Last time I made a purchase from Selfridges, it was a completely silent transaction because the assistant was on the phone to his mate. The staff there just cant be bothered.

I wonder what will happen to Al Fayed's waxwork in the menswear section on the ground floor?

[Sysman]

There was an item on the news stating that Al-Fayed had been a big success for Harrods - he changed the marketing away from rich well-to-do Brits (fewer and fewer each year) and instead targetting rich foreign visitors, especially from the Middle East.

We used to call it "Arabs'" for that very reason.

When I was in Oxford Street in the early nineties it was full of cheap clothes shops selling bankrupt stock. They were leasing shops by the week apparently.

[cojak]

I'm waiting for a Poundland to appear..

[MrMark]

The only thing I buy in Harrods is made to measure shirts, and I must say each time I visit the place it is heaving with people.

But most, at least two thirds I'd say, are clearly foreign tourists, who I suppose may just be traipsing round the place and not actually buying anything.

I suspect a lot of "shoppers" go there to buy something for 5 or 6 pounds, just so they can parade the bag. Harrods don't mind as the item they've sold for a fiver probably costs them 60 pence.

[OwlHoot]

I live near to Harrods and upon entering it say at 7:10pm on a Friday night it was practically empty. ..

The only thing I buy in Harrods is made to measure shirts, and I must say each time I visit the place it is heaving with people.

But most, at least two thirds I'd say, are clearly foreign tourists, who I suppose may just be traipsing round the place and not actually buying anything.

[MrMark]

There was an item on the news stating that Al-Fayed had been a big success for Harrods - he changed the marketing away from rich well-to-do Brits (fewer and fewer each year) and instead targetting rich foreign visitors, especially from the Middle East.
If the volcano eruptions cause more airport shutdowns, places like Harrods may get hit hard

[NickFitz]

I don't know about a Greggs but you can rest assured that there is a McDonalds and a Starbucks on the Champs-Elysées so there is no need to force any of that foreign french muck down your throat.

It is interesting how we are all different. I have a huge soft-spot for Paris mostly because I always felt I had eaten very well when visiting.

McDonalds and Starbucks are more likely to make me avoid the place

I may not be a gourmet, but I do have standards

[Gonzo]

If there was a Greggs on the Champs-Élysées I might consider visiting Paris - the only thing I'm really interested in there is their Blackpool Tower thing, but I always avoid France (and all other foreign countries except The Netherlands) because of the rubbish food

I don't know about a Greggs but you can rest assured that there is a McDonalds and a Starbucks on the Champs-Elysées so there is no need to force any of that foreign french muck down your throat.

It is interesting how we are all different. I have a huge soft-spot for Paris mostly because I always felt I had eaten very well when visiting.

[NickFitz]

It's like if there was a Greggs on the Champs-Élysées.

If there was a Greggs on the Champs-Élysées I might consider visiting Paris - the only thing I'm really interested in there is their Blackpool Tower thing, but I always avoid France (and all other foreign countries except The Netherlands) because of the rubbish food

[dang65]

There's already one on The Strand, which always pleases me when I go past.

Huh? Why, exactly?

Well, you know, The Strand - King's College London, The Savoy, the Royal Courts of Justice, Simpson's-in-the-Strand, Coutts & Co... and Spar.

It's like if there was a Greggs on the Champs-Élysées.

[thunderlizard]

I must admit that out of the Big 3 of Harrods, Harvey Nicks and Selfridges, Harrods is my favourite. The other two go for a neoclassical minimalism with stick-thin sniffy staff, but Harrods have chosen an exuberant upmarket jumble-sale feel (is their Christmas department open yet?). If Bacchus came to London he'd shop at Harrods, probably agreeing to meet the more fashion-paranoid Juno and Apollo in the Rib Room afterwards.

[GreenLabel]

There's already one on The Strand, which always pleases me when I go past.

Huh? Why, exactly?