Shopping

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Shop like the rich

The modern consumer’s lot is filled with contradictions. On the one hand you can buy dresses on the high street that cost less than a lunchtime sandwich, on the other you can splash out on designer goods that cost more than your monthly rent. The former prompt the worry that, at some point in the chain the item’s not been ethically produced, while the latter create the suspicion you’re paying money that could be better deployed elsewhere, simply for a brand name.

One of the most interesting questions about the way you’re using purse power comes when you examine how much the price for the same item varies depending on where it’s sold. And what better time can there be to examine this phenomenon than right now, when the fashionistas’ British summertime is heralded by the arrival of new-season stock?

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Kiehl's lip blam Kiehl's lip balm, £7 everywhere (Space NK, Kiehl’s, Liberty, Harvey Nichols, Harrods) Cheapest: eBay, £3.50

The price isn’t right
Take the Marc by Marc Jacobs cubist print silk dress: fit for everything from weddings to strolling on the beach. In Liberty you’ll part with £235 to make it yours, but in Selfridges it’s a mere £230, and in Harrods a paltry £219. A perfect foil for the outfit could be the Chloe Saskia square tote, where there’s a huge difference: £889 in Matches, £937 in Selfridges or an eye-popping £946 in Liberty. Of course you’ll be needing some shoes, too: such as Prada’s art deco-inspired tan patent platforms at £340 in Selfridges. Go, however, direct to the Prada shop on Old Bond Street and you’ll save yourself £50. As a final flourish you could buy some classic Ray-Ban Wayfarers but you’ll pay anything from less than £53 online at glassescentre.com, through to £95 in Harvey Nichols, up to £120 in Sunglass Hut and designer opticians David Clulow.

After all this shopping – and indeed spending – you may need a sit down, and Philippe Starck’s iconic Louis Ghost chair allows your outfit to be viewed from all angles. It’s pricey in Selfridges at £168, a good deal in Heal’s and Aria at £150, but for the über-bargain head to One Deko where they’re on sale and you can get four for £550 (£137.50 each).

The only way is up
How can we explain these differences? Shops are unsurprisingly defensive when asked about their pricing. London’s retail giants Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods all refuse to comment. Independent boutiques aren’t much better, but Matches is at least willing to give me an official line, albeit frostily.

Ray Ban Wayfarer David Clulow, £120 Sunglasses Hut, £120 sunglasses-shop.co.uk, £74 Cheapest: glassescentre.com, £52.88

‘Matches closely monitors all prices across its collections and other London retail stores and we rarely find significant differences,’ a spokesperson tells Time Out. ‘More often than not designers will produce very similar styles or the same styles in comparable fabrics: these subtle differences can lead to price variations though the product may appear very similar in isolation.’ In their defence they add: ‘We operate a never knowingly undersold policy within our stores, crediting our customers the difference should an item be found elsewhere at a more competitive price point, or refunding the difference if the item has already been purchased.’

There’s no conspiracy here: of course retailers are in it for the profit and their prices have to cover VAT, cost to make the item, shop rent, staff wages and advertising, as well as factoring in a price to which the item can be reduced at the end-of-season sale while still being sold above cost. We don’t begrudge them this, so why won’t they talk about general fashion industry mark-ups?

Refreshingly some are taking a different approach. James Shaw and Alistair Rae opened their fantastic menswear store Albam (23 Beak Street, W1 (020 3157 7000; www.albamclothing.com) in October 2007, and in the short time since have accumulated a cult fan base of customers who want great-looking garments at reasonable prices. Items like the perfect white T-shirt in Egyptian cotton at a reasonable £25, or ‘wear forever and with everything’ straight-leg indigo jeans at £70. The prices are no higher than French Connection but the styles are superior.

Classic Men's Levi's 501s Levi’s store, £55 Selfridges, £60 Jeans West, £50 cloggs.co.uk, £49.95 Cheapest: littlewoodsdirect.com, £45

This isn’t disposable fashion – as Shaw declares: ‘We’re not necessarily “cheap” in the traditional sense – but then our quality of fabrics, and UK- manufactured approach to making clothes offers extra quality. So you get a real sense of value; a number of our garments are made in short runs, which means you get a more considered garment and won’t see 100 or 1,000 on racks in stores.’

‘Clothes are charged in minutes,’ he continues, ‘as is everything that is manufactured. If a product takes three hours to make and the hourly wage is £6.50 plus the margin for the manufacturer, then the make-up alone will cost £19.50 and that’s before any fabric, buttons, etcetera. Move that to China and this hourly wage drops to, say, 50p, if that. The cost is then £1.50. We seem to be in a culture [that expects] cheap prices so someone somewhere is going to get left with less than they deserve.’

On the flipside we’re probably paying over the odds for designer clothing, regardless of where we shop. ‘Independent stores selling other brands will tend to mark up, say, 250 per cent to 350 per cent depending on the customer demand, exclusivity and proximity to other retailers selling the brand,’ reveals Shaw. That means that if it costs the retailer £30 to buy the item, you’ll end up paying around £100. Albam, they claim, is different: ‘We mark our products according to what we think is a fair price for the quality of the pieces we sell; if we aligned our prices with other brands of a similar quality they would become much more expensive to our customers. Our business is based on a traditional set of values, mainly that quality is paramount.’

Channel Lipstick Selfridges, £18 uk.strawberrynet.com, £17.50 Harvey Nichols, £18 John Lewis, £18 Cheapest: Boots, £16

The devil’s in the detail
If all this points to a much-needed reality check when it comes to our spending habits, Shaw has the following tips. ‘Look at things like fabrics, finishes and buttonholes; small things that make a difference. You’ll pay for different things from different brands, like a premium for a cutting-edge fashion piece or a premium for a bespoke suit. The “value” is in what you want to get out of it.

A bespoke suit that you will have for years to come will be excellent value for money over time, almost more than a throwaway suit that you wear a couple of times. Or, say, a fantastic bag that costs a small fortune but is used a lot. The expense is not justified when the quality of make-up is not up to scratch.’

All well and good, but where and how are there deals to be had? One rule of thumb is that the more expensive the item, the more room there is for negotiation. After all, you wouldn’t pay the full asking price for a house, would you?

‘Jewellers and high-end leather goods manufacturers are great to haggle with, especially if you’re buying more than one piece,’ explains property consultant Stephen Ripsher. ‘I recently went into a jewellers on Marylebone High Street and managed to get three watches worth £2,500 each, that’s £7,500 in total, reduced to £6,000. Confidence is key, and don’t forget that return custom is usually rewarded.’

Marc by Marc Jacobs Vanessa Pump Matches, £215 Net-a-Porter, £197 Kurt Geiger, £215 Harvey Nichols, £235 Cheapest: Selfridges, £195

Similarly (but less glamorously) kitchen and bathroom fitters are open to more deals than a Marrakech souk.

James Larkins, a marketing manager from north London, makes a point of rarely paying full price for anything. ‘When I know the mark-up is so high, it hurts me to pay full price,’ he says. ‘I’ve got hundreds of pounds off package holidays, sofas, beds, my bathroom and kitchen and even my now-wife’s engagement ring.’ Over a few years that’s thousands of pounds saved; over decades tens of thousands. His words of consumer wisdom are simply: ‘Be polite and ask if they can do a deal in the most courteous way. They can only say no. In my experience, with a bit of gentle persuasion and a smile, they will usually lower the price.’

So here’s the final reckoning: think ethical production over throwaway threads, enduring style over faddy fashions and spend time shopping around – which, these days, means trawling the internet. And most importantly, don’t be afraid to ask for a discount.

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