Consumerism Gone Mad?

I went on my fortnightly visit to see my niece in Northampton last Saturday, the first time I have been on a weekend.  It's a 5 hour round trip but I took my daughter to see her and we had a really good visit.  On the way home I thought it would be nice to pop to a shopping outlet that I knew existed just 5 minutes off this route that I have been doing for over a year now.  I knew it was a designer outlet village, you can visit it's site here, so  would not be the normal run of the mill high street shops.  This didn't bother me at all, I knew the price tags would be high and the chances of finding a dress for my daughter small. 

I have always loved well designed fashion.  For years when I was in my late teens I subscribed to Vogue magazine and often made myself clothes using Vogue designer patterns.  In fact this was my very favourite:

There is something about good quality fabric and unique designs!  I would always much rather have one really lovely item of clothing than lots of cheap stuff.  Making my own things also means that I have a great appreciation for the costing of some designer stuff.  The other thing that appealed about going to this outlet village was that they seem to be commending British fashion - what could there possibly be not to like about this place.......

THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never been anywhere in all my travels around the world where the volume of people was so great and so single minded!  I walk with a stick which usually means people take a bit of care not to bump into me.  Here however no one was interested in looking at the people around them - they all seemed to be completely fixated on getting into the shops and to the STUFF.

I can only imagine that they must have a problem with shop lifting as there were bouncers on the doors to all the shops.  I caught the eye of a few of them, smiling as I walked past and their eyes just rolled.  The ones I spoke to were so polite but seemed so surprised that I spoke to them!

I have also decided that I have solved the problem of why so many clothing companies make clothes mainly for small sized people - it's because large people insist on wearing small sized clothes!  Here was I in my Marks and Spencers T-shirt and jeans, whilst around me in the crush were folks completely inappropriately dressed for a shopping trip!

We only went into a couple of shops, that is all either of us could face, in those the music was so loud and the crowds so crushing we only lasted a couple of minutes.

When I look back at the visit I did a few months a go where I went to a National Trust Property ( you can read about that here) the two trips can not be compared.  I arrived home from this one with an absolutely stinking headache which turned into a migraine, so I was in bed by 7pm.

On reflection it was not the place that I didn't like, it really was just the blatant consumerism of the crowds of people.  Maybe next time I go (I really would so like to look at all the designer stuff), it needs to be mid week and first thing in the morning, if there ever is another time!