Evans visits 3 & 4

After having a couple of chats with people of twitter and getting a tweet from @evansclothing I decided to try another shop.

Shop 1 - Arndale Centre Manchester, now from past experience I don't like this store it’s in the unit above Burtons and Dorothy Perkins, to get to the shop you have to go up an escalator sandwiched between the two shops or walk right to the back of either shop and walk up the stairs.

I went for the escalator, which I soon regretted as we were only half way there and the heat hit me, it has to be the warmest shop I’ve ever been in! To their credit they had industrial sized flans blowing but it was just moving the warm air around.

I wanted to look for a new bra but I soon discovered I am too small for Evans bra’s I looked for an assistant to ask for help but there was no one around.

By contrast I went to the Trafford centre the day after and decided to pop in for a quick look round.

There was an assistant at the door welcoming people and asking if we wanted to enter a competition to win £250 in vouchers and she asked if we needed help with anything.

This shop was lovely and cool! They had the nicer items of stock in the front of the store and although they were moving the rails round it wasn’t untidy. As I got to the back of the store there was about 3 assistants tidying and marking down sales items, chatting to customers offering help and it was a nice experience.

If I wanted something from Evans I think I would make the effort to go back to the Trafford centre, and that’s saying something as I haven’t been to the Trafford centre for around  7 years and had no plans to go back again anytime soon.

Giving Evans a Second Chace

Last weekend I went to Blackpool for a long weekend as we’d had tickets for Lytham Proms. While I was there we did a little shopping, as I’m getting into wearing belts I decided to visit one of the only shops I knew I could be sure to get one to fit.

EVANS, as I got to the shop I was quite excited by the pretty frock in the window, this soon faded when I realised it was actually Dorothy Perkins window, I looked left and spotted boring basic t-shirts over elasticated waist trousers.

As I walked in I was greeted by a member of staff with a smirk, a look up and down and a flounce off! Hmmmm ok let’s ignore her for now.

I looked and looked and could not see any belts, time to find an assistant, I could only see the one assistant, I walked up to her and said hi, she turned her back on me and walked off (you might not be surprised to hear it was the girl who had smirked!) I had another look round and right at the back of the shop where some nice items, a swan print dress, some cool shirts, but no belts.

I find another assistant who is busy helping someone buy some shoes, I loiter and as soon as she’s free I ask her about belts, she shows me where they are (mixed in between other rows) I also got to ask another question about how the S / M / L sizes compare to dress sizes before the smirker start a very loud conversation between the assistant about a customer who’d she’d server earlier in the day, the others didn’t really join in but they were as far away from each other as the shop would allow, I was pretty annoyed by this, not only was it unprofessional, it was some really mean things to say about someone who from the jist of the conversation would have been limited as to which shops she could go and by clothes from in Blackpool.

I did see a belt I liked but after hearing this conversation I decided I didn’t want to be fodder for further conversations and decided to leave.

I realise people do speak about their days to each other and customers / colleagues etc etc can be annoying and you want to vent, I’m sure there is not one person reading this who hasn’t done the same but there is a time and a place.

I will try Evans again in the future but I will try another store. I felt very uncomfortable in this sort and despite finding things I liked (I didn’t look at the prices) I’d be hard pressed to go back.

On the other hand the Dorothy Perkins downstairs was a delight, on the same day I went down stairs and found it a bit claustrophobic but I went in again on the Sunday morning, there were no other customers, the staff were friendly, polite, helpful. I almost wanted to say could they take this attitude and pass it off upstairs!

Evans

This is my own opinion of Evans, no one has asked me to write this but its been something i've been thinking about for a while.

Evans has to me has always had a stigma attached to it, its a Fat persons store, while there is nothing wrong with being Fat or what every word you choose to use, but the fact that it has a captive market for the larger customer, its not just its label sizes that are larger its also the price tag, it not a place for a budget shopper and i also find its not as fashionable as other stores within the same group.

I did go in to the shop on a regular basis and i'd only occasionally buy something, i would go there for boots as i can't get my chubby legs in the regular leg boot (knee length not ankle) and pretty sparkly jewelry that was reduced to £1. My local store closed recently and i'm kind of missing it. 


to get my fix i went into the one in Denton and i was very disappointed the clothes seemed overly frumpy, Per Una on steroids. Frills here, ruffles there, random items that had no real shape that can be described as sacking shaped.

I did notice the What's your shape / dressing for your shape campaign, not after seeing what was in store i was interesting to see what they could suggest, after not seeing any assistants that looks remotely interested in explaining i decided to look on line.

There is an area about the website with a calculator to work out your shape.

The image hasn't brought through the fill thing, but you add in your vital statistics and it tells you your shape. 

I was :

With a link to search for outfits, now i am blogging Live, i've not pre-searched so i am about to have a look at what it suggests and try and find something i love...

The next page takes you to this

So far i like the bag and the shoes and the colour of the top... ok lets shop

I've found 3 things that i Don't mind to like, however i couldn't justify the price on any of them, not even if they were half price. 

I like this shirt / top but for £32 it's very over priced to say i got an almost identical one in Asda for £5.

Oh that appears to be it. maybe i should browes the rest of the website to see if there is anything else i like.

I'm really surprised i've found a few things.

And Finally a dress i did see my my local store but it was only reduced to £30 and i really couldn't justify it, but it's the nicest thing i've seen in there for a while

Why are all these nice things not in store, why is it all crepe trousers and bubble gum coloured shapeless t-shirts and frilly frills. 

Sorry no links, just search dresses on their website.

Years ago there used to be a range called Seven i think and it was a young and funky range but it is sadly no more.
Come on evans we want reasonably priced good quality clothes that are fun and funky and not frumpy and old fashioned. Yes i realise you are trying to cater for a wide market no pun intended but you are not the only place we can shop, supermarkets "normal" ranges now go up to a size 20 -24 they also have fab plus sized ranges for the most part. New Look are getting better every time i go for plus sized clothes admittedly there is still too many frills and elastic necklines for my tastes but its getting there. Primark now goes to a size 20 and other various places also do plus size.

Ok Rant over

Love Stefi