Popped into Harrods in London yesterday with my Partner. Such a disappointment as compared with what it used to be like.
The Christmas goods were interesting, but little thought to connecting the different sections together, no real theme, not really Christmas-inspiring. Expensive goods kept at one end, some nice stuff, but not well-presented and all a bit disjointed.
My partner has a Harrods teddy bear from some years ago,and far superior in quality to the stuff they had out on display. (Really soft āfurā and very attractive)
The rest of the store is good in parts, but God-help-you if you want to eat in one of the restaurants or cafes ! I expect higher prices, but Ā£19 for a sandwich ! Soup Ā£9 !
We went over the road to Cafe Concerto and had a good meal at a fraction of the price. Was a time you could eat at a reasonable price in Harrods.
The food hall has changed quite a bit, and less choice as compared with before. I think they have brought in a lot of outside firms.
They have made some changes to decor near escalators, but taken away a lot of the āmagicā of Harrods. The new owner obviously has his own ideas.
Window displays were quite good, better than a lot.
I havenāt been to Harrods since about 1985! I live in Wimbledon,so not that far to go. I went to the sale and bought some lovely plates, canāt remember the price but I was reasonably well-off thenā¦ I never really bought into the āItās so expensive it must be goodā idea. My daughter went to Hamleys at the weekend and said it was horrible, I suppose because the nature of toys has changed and now itās all about electronic stuff instead of teddy bears.
I never really āgotā Harrods anyway, but Hamleys is so much smaller and less magical now than when I was a child - and not just because Iāve grown up! It definitely used to be bigger with a really quirky layout, presumably it had expanded into bits of adjacent buildings and there were odd rooms all over the place up or down a couple of steps that you could only get to by going through another dept. I can see that in these days of strict fire regulations and proper disabled access it would have been a nightmare but it was so much more fun than the straight up and down layout it has now.
I remember it being like that too Helen - we would come back to the UK for holidays and would always want to go there.
Toy shops now are a real disappointment , cheap ugly plastic things and over packaged , over priced tiny gadget games. Even craft kits seem to be put in huge boxes with very little in them - an instant let down.
Not been in Harrods for years, it holds no attraction - the Christmas windows along Knightsbridge are worth a drive by though.
I havenāt been inside Harrods since the 1980s.
I remember the food hall being really special - it was where I saw - and bought - my very first custard apple
Again not been to Harrods since the 80ās.
Remember buying gold sugared almonds from the foodhall, that was when it was an extravaganza of produce, all beautifully displayed, shame if itās not the same now.
