The rumour on the street was that a new Marks and Spencer’s outlet store had opened up next to Boundary Mill in Shiremoor. There already was an outlet section of M&S in Boundary Mill and so we were left wondering what was going on.
If you don’t know what I am talking about, Boundary Mill Stores, as is its official title, offers quality fashion and homeware brands at up to 60% off the recommended retail price. There are five outlets across the UK, with the command ship being in Colne, Lancashire. The Shiremoor store used to be a DIY warehouse and so is a large concern with, of course, a coffee shop to stop and take a rest in. If you have never had the pleasure of going to one of the stores, perhaps you live in the south or are simply not old enough.
Any new outlet store has to be worth a visit, even if it is just to see how disappointing it is. We were intrigued, however, how such a store could open next door to a shop that already had an outlet store in it.
The answer, it turned out, was simple. Both stores were owned and operated by Boundary Mill. The new warehouse, which was probably 5000 square metres big, was billed as a M&S Outlet Clearance. This was where stuff that couldn’t be sold through a normal outlet store went for its last chance. There must be three levels of M&S store, the normal shop, the outlet store and now the outlet clearance store. Presumably the next step was landfill.
It was all very sad. There were racks and racks of clothes that nobody wanted to buy. The stock was repeated throughout the store, spread out to make it look interesting yet it left me cold, disappointed and saddened. Not that I needed to buy anything, I am at the age where if I want something I can afford to go and get it straight away. I was saddened though to think of all the waste of fabric, energy and human effort that went into making all of these clothes. We were in one shop in the far north of the country and I imagined there were several other such outlet clearance shops, filled with mistaken whims, clothes that had fallen out of fashion or where they had simply bought too much.
We have a lot to be thankful for for living in a capitalist system, yet if you ever want to see the product of over production and over consumerism, then take a trip to the Outlet Clearance store. Prepare to come out saddened.