Harrods C/D?

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I know from previous threads that one or two of you have worked in Harrods.

I visited once and remember being impressed by the elevators. I bought Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and they cost a fortune. I thought Selfridges was more interesting.

Old ladies ask friends who are visiting London to buy them Harrods bags. They then use them until they are see through.

Do people buy their weekly groceries in Harrods? Are there specific products Londoners would 'pop in' to buy?

Tell me all about Harrods, your thoughts, your experiences, your asumptions....

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

Dud.

Except for the crazy Egyptian staircases and stuffs.

Liberty PWNS Harrods.

― Henrietta Leavitt and the Cepheid Variables (kate), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:11 (twenty years ago)

(Please excuse my mis-spelling of assumptions)

I've never been to Liberty - is this another department store?

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:13 (twenty years ago)

It is my mom's biggest dream to visit Harrods since she saw some PBS show about it. Is it just like London's gentrified Mall of America equivalent or what?

― Abbott (Abbott), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:14 (twenty years ago)

It's full of business men in bowler hats reading The Financial Times and drinking Earl Grey.

(FACT)

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:15 (twenty years ago)

Liberty is not just a department store. It is the loveliest and most luxurious department store of your dreams, as designed and executed by Art and Crafts Pre-Raphaelites of loveliness! It's like a museum where everything is for sale!

Harrods is just an excess of tacky gaucheness.

― Henrietta Leavitt and the Cepheid Variables (kate), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:16 (twenty years ago)

i like it. I always go when I'm in London and get lost inside. the cheese bar is classic.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:28 (twenty years ago)

It has a pet department too, doesn't it? I'm sure it did when I was there.

I'm gonna Google Liberty.....

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:35 (twenty years ago)

Liberty - just had a peek at their site...

Yum! Annick Goutal Parfum!

I LOVE their gift section, I must visit the next time I'm in London. It just looks so vintage, so fine...

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Liberty truly is the happiest place on earth. I could spend hours... days... years in there. Honestly. Except actually, the only person who can outlast me in Liberty is my mum.

― Henrietta Leavitt and the Cepheid Variables (kate), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Last time I was in London the only shop I went into was Liberty. It was teh loveliness. They employ women who stand there and knit all day!

Harrods is like Disneyland for shopping in. Rumpie, you like driving round the Highlands, right? Mo al Fayed has opened a Harrods at the Falls of Shin. It's like the most overpriced, pointless, gift shop ever.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 19:57 (twenty years ago)

In Australia you see at least one chick a day on the train carrying a Harrods bag. That chick needs to get over herself. Going to London and buying something overpriced is really no great feat.

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:03 (twenty years ago)

ah, harrods is just another shop, guys. albeit one easier to get lost in than most. i have been in there precisely twice in my life. the first time was because a friend visiting from australia wanted to check it out, we thought we might not get in with ripped jeans (there had been a story in the paper about some rockstar not being allowed in a few weeks previously) but we did, we wandered around, i was unimpressed (except by the CHEESE oh lord yes) (but i'd rather be in a mediocre-for-france fromagerie in france than in there, still), he... bought some tea. and a toy. other than that all i remember is that there was a piano that played itself, and the whole place was out of control cheap-looking-glitzy. the second time was a couple of months ago, i was working there for a morning behind the scenes (ha, i nearly wrote backstage, which is kind of apposite, it did remind me of when we were at alton towers and they turned the magic off). it is just as tawdry and cheap and grim and dusty and functional as the behind the scenes in any other big shop, worse than some i've seen. skanky little storerooms, posters urging the staff to make more sales with tips on how (and rewards for doing so, rewards like "come in two hours late!!" "leave one hour early!!" "a twix!!"). the TUNNELS UNDER THE GROUND were damncool but you prob won't get to see them.

really, though, it's just another shop. it's for the birds. if you've only got like a week in london don't waste half a day in there.

haha yeah, the people wandering around with harrods bags... seriously, who are they trying to impress? that sounds more snidey than i mean it, but really, it just makes no sense!

― emsk ( emsk), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 21:40 (twenty years ago)

They employ women who stand there and knit all day!

omg, dream job!

I worked in Harrods for three months once. It was a concession within Harrods. That company got bought out so everyone got laid off two weeks after I had left. There are some interesting stories.

I think I have seen about 30 or so Hasidic ladies from Kiryas Joel shop around the mall where I work carrying their Harrods bags. I really want to know the story behind that. I'm guessing a relative came to visit with these as their gifts.

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:03 (twenty years ago)

I love Liberty too, especially the knitting women, who were so very helpful to me when I was Confused By Wool.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:10 (twenty years ago)

Bought a copy of Arthur russell's 'Calling out of context' cd there for 99p. Also 'Way down' cd single by Elvis for the same price. The only cds I've ever left the price tags on.

The cheese counter is a wonderful thing, as is the cigar shop, but depressing too as I know I will never get to sample their delights in anything more than a rudiamentary fashion.

So, C and D.

― Ant, Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Michael Grant, sometime frequenter of these boards, used to sell records in Harrods for a living. He could tell you some stories. He's told me some stories, but since he generally tells them in pubs, I'm not confident of my ability to recall them. There's a good one about a bloke in the attic though.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:29 (twenty years ago)

On a trip to London in 1977 my brother and I made an uncomfortable reconnaissance of Harrod's. My then-husband wanted me to bring him back a cashmere sweater, so okay, on with the search. We felt like store security was scrutinizing us and everything in there was too drab and too expensive. We rechristened it "Horrid's." I forget where I finally bought the sweater. I also bought a great black velvet disco-world blazer with very sharp, accentuated lapels and a pinched waist. One of my roommates stole it.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:41 (twenty years ago)

Dud.

http://www.ljplus.ru/img/9000/harrods-sphinx.jpg

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 23:10 (twenty years ago)

there are always tons of hasidic people going back and forth from nyc-london from what i've seen.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

I know one of our customers had relatives in Stamford Hill (and she was moving to Belgium herself).

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 23:40 (twenty years ago)

two of my flights home was delayed because hasid customer were abusive to muslim staff. not great moments for religious relations.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 23:44 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha, wonderful!

That Harrods up north sounds excellent Ailsa! Just my thing. I wonder if the goods have a twee tartan flavour...

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 20 April 2006 10:16 (twenty years ago)

Actually, come to think of it, I have bought something at Harrods. My first week in London, it was the only place I could find that would sell a US/UK plug adaptor that wasn't, like, an airport shop.

― Henrietta Leavitt and the Cepheid Variables (kate), Thursday, 20 April 2006 10:18 (twenty years ago)

Confused By Wool.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 20 April 2006 10:21 (twenty years ago)

Wool is confusing! Have you seen the Liberty's wool and arts and crafts (but not Arts And Crafts, which is the whole shop) section?

― Henrietta Leavitt and the Cepheid Variables (kate), Thursday, 20 April 2006 10:22 (twenty years ago)

I know it's confusing. I just liked the phrase (title?).

I worked as a porter in Liberty at sale time a couple of times, many years ago. One time, we did all the work we were meant to do in a week with two days to spare so were told to hide in the boiler room, away from senior management eyes.

It's fun, being behind the scenes at Liberty, though the sales staff rather looked down on us.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 20 April 2006 10:27 (twenty years ago)

I am jealous. I'm convinced that the shop has secret worlds away from prying customer eyes where exciting things happen.

― Henrietta Leavitt and the Cepheid Variables (kate), Thursday, 20 April 2006 10:28 (twenty years ago)

I don't think anyone who lives in London ever really shops at Harrods. Tourists go there to buy things with Harrods written on them. Same with Fortnum & Mason (although when I worked nr Piccadilly this was the nearest place to buy teabags).

Your real Londoner shops at Selfridges, Harvey Nichols or John Lewis (hurrah)

― bham (bham), Thursday, 20 April 2006 10:48 (twenty years ago)

Never been there, and don't really want to, but I have a feeling that doing the sex0r in Harrods would be hott.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Thursday, 20 April 2006 11:40 (twenty years ago)

Does Harrods sell fur?

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 20 April 2006 11:47 (twenty years ago)

Hello..
How do You do?
I have got something to ask You.
I would like to work in Harrods.
What is the best way to get job there?

Thank You

Gabriela

― Gabriela Kazimirova, Saturday, 29 April 2006 18:34 (twenty years ago)

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