Hanging Out At The Mall

When it comes to shopping in the United Kingdom, Oxford street is definitely the mecca of the tourist shopping experience. Situated in Central London, the area between Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch and the surrounding areas, Oxford Street is by far the largest collection of shops in Europe. So it is very common for tourists visiting London to make a stop at Oxford Street and carry out their shopping in some of the major stores like Nike Town, Hamley's, Selfridges and Debenhams. It is therefore not unusual to rub shoulders with the high and mighty carrying out their shopping on these streets accompanied with their bodyguards or aides.

Like most tourists, there's not been a time that I have visited London and failed to make the mandatory visit to Oxford Street. However, this changed in my last visit to Blighty as I never set my foot in Oxford street. Even though I did drive through the thoroughfare, I made a decision to instead go and shop elsewhere other than Oxford street.

It is for that reason that I paid a visit to the second largest shopping mall in the UK. Situated right at the outskirts of the M25 motorway, the Bluewater Shopping Mall boasts a collection of the high street stores, beauty shops, eateries and a cinema plaza set on two floors. The mall which overlooks the Queen Elizabeth II bridge across the River Thames is one of the best kept secrets of London as it is mainly accessible by car. Even though they've had their fair share of teenagers causing problems in the mall, the mall offers a different experience to that found in Oxford street. As with most malls it is congested during the peak shopping seasons though I prefer the complex because you don't have to battle out with large crowds of people trying to get onto the tube or buses with their shopping. Instead you just have to put up with other drivers trying to get in and out of the mall.

On the first night that I visited the mall, I carried out some shopping before settling for dinner in one of the restaurants. Rather than eat in one of the two food courts I choose a Spanish cafe called Abaco as I wanted a quiet place to unwind after the long day. Unlike American restaurants, the bread and olive oil was not free and neither were the soda refills. The atmosphere was very soothing with friendly waitresses. Not wanting to spoil my spirits I settled for the familiar 10 oz strip loin steak and a side of spinach instead of trying out their tapas.

After my early dinner, I hit out into the shops again to see if I could get myself some good bargains. My main focus was buying some presents for my family and a few things for myself. I bought close to 20 pairs of socks as I seem to have lost most of my socks when I went on vacation. Not being a fan of the high calf length US socks, I took this opportunity to replenish my stock of socks.

I avoided the southern and western wings of the square shaped shopping mall as you will find the high priced designer stores on these two sides. Only after I had gotten everything that I wanted from Marks & Spencer did I venture out into the other shops. Most of the shops here cater for adults and teenagers so I had a hard time trying to find things for the kids. Particularly, there are hardly any toy shops and the few stores fall far short of what you can find at Hamley's on Regent Street. On the other hand, there seemed to be a number of shops that catered for new-borns.

Because one night is not enough to go through the shops, I came back for a second visit and managed to get the remainder of the things on my shopping list minus the toys. As I took the pictures of the place I was confronted by the shopping mall security who warned me that the establishment discourages shoppers from taking pictures due to security reasons. Even though I did not see any uniformed police patrolling the mall, there is high security in the mall by way of security guard patrols and closed circuit television. Like most malls, they have had a lot of problems with unruly teens hanging out at the mall on weekends. Because of this, they have banned shoppers from coming into the mall with hooded tops and increased security patrols especially on weekends.

I was satisfied with the shopping experience although with the dollar at record lows against the British pound, shopping in Britain is a very painful experience if you are from America. For this reason, I kept my shopping to a minimum mainly buying stuff for my family.