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WHILE
FOREIGNERS
SNAPUP
BARGAINS
BRITISH
STERLING
TAKESA
POUNDING
by
David Price
r
NDON: This year it seemed
England became bargain
basement to the world. With
the pound sterting hovering be–
tween $1.70 a nd $1.80 - down from
$2.01 since early March - British
goods bave been exceptionally good
buys to foreigners fiocking in from
a ll over, giving tbe false impression
that Britain's beleaguered economy
was in boom times.
Oxford Street - one of the big–
ges.t centers of sbopping in tbe
world - has become a
~l;ene
of
ffenetic commercial activity, con–
ducted in a babel of languages and
accents with Europeans an<.l Ameri–
cans predominating. In the hot, hu–
m id sunshine this year witb
ATTRACTIVE DISPLAY
at Calais trade
fair advertises the wares of Deben–
hams. a British chain, whose stores
ón the British coast are easi/y
ac–
cessible to French shoppers.
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1976
temperatures up in the nineties, tbe
visitor to London might question· bis
whereabout as snatcbes of German,
French, Italian, and Japanese con–
versations waft around
him.
Oxford Street itself has been cut
off from the usual flow of traffic. lt
has been turned into a pedestrian
precinct with only buses and taxis
permitted to travel in a restricted
stream along its one mile length.
The broad sidewalks are thick with
bustling buyers carrying off their
purchases..
Advertisers Lure Foreign Money
Of course, British buyers are still
present in large numbers making
the most of the summer sales. But
with stringent controls on
~ages,
the
proportion of the paycheck that the
average Briton is able to spend has
shrunk. Those who have been able
to make the most of the sales have
been skilled workers and self–
employed salesmen who are not re–
stricted by company pay policy.
It is now common practice for the
large London stores to advertise
abroad.
It
clearly makes good busi–
ness too. Tbis year Harrod's, the
large London department store, ad–
vertised " the biggest sale in tbe
world'' and took space in leading
newspapers in every Common Mar–
ket country.
~bey
expected to take
$3.2 million in receipts on the first ·
day a lone. In Düsseldorf, Germany,
says Harrod's managing director,
Robert Midgley, a decent shirt costs
.f40 ($72). "Last year when we coro–
pared our prices with those of sim–
ilar shops in Europe, ours were half
as much. Today, we're nea rly three
times cheaper!"
The smell of a bargain is real to
the many Europeans wbo come in
droves to stock· up on fine china,
English crystal glass, gold-plated
faucets , wool-worsted suits by the
armful, and underclothes by the
dozen. lt is not unusual for pros–
perous Germans to spend one or
two thousand dollars on a shopping
spree.
Popplng Over to Dover
The buying spree is by no means
confined to Oxford Street. In the
EngLish Channcl ports, local shops
and branch stores of the big Lon–
don-based chains are also being in-
vaded with Con\inentals buying up
"cheap" British merchandise. And
the English shops are doing all they
can to encourage tbe trade. They
advertise on the Continent and give
away free French-language newspa–
pers inviting the French to shop in
England.
Recently a fa ir was held at Calais,
France, where British shops gave
away maps and price lists to per–
suade French customers to cross the
channel. Mr.
L.
K. Lilwall, presi–
den! of the Dover Chamber of
Commerce this year, said about .f3
million ($5.4 million) worth of
goods (about a third more than last
year) will be bought by day-trippers
and visitors from abroad.
In the Ma.rks
&
Spencer store in
Dover are about a dozen assistants
with foreign-language ability. Local
school girls taking French are en–
couraged by their headmistress to
take part-time jobs to help out. In
all, about 27 languages are covered
(greatly heiped by one very versatile
linguist) - all very necessary when
your ciientele inciudes Yugosiav
and Czech truck drivers, Swedish
tourists, and visitors from Spain and
Italy. "They are by and large the
provincials that come," said one as–
sistant. "We don't have so much of
the high fashion peopie - they go
mainly to London."
The Continental customers cer–
tainly are not afraid to spend . Un–
der Common Market regulations a
family of four can· take back !300
($540) worth of goods tax free -
each time they come. "We see the
same families come back at the
change of seasons. They bring their
fami ly over and fit them out for the
season," says one store manager.
Food is another big buy. The
French come over and buy up
French
butter from Normandy by
the 10-pound carton. In France it
might be twice the price. "Occasion–
ally you see somebody staggering
down the road with a side of beef,"
one store manager told rrie.
In tbe high season it is estimated
that perhaps 40% of the non-food
business is done with foreign vis–
itors. Wa!lpaper in particular may
be more than twice the price in
France and Belgium.
It
is not un–
common for customers to take the
(Continued on page 44)
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