I needed some more work clothes (boo, hiss!) and I had a day off work, so I thought I’d make my annual trip to Bicester Village retail outlet to try and snap up some bargains.

•• Facilities and opening times ••
Most of the shops have Bicester Village leaflets available, which include a map (very useful). The retail park is open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day including Sundays an Bank Holidays (I assume this excludes Christmas, but it doesn’t say so). Guide dogs are welcome. Facilities include, toilets (x3 with baby changing facilities and disabled facilities), telephones, cashpoint machines, garden and play area (x2) and a Tourist Information Centre. As the Village is all on one level, there are no stairs to climb, making it easier for wheelchair users and pushchairs. Most of the shops are quite spacious and beautifully laid out.

� Clothes & shoes �
• Aquascutum – rather old fashioned looking clothes. I heard one young girl ask her friend if she recognised some of her granny’s clothes – LOL.
• United Colors of Benetton – much better clothes range than a few years ago. Hardly any jogging bottoms and tops anymore - instead lots of trendy bargains (see bargain section).
• Burberry – need I say more?
• Café Coton – men’s French shirts
• Cerruti 1881 – men’s and women’s designer clothes
• Charles Jourdan – French designer shoes and accessories
• Charles Tyrwhitt – men’s and women’s shirts
• Calvin Klein – surprisingly expensive designer shop.
• Clarks – the high street store seems to chuck out all its old sales items here. Real bargains are to be had.
• Dockers – American casual wear
• DKNY – another store that needs no introduction
• Dunhill – men’s leatherware and accessories
• Elle – ladies’ clothes store (no shoes I’m afraid)
• Episode – quality separates
• Ermenegildo Zegna – Italian menswear
• Escada – expensive designer store
• French Connection – casual wear for men, women and children
• Fred Perry – famous British sportswear
• Feraud – women’s designer store
• Gieves & Hawkes - Savile Row men’s clothier
• Helly Hansen – Norwegian outdoor sports shop
• Hobbs – women’s fashion and shoes
• Holland & Holland – men’s and women’s ready-to-wear
• In Wear Matinique – men’s and women’s clothes
• Jaegar – to quote fro their blurb ‘a unique blend of style, adventure and luxury.
• Jigsaw – women’s and choldren’s fashion.
• Karen Millen – designer fashions, with very impressive discounts.
• Kipling – bags, luggage, accessories and footwear.
• Lacoste – French lifestyle brand (!)
• La Perla – exclusive lingerie, cruisewear, day and evening wear.Max Mara – Italina designer womenswear.
• Monsoon – now this is shop worth visiting and vrowsing. Lots of choice at really good prices.
• Mulberry – leather goods and women’s and men’s clothes.
• Musto – performance clothing
• Nautica – casual technical outdoor wear (whatever that is)
• Nicole Farhi – women’s designer clothes. I was tempted by a few things from here, but resisted.
• Nitiva – Eastern influenced clothes
• Oscar Jacobson – men’s clothes and golf wear
• Paul Smith – men’s and children’s clothes and women’s accessories.
• Polo Ralph Lauren - I had a quick look in this shop hoping for more than rows of their polo shirts, but was disappointed. Maybe if I had looked harder I would have found something
• Petit Bateau – French childrenswear
• Phase Eight – ladies’ fashion
• Redgreen – casualwear for men and women
• Racing Green – another of my favourite shops selling great priced quality men’s and women’s clothing. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything here on this visit, but I was after particular things this time and not just any old bargain.
• Reebok – some great bargains to be had here. Mainly trainers, but they also have a selection of sportswear.
• Robert Clergerie – handcrafted French shoes and accessories.
• Salvatore Ferragamo – women’s and men’s fashion and shoes.
• Sand – men’s and women’s formal and casual; wear.
• Savoy Taylors Guild – men’s tailoring and formal wear.
• The Designer Room – covering brands like Maska and Jasper Conran.
• Timberland – men’s clothing and footwear.
• Tod’s – men’s and women’s shoes and accessories.
• Tog 24 – walking and climbing clothes.
• Tommy Hilfiger – American sport and jeanswear.
• Triumph – women’s lingerie, swimwear and nightwear. The discounts were pretty good in this shop, although the range of sizes and designs was not huge.
• TSE – designer knitwear for men and women.
• Van’s shoes – skate, surf and snowboarding footwear shop
• Versace – designer fashions for men and women.
• Warner’s – underwear shop
• Whistles – women’s contemporary fashions

� Food �
• Culpeper – herbs and spices
• Pret A Manger – over priced sandwich, cake and drink shop. It has limited seating inside and outside, but never enough on any of the visits I have been there. There have always been big queues and the food is not that special.
• Starbucks Coffee – the usual offering from Starbucks here.
• Barrows - there are varioous food barrows in the Village, selling things like doughnuts and crepes.

•• Criticisms ••
� It is an outdoor centre! Every time I go I get wet and cold, but hot and sweaty inside the shops. It is a real shame they didn’t spend that bit extra to have a covered walkway, or even better to have made it an indoor centre in the first place.
� There are not enough places to eat. I went to buy a sandwich (at rip off prices) at Pret a Manger, to find the queues huge – I was about 15th in the queue and there were about 6 queues. I gave up and went to Tescos just round the corner – LOL. There are a couple of nice barrows selling food, but in the winter it is just too cold and wet to eat outside.
� There are too many posh designer shops for me (I know – why did I go?). I really object to paying ridiculous prices for some of the poor quality tat they are selling, just because it has the letters DKNY plastered on it. Obviously this will not bother designer clothes fans, and I’m not saying that the majority of the goods are poor quality.
� I wish they had a bit more variety of shops. So many of them just look exactly the same. A wider variety of gifts would be nice.
� During the sales, there are often not any more bargains than normal. I presume many of the shops believe they have already given enough discount.

� Contact details:
• Bicester Village: 01869 323 200
• Tourist Information 01869 369 055
• Chiltern Railways 08705 165 165
• Golden Tours (coach company) 020 7233 7030
• Website: www.bicestervillage.com
• Address: 50 Pingle Drive, Oxfordshire, OX26 6WD