House of Fraser

I generally shop online for H of F. As too be honest the layout of the shop freaks me out.
Of, I may on occasion, rush to the Tom form aftershave and give myself a blitz. But no one can prove nothing.
Don’t feel that the store has any soul.

I used to be a bit intimidated by House of Fraser, yeah that’s right, intimidated! Let me explain, as soon as you walk in you are approached by make up counter ladies pushing their latest fragrance in your face and if you manage to scramble through the gauntlet you then come to the confusing escalators, how do I go up? Where are the stairs?
But as I have matured I have learned to cope with these two elements — now I am the approacher! I ask the make up ladies to help me in my quest rather than wasting time looking for items myself. As for the escalators, I am still slightly confused by them but as I saved so much time not searching for items I can afford to go up and down a few times.
This House of Fraser really does have it all under one roof. Homeware, womenswear. menswear and make up, oh and even a coffee shop (Café Nero) and a rooftop restaurant.
You can probably get the items you are looking for a little bit cheaper elsewhere but in terms of convenience it doesn’t get much better. All A-​Ok as far as I’m concerned!

The magpie that I am loves sparkly things, and everything sparkles in here, and today so did the service. I was just walking through to the Paperchase part and accidentally, totally deliberately, found myself in front of my favourite perfume.
As I took a sneaky sniff a glamorous assistant appeared by magic and suggested that they had special gift sets round the corner if it was something I was interested in. When I explained I wasn’t looking for a gift, it was just something I loved, she said she hoped Santa would bring me some and rushed off to a drawer where she produced some samples of it for me to ‘keep me going til Christmas’. What a sweetie!
Yes, House of Fraser is not cheap, but with lovely service like that (which has happened before) I’ll always be back. I’ll just wait until the sales.

I called in Victoria Square House of Fraser late in November to get some Estee Lauder Spellbound perfume for partner; in fact she had called a polite lady earlier in the day, who told her there was a ‘bumper set’ for £50 if one bought any fragrance — the ‘set’ originally costing ‘£300′, and so… with the Spellbound, the final price would be around £95. Hmm… fair enough, and made my way into the city for shopping.
Was hoping to see same lady on arrival — but saw some camp chappy in his mid thirties in the Estee Lauder perfume section talking to a well-​dressed woman, who stared at me like I had no reason to be there. I asked the lady if she worked there — cheekily, I know… as I suspected she was either a gossip colleague of his whilst on duty, or just a easily-​impressed friend who hangs on to his e-​v-​e-​r-​y word.
He said no, and she darted away… sulkily muttering to perfume-​sellers nearby, who eventually all stared at me with silly hooded-​eyed glares.
I told him about my partner calling earlier this morning, and the bumper set etc. He held the Spellbound box, with my name wrongly-​spelt on a bit of paper stuck on the side.
I added again that the lady told may partner that there was supposed to be an addition in which one pays around the same price. I had already angered him by ending a gossip session with the sweet-​smelling moron (who now probably was on her way to sad-​eye a security-​guard), and he was now trying to tell me what his colleague had told my partner was ‘wrong’ — so I called partner on my mobile phone… and passed it to him.
Three minutes later I left the store with what I planned to do so originally… and as the Estee Lauder section can be seen from one of the entry doors, passed it a couple of minutes later, seeing him and his colleagues — the ones who were pulling funny faces earlier on — gabbing away to each other like soap-​opera actors on a roll. If only I could lip-​read!

For me this will almost solely be a browsing shop — I’m much too aware of the huge online world of knock-​down prices and in general ridiculously low cost clothing.
This is a huge department store and essentially is the centre piece of the recently opened Victoria Square shopping centre. It contains a multitude of things you may or may not want but in general everything is on the upper echelon in regards to pricing and quality.
The only thing I’ve actually purchased here was a rather pricey Karen Millen clutch bag for my family’s secret santa last year. I was rather at a dead end and with a little coaching from my sister I managed to find something that would suit the woman who has everything.
The price? £60 for something which really doesn’t jump out at you as being of a high price and quality but hey, people seem to love it and have been flocking to this place since its opening.

House of Fraser is the big daddy of Victoria Square. It’s ridiculously huge inside (to the point where a person may find it easy to get lost if they aren’t paying attention. Ahem.)
Because it’s so huge, it never feels cramped, and it’s all very logically arranged, so you don’t have to run from one end to the other looking for something. There are a lot of high street concessions — Mango, Warehouse Miss Selfridge and so on, then some higher end labels like Armani Jeans and Biba. The home section is lovely, but I’d say it’s priced beyond a lot of people. They also have a concession from an Irish designer, Mary Rose McGrath, which is great to see.

This is an absolute behemoth of a shop. Its over 7 floors and the crown jewell of Victoria Square, it has everything for everyone. Well, not quite. It has everything for middle class people who want to buy slightly expensive clothes and homewares. Not that there is anything the matter with that, don’t get me wrong.
There are all sorts of concessions and stores within stores here most of which cater to the higher end of the market. People complain about the price of handbags and shoes and clothes and what not but I think there is nothing the matter with spending a bit of dough on yourself if you feel like it. Most people go out and earn their coin so I don’t begrudge anyone going out and getting themselves some retail therapy.
Well thought out and planned, this store is top notch. The staff politeness etc varies throughout the store so you will need to get a bit lucky, but I’m sure you won’t have too bad an experience if you call in here.

If the dome of Victoria Square is the large glass cherry on top of the shopping complex cake, then this bad boy is quite literally the jam and the cream and the icing all in one.
Splattered over 7 floors, House of Fraser is shockingly pricey but arguably one of the finest shops in Belfast.
This is the only one currently located in Northern Ireland which in fairness does not surprise me. This store is aimed at the far better paid clientele than the likes of me, though it does stand head and shoulders above most other shops.
The store offers everything to make your shopping trip unique from personal shoppers for both males and females, to in store services such as tanning treatments and teeth whitening.
The prices in this place are absolutely crazy, including a bland lady’s handbag for £245… hmm… that is sterling by the way.
That is just madness to pay that price but then again there is some people in society who would be willing to pay this price.
This store is amazing, it is so fresh, clean and very well organised but it is just far too far out of my price-​rang and I’m just glad my girlfriend doesn’t like it.