What amused me most though was that the shop they were in had a men’s section with a good array of garments and as the shop was having an end of season sale many garments had been reduced in price. The two men seemed oblivious to this as they stood chatting at the front of the shop, never once glancing at the clothing on offer and I chuckled to myself when I overheard one of the gentleman saying to the other, ‘I only shop when I need something!’ Aaah, I just couldn’t help thinking, ‘men just don’t get it, do they?’

My other daughter-in-law accompanied us and having two young children of her own she was a mine of useful information as to what was needed.

As we were shopping on a Saturday morning, an early start was needed to be able to fit in as many shops as possible before their lunchtime closing.

The first stop on our mission was at the Treehouse Factory Shop in Ottery. After much ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ we finally settled on a plastic covered changing mat and a very cute large blue gingham elephant-shaped feeding cushion.

We then headed through the backstreets of Lansdowne to Beeline. It’s amazing to think that I first discovered this shop twenty-five years ago when my son was five years old and now I was returning to buy clothing for his expected son!
The girls wasted little time in sourcing some very cute baby clothes and my daughter-in-law was also thrilled with the winter pyjamas she found for herself as they were most attractive and comfortable. We were also surprised to find a pair of black maternity leggings. The infant clothing was extremely reasonable in price and we found some great bargains. We emerged from the shop feeling very smug about our great buys.

Our next stop was at Moniques around the corner where we hoped to find some maternity clothes. Armed with what we thought were reasonably priced garments we headed for the till and it was then that the fun started. When we handed over the first item we were delighted to discover that the top had been marked down by 60%. I told the assistant to see how many of the other garments that had been chosen could be paid for out of the saving on the first item. We were amazed to discover how many garments we ended up getting for what we had originally set out to pay for one! We felt like we had won the lotto!  Garments that were marked R120 were now selling for R48, a beautiful floral tunic was reduced to R72 and other summer tops were between R30 and R40.
We left this shop feeling very, very happy!

My little mini was starting to fill up with parcels, especially with the large jumbo filling up the boot, but as we were now on a high and had not yet completed our mission, we headed through Athlone to Epping 2. We arrived before closing time at Kidz Zone and I’m so glad we did as their shop contained some gorgeous clothing for little girls. Definitely the shop to visit if you have a little princess to clothe! I have been horrified recently at the high prices in retail outlets of dresses for little girls and again I was in for a surprise at the till as several items chosen were reduced in price. I can’t wait to see my granddaughter’s face on her birthday next week when she sees the very pretty party dress I bought her. I know it is still a while until Christmas but I found so many perfect items that I decided to stock up with gifts.

The car was now starting to get seriously full so we were very pleased to get parking inside the grounds at Easywear, which was our next stop.

This large cavernous outlet sells clothing for all members of the family but we stuck to our mission and headed for the babywear section, which rewarded us with some more garments for the new infant.

As it was now well after noon we decided to call it a day and headed back home.

What I love about taking friends and family on factory shop sprees is the ‘show and tell’ that follows. On our return our menfolk were treated to a blow by blow account of our expedition and what we had bought -the elephant-shaped feeding cushion at first caused a few frowns until its use was explained and demonstrated!

For me the cherry on the top was when my daughter-in-law commented – ‘I don’t know why I buy goods in a normal shop – after today I’m definitely only going factory shopping!’

Mission accomplished!

There will be many more of these appearing over the course of the year as I share some of my factory shop experiences with you.

Many thanks to all who, over the past 25 years, have bought copies of The A-Z of Factory Shops in the Western Cape. It has been wonderful to know that there are so many like-minded ardent shoppers out there.

As we are now firmly in the electronic age, we have decided in keeping with the times, to offer the book on line in e-format in the near future and we are very excited about this new development. We will however, not be forsaking the printed format – much easier to have in your cubbyhole than your laptop – and I am currently working on the 12th edition of the book which will be published later in the year.

Happy bargain hunting,

Pam