Shopping question

[Dromer]

Thanks for all the very detailed and informative replies. Sorry to hear that a lot of well known stores are closed.

[mick]

Originally Posted by ianc

The main reason there seem to be fewer bargains for us Brits is the exchange rate. 10 years ago when £1=$2, an item with a price of $100 would only cost us £50. Now the same item at the same $100 price will cost us £75, a 50% increase. The change in US $ prices is not actually all that great.
The US retail trade is actually struggling very badly. They have been hit by both the general economic climate and the growth of online shopping. Many places are having permanent sales, which makes finding the real clearance bargains a bit harder. If you go to malls like West Oaks on the US50, Orlando Fashion Square, or East Ridge Mall at Lake Wales, midweek it is like a ghost town, with many units unoccupied, and more staff than shoppers. Many well-known stores have been closing literally 100's of their unprofitable branches across the US, including dept stores like JCPenney, Macys, Sears and others like Abercrombie & Fitch, Payless Shoe Source, Guess. There are about 25 companies listed at this link:
clark/shopping-retail/maj...-closing-2017/
To find the less well-known malls in areas outside the usual tourist area, just go to Google Maps for the area you are interested in and type something like 'shopping mall' into the search box. You will get a lot of markers showing locations, which you can click on to get to their web sites, to see what stores they have, opening hours etc.

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We met up with Joan's brother and his wife in Tampa in February as they stopped off from a Fred Olsen cruise and we took them back to the villa for a bit of lunch. Sister in law is a B&BW fan so we stopped roughly half way at the Lakeland Square Mall. Late morning and I think that we were the only people in there.

Mick

[ERICSMUM]

Originally Posted by mick

We met up with Joan's brother and his wife in Tampa in February as they stopped off from a Fred Olsen cruise and we took them back to the villa for a bit of lunch. Sister in law is a B&BW fan so we stopped roughly half way at the Lakeland Square Mall. Late morning and I think that we were the only people in there.

Mick

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I'm glad to hear that Joan is doing her bit to support the flagging US retail sector !

[mick]

Originally Posted by ERICSMUM

I'm glad to hear that Joan is doing her bit to support the flagging US retail sector !

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Linda

We won't be rushing back to Lakeland.

Nicer places for B&BW and we have a new one in Clermont to try.

Mick

[thefourDs]

Originally Posted by *cath*

Theres a little area of shops on the 192 nr Medieval times with a Nike Outlet and Converse shop, definitely go there, some awesome converse deals especially, i picked up pairs for £14 and t-shirts for a fiver.

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We went there last week and we also got some great bargains! My husband and son bought tshirts in Converse for about $6.99 each. We bought our youngest son (10 years old) 7 Nike tshirts for under $50!

Some great bargains in Calvin Klein too 😁