The Bargain Shop - In store review

[mom2faith]

Well, I was able to make it to the Grand Opening of the brand new Bargain Shop in our area. It is the first one in our area, although I have visited it in other cities, so I kind of knew what to expect.

Store Layout
This Bargain Shop is in an old grocery store and you can tell that aside from a paint job and the racking, they did not do much to transform it. It is a square box with one fitting room - that is right folks, only one!! I could not believe it. Surely 2 or 3 would've been more practical?? Of course being there on the first day there was a line up for that 1 room almost the entire time I was there.

Other than that the layout is pretty simple: clothing in the middle, household items around the exterior and a few aisle of food and beauty products. However, the food aisles and beauty aisles were so narrow, I was shocked - you could not have fit 2 people down any of them, let alone 2 people and a cart or 2 carts. It was crazy!! I would imagine that you would have to leave your cart at one end and shop the aisle without it. Hard to do when you have kids, as you do not want to leave them in the cart just hanging out at the end of an aisle. We ended up avoiding these aisles a result, and probably missed a few bargains, but what else can you do??

Product and Prices
The Bargain Store is very similar to a Giant Tiger. It has second runs, and items that probably were bought out from larger department stores for lack of sales. The items all look to be clean, in one piece and new, but yet there is a sense that these items are not hot sellers anywhere else.

I was able to find a 6 pack of socks for $6 - not a great deal, but decent enough, some jeans for $25 - great for work, but nothing fancy, and a few beauty items (a nail file, etc). Their prices are also very similar to Giant Tiger which means one thing - you gotta know your prices!! There were somethings that were far too high in price, and others that were a decent deal. For example their no-name rubbermaid stule tubs were the same price as actual Rubbermaids. Not a very good deal when you can get a tub where the lid will fit properly and be waterproof for the same price as this one where the lid clearly does not fit right - KWIM??

As for food, again similar to Giant Tiger - some name brand items for reasonable prices, but also some items that you had never heard of before that were made in some foreign country like China and had who knows what in them (for example Fake Fruit Loops, etc). I always try to stay away from "fake" name brands at stores like this as you never know what they are made of and what the quality is.

Return Policy
I was pleased to see that this Bargain store offered a full refund with receipt. That is nice to see as many bargain type stores are exchange only. It was nice to know that they stood behind theor product enough to offer a refund.

Service
Aside from the odd shelf stocker, the only place I saw staff was behind the till, so this is not a place you go for service. It is definitely a "help yourself" type of store.

Overall
Store Layout - 6 / 10 - I have to ding them for having only one fitting room
Store Cleanliness - 9 / 10 - but it was the first day, I will check again in a week or so
Products - 6 / 10 - know your stuff, read labels, you can find bargains, but you have to be careful
Prices - 6 / 10 - same as products, it is a discount store, but not everything there is actually a bargain
Service - 6 / 10 - there really is no service offered except at the till

Overall - 6 / 10 - not bad, but I would not make a special trip to go there, if I was in the area I may pop in to see what is new.

[ex0ticb3lla]

do you mean the bargain shop?? Love that place!! Another great fact about them:

They offer price matching - but the best part is they take an extra 10% off LOL

[mom2faith]

do you mean the bargain shop?? Love that place!! Another great fact about them:

They offer price matching - but the best part is they take an extra 10% off LOL

OOPS!! Thanks for the name correction!! I checked my receipt and you were right, it is the Bargain Shop! I changed the title.

Thanks for the price match tip too

[Justine]

My bargain shops are full of sketchy people and dirt.

[Sally888]

My bargain shops are full of sketchy people and dirt.

Lmao.

The ones here in Huron Country, don't seem that bad. I'd compare them to a Saans or Giant Tiger. While I don't get in them that often they carry a TON of name brand clothes such as fubu, nike, oshkosh, nascar, phat farm etc.

I'm not sure if id buy food items from their but they do seem to have neat stuff once in a while