The great British Celebration

In honor of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration and also the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London, British pride and Union Jack paraphernalia has been at an all time high throughout towns, decorating the high streets, and in stores everywhere. In the US, I would say that American pride with stars and stripes is always very pronounced from a merchandising angle around the 4th of July, however we have not seen such an explosion of British pride since we have arrived here in the UK. It has been so festive and fun to see right now!

At our local Sainsbury's grocery store, a union jack outdoor display with Pimm's as the featured product - such a great British summer drink! 

The toilet paper rolls have even gone festive....

Union Jack Wellies!

Instead of a Kit-Kat, you can now buy a Brit-Kat here.

Boden Bonanza

This week that clothing store I have come to love dearly, Boden, was hosting a clearance sale near our house. I received a notification in the post and knew I had to put it on my calendar to attend.

The flyer I received said the sale started at 10am, so I wanted to get there as close to 10 as possible. When I arrived at 10:10am, here is what the parking lot looked like already:

Needless to say, I was on the late end of the arrival spectrum....cars filled up the field near the exhibition centre.

Upon entering the exhibition centre, I was faced with a sea of British ladies rummaging through all of the clothes as quickly as they could, while trying to stuff all possible options of items into their bags for purchase.

People everywhere! I thought maybe they were giving the clothes away!

While it was bustling at the seams, it was fun to go and be part of the action. Some of the deals were really good (aka the kids clothing items and the coats) but some of the other items did not seem to be as inexpensive as I thought they would be for a "clearance" sale. I wonder if they host the same type of sales in the US too? Maybe when we move back I will offer to organize one for them!