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Harrods: Ultimate
Shopping Experience
MIND MAGAZINE | The Harrods
legend began in 1849 with tea merchant Charles Henry Harrod, who
established a grocery store located on Brompton Road, south of London’s
world-famous Hyde Park, in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea (the
village of Knightsbridge back then). The store expanded in the late
1800s when many new departments were added, and since then Harrods is
the only answer to the shopping question in London.
The world’s greatest department store has more prodigal products than
any other store in the world. And even though it might not be the
biggest, taking into consideration the location, construction and most
talked about interior, Harrods is the most expensive store on Earth. On
top of that, there are certain rules Harrods would like their visitors
to comply with: no photos, no ripped clothes and no unaccompanied kids
under 16.
Harrods, which takes an entire city block in central London, has become
a must-see location on the list of every London tourist. In fact, it is
so big that it has its own map. With, seven floors and over 115,500
square metres of selling space, thousands of employees promise to have
any item on your mind. You can purchase absolutely anything – Harrods
will even deliver if the item needs to be special-ordered for you.
People have been quoted as saying, “this really is the world’s greatest
department store – it was good enough for [Princess] Diana, which should
be plenty good for the rest of us.”
The Egyptian room and the Edwardian marble grandiose food halls are at
the heart of the store and are not to be missed. Groceries are still the
number one reason many people come to Harrods notwithstanding hundreds
of fashion departments dominating the store. It is not easy to remain
callous when exposed to such magical variety of food. There are around
twenty separate departments for cakes, pastries, vegetables, fish, meat,
fruits, cheese (over 350 types from 15 countries), bread (150 types) and
more. Each department is again divided into sections. Take cakes for
example. Here you’ll find sections for: birthday cakes, wedding cakes,
regular cakes… The food market at Harrods is the place where you can buy
any food at any time of the year – all in impeccable quality, - proven
by holding four royal warrants, which come from the late Queen Mother
and close family members.
While Harrods delivers an exquisite shopping experience, it does not
come cheap. The best department store in Britain offers the widest range
of luxury services from beauty salons or expensive jewellery sections,
to valet parking, shopping advisors, corporate solutions, carpeted
floors or dog coat fitting. The store truly lives up to its motto –
“Everything for Everybody Everywhere.” According to fans of the store,
Harrods is not for the “grab and run,” but more for the “born to shop”
type.
Nevertheless, up to 300,000 customers visit the store on certain days.
And if you happen to be one of them, people recommend taking at least
two credit cards, as the “just visiting” strategy practically never
works. You don’t have to worry about foreign currency as well – Harrods
has a financial services department in its basement where it offers to
exchange every currency imaginable to the British Pound Sterling.
Maintaining a good reputation is always a challenge to any store’s
management. To the administration of Harrods, this results in constant
and much bigger challenges. But as you may have already guessed, Harrods
does it even better. Since the store was bought by Mohammed al-Fayed in
1985, Harrods has been responsible to deliver a series of memorable
historic events, which helped Harrods to swiftly become the world-famous
institution that it is today. One of the most memorable events was
creating a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi al-Fayed
-Mohammed al-Fayed’ son-, exhibiting the last wine glass left in the
exact condition it was left in when the couple dined at Ritz Hotel in
Paris and the engagement ring bought by Dodi shortly before the tragic
car accident in 1997.
Harrods today is a network of hundreds of services under one name, one
brand. More than just a store, Harrods serves millions of people as a
corporation in many industries, such as merchandise selling, real
estate, financial services, a casino, air travel and many others. It
seems that there is nothing that Harrods can’t do for the people or
businesses it deals with on a daily basis. So, if you happen to visit
London, go in and get to experience the legend.
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