UK Outlets for Discount Shopping across Britain Shop with common sense and save 50-70%

UK outlets have sprung up for discount designer purchases and all manner of branded goods. There are some great buys out there, and if you don’t mind buying seconds or things that are six months to a year behind the cutting edge fashions, you can do very well.

The discount points listed below are shopping malls, not actual factory stores, with between 30 and 100+ stores. They sell a variety of products and brands, usually a mix of men’s, women’s and children’s fashions, shoes, accessories and jewelry, luggage and bags, sporting goods, toys, electrical goods, household items and bedding, and occasionally sweets, dried fruits and nuts. .

However, before starting a discount shopping spree, it’s a good idea to research prices and brands to make sure you’re really finding bargains. Scroll down to the end of this article for some consumer tips.

Best Discount Points in the UK

Designer Outlet Shopping in the south

• The Galleria Outlet Center in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, has more than 80 stores and food outlets, most of them familiar high street brands. The center’s facilities include an Amazon Locker service where you can pick up or return products from the online retailer. There’s a kid-friendly jungle-themed adventure park, with a cafe where adults can unwind from their exhausting shopping, and a multi-screen movie theater.
• Bicester Village near Oxford is world famous and attracts visitors from all over Europe and the Far East to its large collection of designer shops. Bicester Village even has its own train station, making it very easy to get to from London.

• Gunwharf Quays, in the middle of bustling Portsmouth Harbor, is next to Portsmouth’s exceptional Spinnaker Tower. Even if you’re not in the mood to shop, the area, also close to the Portsmouth Historic Shipyard and the Mary Rose Museum, is a great place to hang out on a sunny day.

Designer Outlet Shopping in the Southwest

• Swindon Designer Outlet in Wiltshire has many famous brands and a specialty in children’s clothing. To keep the kids happy, they have kiddie rides, safe little self-driving cars for kids, and a huge climbing wall.
• Clarks Village in Somerset is not far from the shoemaker’s headquarters on Street, Somerset – (yes, that’s really the name of a place). The center has outlets for several fashion manufacturers, but as you can imagine, you can get some great factory deals on Clark’s shoes.

• Wilton Shopping Village in Salisbury, Wiltshire has a pretty compelling selling point. In addition to available national brand retailers, the center has a courtyard retail area surrounded by independent designer / maker, artisan and artisan shops. It’s also home to Wilton’s famous British carpet manufacture, so while you’re there, you can get some bargain floor coverings, discontinued colors, and usable-sized carpet roll ends.
• Kilver Court Designer Village in Shepton Mallet, Somerset (near Bath and Bristol), was created around a farm and heritage site, against a 19th century viaduct, by Roger Saul, founder of the British leather goods company Mulberry. Mulberry’s first factory outlet store is just outside the village’s designer shops. What makes this hub different is that you won’t find many street designer clones. The products are almost all British-made, from high-end manufacturers. If you crave the jeans and denim worn by Jennifer Lawrence and Gwyneth Paltrow, this is where you can find them. Look out for special designer events, like the Paul Smith Designer Sales in March at Kilver Court Ballroom

Designer Outlet Shopping in the southeast

• Ashford Designer Outlet in Kent is the place to stop if heading to or from France by Eurostar from nearby Ashford International Station. The center, designed by British architect Lord Richard Rogers, is a visually stunning place to engage in retail therapy.
• Freeport Braintree in Essex has many popular brands, at least 85 stores, with most promising 60% off retail prices.
• Clacton Shopping Village Clacton on Sea in Essex recently changed its name from Clacton Common Shopping Village and added a Marks & Spencer outlet to its small selection of stores. Housed in a former blue-collar seaside resort, in 2019 this hub promised a fresh start, but still had only 20 active stores, most on the cheaper end of the high street spectrum. This is useful if you are in the area and need to do some shopping for Denby’s kids or household items. Otherwise it’s not really worth a trip.

Designer Outlet Shopping in Midlands

• East Midlands Designer Outlet in South Normanton, Derbyshire is halfway between Sheffield and Nottingham. This store is part of a group that tends to focus on well-known brands rather than real designer bargains. But, if you are looking for a particular brand of athletic shoes, jeans, or t-shirts at lower than street prices, you will probably find them here.
• Affinity Staffordshire near Stoke on the Cheshire / Staffordshire border. changed its name from Freeport Talke. There are 44 stores, a mix of popular brands, and stores that only seem to appear in discount malls (see Let the Buyer Beware , below). The mall is anchored by Market & Spencer and has Sports Direct and Nike branches on its list.

• Springfields Outlet Shopping near Springfields Festival Gardens in Spaulding, Lincolnshire has around 50 stores offering products at 70% less than recommended retail prices (RRP).
• Gloucester Quays Designer Outlet has many well-known brands and a picturesque setting near Gloucester’s historic docks on the Gloucester Ship Channel. There’s also a multi-screen movie theater, so if one of you isn’t out shopping, you can enjoy a movie while your partner enjoys retail therapy. The mall’s British-made brands include London-based cult handbag maker Radley.

Designer Outlet Shopping in the Northeast

• York Designer Outlet Village, near the city of York, is operated by McArthur Glen, a company that runs quite a few of these outlets across the country. Expect to see many of the same brands that you will find everywhere. But there are also some nice designer stores: Michael Kors, Margaret Howell, Paul Smith, Kate Spade, among them in 2019.
• Lakeside Village Outlet Center in Doncaster is not far from Doncaster Racecourse and the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum. Special discounts are available if you are going with a group of 20 or more.

• The Mill Outlet and Garden Center in Yorkshire claims to be the UK’s largest retail mill. There are four floors of discount shopping: clothing, furniture (much more than you might expect), home and gift items, and a 30% discount is promised.
• Junction 32 in Castleford, West Yorkshire. While you’re out shopping, kids can try the snow track or climbing wall at Xscape, or enjoy a crazy round of golf.
• The Royal Quays Outlet Center in North Shields near Newcastle is large and modern with a huge Next clearance outlet. But they also have a Poundland (apparently the first Poundland store in the UK). Given that this retailer (similar to dollar stores in the US) is already on the lower end of shopping, I wonder how they can discount – sell £ 1 products for 99p maybe?

Designer Outlet Shopping in the Northwest

• The Cheshire Oaks Design Outlet in Ellesmere Port, South Wirral, is another McArthur Glen hub. This claims to be the UK’s largest designer shopping center with 145 stores. The chi-chi lineup reflects the wealthy locals of Cheshire, a favorite home of Manchester footballers. Designers at this center include Gucci, Armani, Michael Kors, Burberry, and Mulberry. It’s also a place to grab a 50% off Kate Spade bag and some silly candy from Haribo.
• K Village In Kendal in the Lake District is more of a wet-weather diversion if you’re hiking or camping on the Lakes, than a true designer mall. Check out the K Shoe Heritage Center. Clarks, its closest competitor, took over this Victorian brand after the millennium. The point of sale is in the companies of the old factories.

• Lowry Outlet Mall Salford Quays, Manchester, has the most usual suspects among its 60 brands. They promise discounts of 70% off the recommended retail prices (but who currently pays the recommended retail prices these days). The big draw here is that the outlet is part of the hyper-modern Media City of Salford, well located if you visit the BBC.

Designer Outlet Shopping in Scotland

• Livingston Designer Outlet in West Lothian, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, has 70 designer brands, but don’t expect a particularly Scottish flair in your purchases here.
• Sterling Mills Outlet Shopping Village in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire, central Scotland has the distinction of being located in Britain’s smallest county. This is a small mall, full of outlet brands, the ones that show up more in discount centers than anywhere else. But the scenery in the Scottish hills is very pretty. If you are looking for local produce with a Scottish twist, aim for the last weekend of each month when ‘Market Street’, an open-air market with farm and craft produce, takes over the central area of the village.

• Gretna Gateway Outlet Village, on Glasgow Road in Gretna, is close to the famous Old Blacksmith Shop where everyone else used to get married. Among the typical assortment of outlet stores, there are some genuine Scottish outlets, such as Gretna Green Stores, where you can find tweed, cashmere and wool from Scotland and the Scottish Isles.

Designer Outlet Shopping in Wales

• Bridgend Designer Outlet in South Wales has moderately priced high street shops and some, like Jaeger, at the higher end.
• Festival Park Branded Outlet Shopping Village in Ebbw Vale, Gwent is part of a leisure complex. Among the opportunities to spend money on things, the family can try the longest supertubing race in the UK, an owl sanctuary, an adventure castle and a tree-climbing attraction called HangLoose.

Designer Outlet Shopping in Northern Ireland

• The Boulevard Outlet Shopping, located in Banbridge, about 40 kilometers southwest of Belfast, this large shopping center has a very good selection of street and international brands. Because it is halfway between Belfast and the Republic of Ireland border, some shops accept euros from Irish shoppers. It is best to check before you go. There are 56 shops and occasional special events like Irish whiskey tastings.
• The junction, on the Ballymena road in Antrim, is about 20 miles from Belfast. It is a combination of a shopping center and a leisure center. In addition to street brands, there are activities for children and a 10-screen cinema.

• Green Linen This designer village has the unique feature of being located in the historic Moygashel Linen Mills. In 2019, 30 niche designer stores filled separate buildings named to reflect their origins: The Workshop, Cloth Loft, Weaving Sheds, Framehouse, Warehouse, Dyehouse & Bleaching Sheds. The mills, which began in the 1700s, were, in their day, among the most advanced flax mills in the world. The owners are planning a museum on the site, highlighting areas of the industrial past. Meanwhile, today you can shop at a variety of independent designer stores, many of which are not available at outlets anywhere else.

Let the buyer beware

The same shopping precautions apply in UK discount stores as elsewhere:

• Do not get carried away by the sales environment. If you’ve ever opened your closet, looked at your bargain swag and wondered: What was I thinking? , You know who you are.
• Remember that the promises of 50 to 70% off are generally outside the recommended retail prices [RRP] and in many cases the PR is an illusion on the part of the manufacturer rather than what you might pay in normal stores.
• Examine the items very carefully. The seconds should be so marked, but not always. Make sure the condition of what you buy is acceptable to you as most UK discount stores and designers do not have a return policy.

And watch out for the usual suspects

Several of the UK discount points are part of multiple operations (sometimes global operations) with the same stores popping up over and over again. Just as ordinary shopping malls have their cast of the usual suspects from global brands, UK discount points have a variety of regulars across the country.

Some are branches of popular high street brands and some malls, like Bicester Village, carry an impressive range of genuine luxury brands. But keep in mind that a range of brands has developed that only seem to emerge in the UK discount store world.

A good way to check is to look for the “store locator” on a brand’s website to see if most of its stores are in shopping malls. There is nothing really wrong with that. This is something you should know when considering the “deals” on offer.

The UK also has a good selection of factory outlets specializing in the products of a single manufacturer or manufacturing group, often located in or next door to the factory. Click here to find genuinely British fashion at dedicated, independent stores.