J Crew

The J. Crew store in London was relatively new when I visited. It’s a large store, and I was happy to see a decent size selection, which is generally lacking in the US and Canada unless you shop online. My only comment for improvement was that the clothing was overpriced. I bought a sweatshirt which cost twice the price as it would have if I had purchased it at home.

On any trip to the USA I do like a visit to J Crew. I always found the clothes to be reasonably priced and of good quality with a casual style that will last longer than a season.
I was excited to see that it was now in the UK but this is another American arrival that just switches the $ sign in front of the price to a £. I know this for sure because they have, literally, just stuck stickers over the price in dollars with the same numbers in pounds. They really don’t mind you knowing this.
Suddenly, J Crew becomes a bit over priced. £14.50 for a pair of socks that are nothing special — really? I know VAT is higher over here and tax is added afterwards over there but I can’t believe the price would increase from £8.80 (the current $ 14.50) to £14.50 when you take all that into account. That’s an almost 65% price hike. WTF?
So J Crew, if you can’t afford to import your goods to the UK without increasing prices by such a ridiculous amount then please don’t bother. We’ll come to you and have a holiday whilst we’re at it.

I had a mini freakout when I found out J Crew was FINALLY coming to London. I mean, for how long was I going to have to ship things to my friends and family, so they could send them to me? Well, I may just keep doing that… it’s flippin’ expensive (at least compared with the American store prices) for one. And the selection is not chock full of my favorite yuppie staples.
The shop is gigantic (by London standards), and is broken into men’s and women’s side-​by-​side. To me, the space is disorganized. In US stores, clothing is broken into groups. You’ll find tables of jumpers and racks of skirts and shirts, split into office attire and more casual wear. Here, everything’s just sort of thrown together. And many items I saw more than once in different areas of the store. From what I gathered on my outing, there’s not a clear set of work clothing. I really like their button down shirts, and was looking for a simple white one. They had a few, but not a plain, cotton, full-​length sleeved shirt. In fact, I couldn’t find them in ANY color.
I left empty-​handed, which was disappointing. I’m pretty much trying to throw my money at these people, and they’re making it very difficult. Please, J Crew, just bring me my beloved American J Crew staples!