My Adventure to Harrods

At first, I almost thought it would be hard to find the enormous department store that is Harrods, but after checking online and looking around the Tube station, turns out it’s right there when you get on the street. Seven stories towered over me as I looked up at the letters H-A-R-R-O-D-S going vertically down the corner of the building near the street. I could see through the many windows some of the merchandise, but I still had no idea what I was going to see.

I entered the building and passed the threatening bodyguards before finally getting to the store itself. I wasn’t surprised at the guards, because I knew Harrods to be an expensive place. The merchandise, atmosphere, and the amount of employees… now all of that almost made my head spin. It was all so crazy that I felt like I had fallen into the rabbit hole, but had lost all sense of where the bunny had gone.

The employees seemed to be everywhere. They all wore all black crisp business attire, and usually stood behind small podiums or holding a product they were advertising. Most of them looked bored, as the golden nametags on their breasts glinted in the light. I felt like most of them ignored me, because I probably looked like a little poor tourist. The only places where they would talk to me were in rooms like the Crystal room, where it’s a tad bit dangerous to have a youngster wondering around. You never know what I’ll pick up and accidentally break, I guess. Speaking of that room, of all the places to play Sandstorm (a song known for its crazy dancing whenever it comes on) why would you play it in a room full of expensive, fragile crystal? If you ask me, it sends the wrong message.

Each room looked totally different. As I went up the levels, the rooms became less decorated, but the ground floor had an Egyptian Room, a Luxury Room, and all of the area where you could buy food had its own atmosphere depending on the products. Yes, I did say food. On the ground floor, they had a pantry, a place to buy meat and fish, and a whole area devoted to tea and chocolate. It was expensive, but the prices there were at least decent. As I went to the higher levels and walked through the clothing sections or furniture, the prices became higher and higher with every floor.

Buy your new handbag amongst the pharaohs...

To give you an example, when I first entered the building, I decided to simply get a taste of the prices. I walked over to a section of hair accessories and picked up the smallest clip I could find. Looking at it, I figured Harrods would over price it at maybe £20, £30 tops. I looked at it for a moment and then flipped it over for the price: £74.99 for a clip that could maybe hold 1/10^th of the hair on my head. I put it down as if it had scalded my skin. From then on, I barely ever actually looked at the price tags, simply coming to the conclusion that everything was pricey, even in the “seasonal reductions” sections (lowering it from £300 to £100 is still a lot to me).

The Seafood section.

Yet I did manage to buy a few things. Turns out the souvenir shop has normal prices, which is what I wanted anyway. I got a few souvenirs and was happy to at least look like I was a customer in the building and not so poor as to not afford anything.

I’ve decided I will return to the surreal atmosphere probably to celebrate my birthday. I had tried some Turkish Delight, which is pretty much a sort of gummy sweet coated in sugar, and want to buy some. I also saw some really tasty looking cheesecake, and if it’s my birthday, I’ll need some nice cake, right?