19 January 2009

Shopping at Stoke-on-Trent

I started out writing this post with "today morning..." but realised that it's already 1am - so a short post before I go to sleep.

Yesterday morning, we set off for Stoke-on-Trent to do a bit of shopping. My sister-in-law who came up from London yesterday was there as well.

For those who didn't know Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, is the home of the UK pottery industry and some of the World's most famous luxury brands like Royal Doulton , Wedgewood, Mintons, Portmeirion , Spode, etc. originated and many still have their headquarters here.

I had the post code for the Waterford Wedgwood factory shop at Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent but couldn't find it on my TomTom. Was quite disappointed because I had just bought the latest UK map from TomTom a few days ago. My wife called up her friend in Nottingham who had visited the store sometime back and she informed us that it was a couple of yards just further down the road from the Portmeirion factory shop. Later found out that the factory outlets for Portmeirion, Waterford Wedgewood and Royal Doulton are all along King Street.

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Our first stop was the Waterford Wedgwood shop. I know that Wedgewood products cost hundreds of Ringgit in Malaysia, with some sets costing over RM5000. We were shocked to see plates going for £1 each. As you can imagine, my wife and sister-in-law were in ceramic and China heaven.
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Next stop was the Royal Doulton outlet which was having a clearance sale.

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I have to say that the staff at the Waterford Wedgwood were way professional and did an excellent job with the packing as compared to those at Royal Doulton.

We also dropped by the Portmeirion shop and they were having a sale as well but both my wife and sister-in-law didn't like the designs and we left without buying anything.

Here are some of the stuff we bought yesterday:

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As you might have heard, Waterford Wedgwood is in deep financial trouble and . I doubt that the brands the company owns, namely, Waterford Crystal, Wedgwood, Rosenthal and Royal Doulton will disappear but you never know.

The address of the  Waterford Wedgwood factory shop is:

King Street, Fenton, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 3DQ

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely to see those photos.

Although I'm now in Spain, I used to live in a village on the outskirts of Stoke on Trent, and have seen those places in your photos several times.

Thank you for the memories.

Anthony

Nana said...

ADAM,

What lah!!! I want to see MORE PICTURES!!! I want to see whatelse you guys bought!!! SERIOUSLY!!! pretty please!!!!

Dilip Mutum said...

Thanks for dropping by Anthony.

Nana: Will post more pics up later. I think Ezu will blog about the trip as well.

Anonymous said...

uisshh..bestnye..hi i'm bloghopping..been thinking to go to stoke too!!but dun hv time yet..i'm in london..btw clearance till bile?

Dilip Mutum said...

Shopaholic: Not really sure but the company is in trouble and I suspect that they are trying to get rid of old stock.

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