Dunelm Mill

Not a terribly inspiring title but the point I'm about to make is of interest, I think. For those who don't know, Dunelm Mill is a cheap shop selling bedding, bathroom stuff, kitchen equipment and general house stuff. The shop looks unsophisticated, the layout is old fashioned and the poor staff have to wear a hideous uniform. They yell at each other across the shop and they trundle around with huge trolleys laden with goods and do not give way to customers.

Now, my point is that with a little more refinement, some low calorie diets, a presentable set of clothing, a few training sessions on the basics of customer care and a refurbishment, this shop could be so much better. In fact if you isolate each item on sale and placed them say in The White Company shop in London, high end sophisticated shop, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the stock of Dunelm Mill and The White Company. It seems to me that it's all about image, location and presentation. In other words it's a con trick. I have bought some white flowers, false ones, from Dunelm Mill and they are lovely. They cost, per stem, on average 99 pence. In The White Company my bet is that the same individual stems would cost at least 10 times that. We need to be wiser and more astute in our purchases in these times of austerity.