Student Lock In - The Trafford Centre

Everybody knows it's that time of year (season) again ....... STUDENT SALE TIMEEEEEE. I spend all semester saving on to the last scraps of money knowing that all the student sale events will occur a week or two before my student loan comes in. I have been to one of these before and this was at the Arndale in Manchester, it was one of the best shopping experiences I've ever had in my life, so I thought I'd review it on my blog this time.
So, the concept of these is, that if you are signed up to emails from the shopping centre hosting them (or at student lock in online) you will be notified of the event near you. They say you have to register but most of the time you just need a valid student card. And a massive list of shops participate in the sales. Most of the shops do a special 20% off for students offer and some, like Vans (absolute fave) host games such as beer pong to win further bonuses!
The pros of this kind of event are obviously the money that you are saving, the atmosphere of everyone buzzing around you from excitement at all of these offers and just how special it makes you to feel to be a student. Let's be honest, the student lifestyle isn't the most glamourus and privileged so once you are even acknowledged - it's great!
However, there are cons to these types of events - not every shop participates with discounts, it is EXTREMELY busy and uncomfortable, stock becomes unavailable quickly and the customer service in shops suffers terribly. The only shop where I was truly satisfied with the service was Kurt Geiger (I may go into more detail about shop service in another blog), the girl that served me was so lovely and helpful and it made a nice change from the evils I'd been getting from the rest of the shop assistants.

I took full advantage of these special prices and picked up just a few items. The first of which are this year's AW boots, they are part of last year's collection from Kurt Geiger but I think they are still in style, so comfortable and I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of them. I wish I could've walked out of Kurt Geiger with more than one pair of shoes (I especially have my eye on those Miss KG ones which go with Benefit's They're Real mascara - they're just so beautiful), but I'm thankful I got my Autumn/Winter Boots at a discounted price.
I also headed into Topshop and bought the dogtooth cigarette pants as seen on my friend April in a previous blog because I couldn't resist, as well as the Magic Liner to try out.
Only one purchase from The Body Shop, which had 30% off I might add, and that was the Tea Tree Night Serum because I was so impressed with the tester I'd been given.
I also bought my favourite Yankee Candle (Candy Corn) and I picked up a T-Shirt for my boyfriend from Vans.
Overall, I'd say that you should go to the event if it's near you, because this is something that you don't want to miss and I can't wait for the next one!
CJ x