Freeport Braintree – A stress free ‘Back to School’ shop!

The nice folks at Freeport Braintree invited me and the mossters to have a look around and perhaps treat ourselves to some new shiny stuff! With G’s entry into Year 8 and J starting his 15 hours per week at nursery, both needed some new footwear for these milestones. I do actually frequent Braintree Freeport a fair bit, it’s my nearest Starbucks now, and M+S is has the AMAZING Veggie Percy Pigs, so I already love it! Aside from that though, I’ve never really done much in the way of shopping there.

As G has been rocking Clarks shoes at school for a few years now as they seem pretty much bullet-proof it seemed the obvious choice to drop into the Clarks store at Freeport. As EVERYONE is after school shoes now, they’d set up a ‘pop up’ shoe measuring station outside the store, within minutes both of them had had their feet sized up.

Inside the store all the shoes available are out to see, all organised by size and width fitting – no need to ask ‘Have you got these in a 9 please?’. Once the kids had found shoes they liked (J’s had Dinosaurs on the soles!) one of the staff members came over to check the fit, and advise on any changes.

Considering it was a week to the start of school there were plenty of shoes available and the experience, despite the heaving shop, was amazingly stress free! We were in and out, in less than 20 minutes, both kids really pleased with their purchases, and me over the moon that we’d saved around 50%!

I’d come to Freeport Braintree with the aim treating myself to some new underwear, my pants and socks these days are looking a bit sad. There is plenty of choice available, I mooched in Next, M+S, Tommy Hilfiger, and Bench – Bench had an extra 30% off EVERYTHING – being a savvy shopper, that sealed the deal! I picked up an armful of pants and G and I also got matching ‘Man Bags’ (a steal at £5.60 each!)

I went a little ‘Old School’ with my socks and went to M+S – you can’t go wrong with Marks’ socks, nothing amazing or ground-breaking – just socks!

Georgia had seen a cap she’d wanted in next, and being typical siblings, J wanted a new hat too!

I was dragged into the Cadburys Outlet Shop by my sweet toothed Mossters for some bargain chocolate!

The afternoon had flown by and all that was left to do was stop into Starbucks for a coffee and a cake to refuel before heading home.

I really do like shopping at Freeport Braintree – it’s got a nice ‘chilled’ feeling to it – even when it’s full of crazed parents desperate to buy ‘Back to School’ stuff. The open air ‘Village’ layout is less claustrophobic than a traditional shopping centre, and I felt happy to let the kids charge off and enjoy themselves without worrying about them constantly.

The fact that Freeport Braintree is a designer outlet village allows you to pick up labels for less, and I was pleased with our armful of bags with just a smidge over our £100 Gift Card spent. I’d definitely think more about shopping at Braintree Freeport now than just flying past everything to race to Starbucks!