Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Shopping prada outlet in Florence

Ok, there are many reviews and experiences on how it is done but in bits of poeces here and there.
So here is my full experience.
I knew i wanted a prada/miumiu/balenciaga and from reviews,Space was THE place to go (no balenciago though)
And i had decided that i would go to Space at Montevarchi T first and if there was nothing,i would do The Mall.

So i was advised to take the FIRST train out to be the first few in line to get into e shopping mall which opens officially at 10:30am.

Being a kiasu singaporean,i took e train at 8am from Florence towards montevarchi terranuova. I stress this as other reviews only say montevarchi and when an additional terranuova appears on the train selection list,i panicked. 
We reached at 9am and right outside the station there is a taxi stand,we met another japanese couple there and we waited about 10mins before a minivan labelled taxi drove our way. 4euros per pax since there were 4 of us. Otherwise,12euros for e trip.
I wouldnt recommend Luca if you had a choice as he was pure rude to us.
But if there isnt anyone else. Just hop on.

No way we could have walked to e outlet mall or taken a bus. About 15mins drive to some ulu area and there it was SPACE.

When we alighted at 9:10am,there were already 5 PRCs infront of us. We had to wait outside e perimeter of the building.
In chinese,these girls (early 20s) are already boasting about how they were gonna buy at least 15bags and about 20wallets each. And how they are gonna run in and just grab everything in sight and then decide later.
My friends, nothing to fear. The store is too big to let these annoying people affect you.
At 9:30, the security opened the metal gates so we could walk in and take a Q number for the payment of the bags later on. The number really isnt tt much for e Q as space allows e numbers 1-200 in at a time. (There were barely 100 ppl when the doors were later opened at 10:30.)
So after taking our numbers (13&14) as the PRCs took about 2/3 numbers each (which doesnt make sense as there wasnt a cap to how much u can buy)
We headed to e cafe to sit and have a drink while slowly the queue formed right outside e doors. We joined e back of e line even though we were first few at about 10:25. 
It really makes no difference -take it from e kiasu singaporean-
I went straight for e bags to the right of the outlet.
The outlet's layout is simple.
Walk in,u see men/small leather goods. Men stuff to the left, right for women.
Prada Wallets-> prada bags -> miumiu -> shoes -> clothes.

Its a simple layout and fool proof,no hidden areas or second floor.
I fell in love w my miumiu shopping bag the second i saw it. Picked it up touched smelled carried and asked. Last piece! Ok,im taking it. The sales assistant took my q number and e bag was reaerved and off e shelf.

With e main thing accomplished i could take my leisurely time to start from e beginning. We tried on pants and prada down jackets (a steal but i didnt need it)

The most popular area had to be e prada wallets. About 10-15 ppl crowding each table filled w colorful wallets. 
Just looking at them made me so happy! Like looking at candy.

A Little trick to share:
i found a sling in black which i liked going for 550euros. The design came in white,black,red and pink. I torned between e black and e white, so the sales assistant whispered that e white was only 440 euros due to a small defect (which no one could find). Well THAT 100euros made a huge difference. But then white needed maintainence and i wasnt one who could keep up. It would be grey in a month!

So the trick is,at e price tag,there are numbers. If there is a number 3 the price of e item is lower than e actual cost shown. So i went looking and saw that e gorgeous pink also had a 3. Even though i was between black and white for vainess. I decided e pink was the best choice for my pocket and my heart.
Thats 200sgd difference for something i still have not found on my pink sling.

I was tempted to buy at least 2 more items,a wallet and another pretty miumiu sling but as i am travelling and will continue to travel the next few months,i decided against it. The staff were all very patient and very sweet,even to us asians. I had gone with some expectations of being snubbed like in Paris. But this was nowhere near that.

Its heaven. I dun follow e newest designs that much so im not sure of the seasons. But all e items look quite classic to me and as long as it looks good on you/with you,who cares what season?!

Obviously,The Mall was out of the way and out of my pocket by e end of it. I couldnt stop giggling over my money spent. The joys of ur hard earned money evolving into a bag you love. Hahah 

The taxi out was tricky,it would be good to pre book when he first drops you off. We were lucky that another taxi came to us as the guy we came with was etirely booked up.
Give yourself.. 3hrs? I did mine by 1.30pm and im usually a fast shopper. But when u're surrounded by pretty things and discounts.. One tends to be slower.
So we got to e train station and booked our train tkts back to Florence and called it a day.
Prices are sensitive but what i can say is both my bags are half the original price! ^^


Next up,tax refund. Most of you won't have an issue as it can easily be done at e airport,but as i had to train to italy, it was a hella difficult and worrisome.
The word was that trains from italy to switzerland hardly has any custom officers to check ur passport or stamp the tax refund.
And my train was going via domodossola as the italian border not e more popular chiasso.  
After extensive research to take backk my tax money, we had to get off e train at domo, find e customs guy,stamp and then get back on e train (whichleaves within 5mins) since thats NOT possible,we would hafta stamo,loiter tol the next train to switzerland arrives (3hrs later) there was also an issue of not having a seat assigned on e new train.
So i approached the whistle blower at milano centrale, with my biggest smile i made friends and asked about e stamp. 
As e reviews go,he said get down at domo. I enquired if i had enough time o hop back on as me and my friend had 55L backpacks and another 40L front packs alongside our shopping and water bottles.
He was confidebt enough and said yes,just start running when u hear the forst whistel. THAT did not sound good,running was near impossible with backpacks bigger than ourselves.
So we planned that my friend bring all e packs off e train at e door while i run and look for the guy. If we can make it,we simply hafta carry e packs back up. If we dont,at least the train wouldnt take our luggage and leave us stranded in Domo.

Lucky enough,i hopped off and ran towards a grp of 3 whistle blowers,they pointed me in e direction of a man in PLAIN CLOTHES no "customs uniform" whatsoever and it was done. 
One whistleblower even told my friend as he walked past, "i think she can make it" :)
And we did!
Back on e original train while some passengers were still taling a smoke break from e train!

Success in DOMODOSSOLA
next would be tracking iur crefit cards for e refund within 2 months.
Phew.

No comments: