I blogged early last time as I was going away and did not get the blog topic until my return, so thought I would do it this time and hope it is still useful and not too late. My first reaction to what makes a brand good quality was 'price'. You get what you pay for. But on reflection feel that reputation counts for a huge amount of how I feel about a brand. I do not consider George clothing to be good quality, but do think it is good for the price. I have never had any issues with items I have bought from George, with regard to durability or how they wash, so in that respect I guess they are good quality. However in my head I never have any great expectations for quality from George. I would consider from the list of shops provided that ASOS and Matalan were very cheap quality and beneath George. I believe this is true from experience from items I have bought and they have not lasted. Florence and Fred and TU would be equal in Quality to George. M & S and Next would be better quality than George. I am not sure why I think the later are better, other than their reputation. They have always promoted themselves as always willing to exchange their goods, 'No questions asked' if unhappy with the item for any reason. This instils a confidence in the buyer that the company back their products 100%, therefore making us think the products must be good quality. This therefore is my suggestion for George to impart their improved quality to the public by endorsing all products with money back guarantee if not completely satisfied. This may in fact currently be the case anyway but is not promoted to my knowledge. The last shop, Topshop, I think is quite expensive compared to the others mentioned and do not feel they offer particularly good quality for the price. I feel here you are very much paying a premium for the high fashion brand targeting youngsters. Finally I think to bring George up a level in considered quality you need to improve the presentaion of the goods within the shop. I think at the moment it is presented as 'supermarket' clothing rather than George as a clothing retailer in its own right. I think the George area should be more defined and updated.

I have not really been clothes shopping or bought very much in the last couple of weeks as I seem to have spent so much during September. The only item I bought for myself was a simple red vest top with lycra which I had been looking for to go under various tops I have already. I found one eventually in Zara for £6. I also bought my youngest daughter a turquoise knitted dress and three quarter sleeved top in the same colour from H & M. The top was £5 and the dress £20. My eldest daughter started a new Saturday job last weekend and needed to wear plain black trousers and shoes along with uniform logo top. These she found in New Look. The trousers were £14 and the shoes £15. I did look around Asda when I went food shopping last week but thought the stock was quite Dowdy for the winter season , so did not see anything I would buy. I also looked around Sainsburys clothing section with my sister in law. They had a half price sale. I did not buy anything for the overspend reasons as above but could have been tempted into a few bargains had I not managed to resist. My sister in law did buy two casual tops and a cardigan though, as they were at knock down prices.