I am sure most of you have been on a shopping tour before. You know the deal – a fundraising effort by schools, kindergartens or sports teams – a bus is hired, women of all ages flock and you spend the day getting driven to various outlets around the Melbourne area, finding bargains along the way. The hostess gives you regular updates on how much you have spent and the more you spend, the more goes to your local school, kindergarten or sports team. Somewhere along the way you stop to refuel at a pub for lunch and when 6pm rolls around all you can think about is lying on the couch with a cold compress and a glass of wine. Shopping tours are not for the faint hearted. They are 10 hours of hardcore spending, and you need to be in your best form – flat shoes, easy to change clothes and most importantly, a signature ready hand for all those credit card transactions.

Our shopping tour this past Saturday was hosted by Jackie’s shopping tours, but there are many that operate in the Melbourne area. Host Felicity was very helpful, especially as I was meeting the group at the first outlet rather than being picked up by the bus and needed a few directions. Beaches Clothing in Brunswick East was our first stop, and whether I wasn’t quite awake yet or too busy hankering after that first coffee of the morning, I wasn’t too thrilled by what was on offer. Heaps of kids clothing lined the racks, with men’s and women’s gear right up the back. Most of the stock was ex Target merchandise and for the group we were supporting – a local kindergarten – Mums and Grandmas were crazy for the stuff. Once back on the bus 30 minutes later, Felicity informed us that the total spend was over $1,000 – a great way to start the day. Second on the agenda was Holeproof where I again didn’t think the outlet was anything worth writing home about. Bonds gear sold for the RRP while Sachi shoes were barely discounted. It’s been a while since I have been to individual outlets (regular readers will know I frequent DFO) but ‘back in the day’, the factories were significantly cheaper than the retail outlets. Is this a product of the recession? I picked up some Leona Edminston tights here for $12 but the day stretched before me and I was already feeling that I might come home disappointed.

Finally our third outlet struck gold – Sweet Success, a chocolate fundraising outlet. You will all know what a fan I am of Peanut Butter M and Ms – this place had them for $2 a bag! Not to mention the samples here were amazing. In an era where most places won’t even let you smell a product, Sweet Success has buckets on offer for you to try. Before 10am and before I had even had a coffee I enjoyed coconut rough, raspberry bullets, chocolate covered bananas and peppermint creams. A sugar high rather than a coffee boost kept me going for the next outlet, Toyworx, in Reservoir. As a single girl with more interest in footwear than fairy costumes, I did a lap and took the opportunity to take a powernap on the bus. I could have done some Christmas shopping but I was ill prepared without a list and reports from the educated toy-shoppers advised Big W provided better value.

A homewares outlet was next and considering I had just moved from a house sized kitchen to an apartment sized one, I didn’t think Corningware and Pyrex should be on my must-have list. I will concede that this place was cheap though – 3 heavy glass mixing bowls of various for $10 and roasting dishes for under $20. Perhaps we should have bought some gear here and cooked our own lunch as the pub lunch we received was beyond below average. Croxton Park in Thornbury appeared to be the shopping tour lunch hub at 12pm on a Saturday and they were clearly pumping the meals out of the kitchen to accommodate. Roast Lamb with vegies alternated with a Parma and chips but everything was dry and poorly presented. Dessert of individual Pavlova topped with fruit came straight from the freezer; the plates were still cold and the fruit (from a can) overly chilled. Nevertheless, cookies baked by one of the girls and a selection of lollies on the bus kept our energy levels up and we hit the afternoon running.

Finally we were headed to some outlets I could get my hopes up about – Diana Ferrari and the handbag warehouse among them. Diana was first and as soon as I walked in I spotted sunglasses reduced by 25%. As we are actually coming into summer, I don’t see any reason to discount sunglasses so was quite happy with this as my first real purchase of the day. This was quickly followed by a discovery that the store had a special on – Buy one item and get 50% off the second. I scoured the racks and found a few frocks to try on – totally spring and totally appropriate for the races. The first dress I decided on is a white satin with hand painted purple flowers, black Grecian inspired straps and a black empire line tie. The second is a combination of reds, oranges, pinks and creams with ruffle v neck and wrap around tie belt. It’s very pretty but very hard to describe, and this image, nor the purple dress, does either justice. Hold out for the races when I will have pics wearing them! Just next door at the handbag outlet I scored a Jag clutch that matches the second dress and within half an hour of arriving at Fairfield I had given my card a good workout.

Back to the bus and onto bigger and better outlets, we arrived at 1999 in Collingwood, an outlet with apparel and nothing over $20. This one had been built up on the bus – I only hoped it lived up to its reputation. Similar to Beaches, 1999 stocks ex Target, Kmart, Big W, Sportsgirl, Forever New, Sussan and Witchery among others. This was the only outlet where I wished we had more time – after collecting about 15 dresses and starting trying them on, there wasn’t time to return to the store to try on sizes one smaller or one larger – a result of the lack of sizing standards in Australia. I picked up a Witchery one shoulder dress in cream, a flowing Sussan dress in navy that will be great with a brown belt and heels, and a Sportsgirl skirt for the office. At this stage I was starting to get credit card guilt but at the same time thinking how thrilled I was with everything I had found thus far. I was however placated by the summaries given by Felicity each time we returned to the bus – at this stage we were somewhere around the $4000 mark for total spend for the day and we still had several outlets to go.

At Natio in Abbotsford I got some primer and under make up sunscreen (a reaction to Friday nights PRIMPED forum where I learnt about the importance of sun protection for the skin) and tested the lipbalms on offer before we headed to the Breville outlet in Collingwood. With no need for electrical appliances, a few of us wandered away from the group and checked out Dejcuba, Pumpkin Patch and Barkins. Barkins turned out to be a winner, I picked up some purple peeptoe pumps and when I went to the register to pay, received the matching clutch and a corsage for free as part of a special offer they are running at the moment! Together with the purple dress from Diana Ferrari, I have at least one complete outfit for the spring racing carnival for under $200.

The final outlet was Carters Jewellery and they proved an unimpressive end to the day. I was at the point where my main concern was getting home before the rain hit and thinking about what my cocktail of choice would be upon getting there. I am a seasoned shopper and can seriously say that shopping tours are a lot of fun – but also a lot of hard work. You will come home tired and broke but if you are lucky you found a few bargains and maybe a few gifts in the process.

Jackie’s Shopping Tours can be contacted on 9852 0499 or visit www.jackiesshoppingtours.com.au

My favourite outlets of the day were:
Diana Ferrari, 262 Darebin Road Fairfield
1999, 96 Rokeby Street Collingwood
Sweet Success, 23 Colebrook Street Brunswick