"BOMB BARGAINS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 310, 31 December 1940, Page 5

"BOMB BARGAINS."

NEW-STYLE SALE. HOMELESS WOMEN IN QUEUE. (Special.) LONDON, November 10. Peter Robinson's, the famous Oxford Street store which recently had a direct hit from a bomb, reopened this week with a sale of "bomb bargains." As they did for pre-war sales, long queues of women waited outside the shop for its doors to open. In the wing that remains undamaged were many women who had lost their possessions in the bombing of their wardrobes. A West Kensington woman, Mrs. V. Albert, who was wearing a costume several sizes too large, said:

"I lost every bit of clothing I possessed when my flat was bombed and what I am wearing has been lent by friends." For 15/ she had bought a perfectly cut suit of herringbone tweed. For 6d she secured an aertex jumper, reduced from 6/11, and with not a mark on it to show that it was "damaged stock.'" A heavy, warm woollen dressing gown, usually 35/, cost Mrs. Albert 5/. Five-guinea gowns were marked down! to £2. The store became so full at one time that attendants had to close the doors and let women in a few at a time as others, left. There were more than 200 women laughing and chatting in the queue and making joking comments to the women coming out with parcels. Every sort of merchandise was at "bomb bargain" juices—soap, scents, mackintoshes, underclothing, dress materials, needleware, and even umbrellas.