Though today¡¯s modern shopping environment of huge chain stores and large retail chains has made it easier and cheaper than ever to buy clothes to add to our wardrobes, one negative that the rise in these large companies has had is that fact that the humble boutique seems to have, quite literally, fallen out of fashion. Though they may be less prevalent than they used to be, smaller, independent boutiques absolutely still have a place in the modern shopping world. To prove this point and to hopefully encourage more shoppers to return to some smaller businesses, here are a handful of benefits and advantages that boutiques have over chain stores.
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The Personal Touch
Compared to chain stores that can look identical no matter what city or county you are in, boutiques provide a much more pleasant shopping experience with a wonderful personal touch. When you visit a boutique, you can see the effort that has been put in to make the store a welcoming place for shoppers instead of the carbon copy, sterile feeling d¨¦cor of a chain store.
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Better Customer Service
In my experience, there is always a member of staff ready and willing to help out a boutique due to both the personal touch and pure numbers. Sometimes you can spend a fifteen to twenty minutes in chain store without ever seeing a member of staff, and this lack of personal care for customers is something that chain stores tend to forget as they expand to bigger and bigger heights.
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Unique Items
It is inevitable, if you and your friends all shop at the same popular chain stores, that you are going to end up buying and wearing exactly the same garments month by month. Boutique stores are the perfect remedy for this as they are full of a much more varied and diverse selection of clothing. Compared to chain stores, boutiques offer a much more unique shopping experience that will give the chance to have a different wardrobe than everybody else.
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More Enjoyable Browsing Experience
Chain stores are set up in such a way that you almost feel rushed in to picking something out and buying it. There is a very clinical feel to the way that the garments are displayed, with so much choice that what you want might often be hard to find. This is not the case with boutique stores where a much more relaxed and customer friendly approach is taken. Browsing at a boutique is much less intensive than at a chain store, and therefore you get a much more enjoyable shopping experience overall.
