Your advice, please!

[Sharen Crane]

I wonder if the prices in Primani Algarve are a match to Primani UK!

[EMM]

How would I know I was just pleased to see a C&A branch in the shopping centre across the road from Aqua.

[scottishstacey]

I'll go in and let you know sharen lol, what other shops are there? I dont really go into primark here but i'll go in and see if they've got anything nice

[Sharen Crane]

How would I know I was just pleased to see a C&A branch in the shopping centre across the road from Aqua.

Ahhh C & A. Does it have the same smell it used to have when it was in the UK. You could walk into any C & A store blindfolded and know that you were in a C & A store!

I have to be honest Stacey, I rarely shop when I am in Portugal.... unless it is handbags and shoes!

[scottishstacey]

Whats C & A? I dont think i bought anything any clothes at all when i was over. Daves being a mean old git this year and making us share a suitcase, i always end up bringing far too many clothes and then my suitcase is overweight lol ive been instructed to not bring loads this time So i wont be able to buy a lot at the shopping centre!

[ron5000]

Nige - isle of man. Reminds me of someone

[CM]

Ron, he does not run a snack bar on a golf course

[jeremy]

Stacey -



See :

http://www.c-and-a.com/uk/en/corporate/fashion/

Used to be in UK until 2001

[Craig]

Hi Stacey


C & A = Coats & Ats

Craig

[EMM]

We called it someting else

Living in a small oxfordshire town a group of us would make a trip to Oxford street 3-4 times year for new clothes.

M&S C&A , the original Virgin record shop etc then a trip to Soho before a late drive back.

[Craig]

So did we EMM ---- I was just being polite

Craig

[TomUK]

Strange how their sizeable UK operation folded after so many years. They still have numerous stores in almost every other country of Western and Eastern Europe.

For those who may be interested, here are some facts . . .

Clemens & August
C&A is one of the leading fashion retail companies in Europe. Indeed, it has been for decades. You didn’t know that? Then it’s time for your first history lesson. Even in the 17th Century, members of the Brenninkmeyer family traded in linen and textiles. However, the actual success story began 200 years later, when the brothers Clemens and August (hence C&A) left their home town in Mettingen, Germany, and opened up a textile warehouse in Sneek, Netherlands in 1841.

The beginning
The first C&A store that opened its doors there in 1861, was a great success. After all, it was one of the first outlets to offer made-up products – i.e. ready-to-wear items of clothing in various sizes – to a broad public. And that at favourable prices. The company grew and, by 1910, succeeded in opening a substantial number of stores in the Netherlands. The further developments were international. Thus in 1911 (Germany) and 1922 (England) the first companies outside the Netherlands were founded. A second wave of followed after the Second World War in a very non-uniform social and economic climate. It began in 1963 with stores in Belgium. In 1972 C&A opened stores in France, 1977 in Switzerland, 1982 in Luxembourg and 1983 in Spain. Austria followed in 1984, Portugal in 1991, the Czech Republic in 1999, Poland in 2001, Hungary in 2002 and Russia in 2005. Turkey, Slovakia and Slovenia followed in 2007 and in Romania as well as in Italy and Croatia C&A started as youngest of the 19 European C&A-countries.

Our presence in Europe
Today, C&A has 1149 stores + 214 Kids Stores + 11 Clockhouse shops + 17 Women Stores + 2 Shoe shops and over 34,000 employees in Europe. From the invention of pre-manufactured clothing “off the peg”, through to bikini and miniskirt, today C&A still offers the customer the latest fashion in the widest possible selection at a favourable price. And that Europe-wide. So much for the history of C&A. But we are certain that the story will continue ...

[scottishstacey]

never heard of it

[TomUK]

Think you're the wrong age group Stacey. It could also be that the Scottish stores folded before the English ones did.
Seems they closed down the last two stores in England in 2001, after losing £250m over five years. Their premises were taken on by similar businesses that you may be more familiar with, including Next, Gap, etc.

Here's an idea of what C&A looked like . . .

[scottishstacey]

Prob in the wrong age group lol i only just turned 21. I think i recognise the logo tho