Freebies from the Ideal Home Show

Enterprise_1701C

Well, I enjoyed the day. The goody bag you get if you buy the program included an Oust odour eliminator, a tea towel, redbush tea sample and some super glue among other things, and we got a free canvas bag from Nissan. My OH managed to get his shoes cleaned (twice!!), and we actually achieved what we set out to do and managed to find some furniture, which is a miracle in itself!!

FizzieLizzie

My mum and sister went on sunday and they said that it wasnt as good as last year. They also said that there werent anything new or good! Came back with hardly anything!

greenishfingers

I've never been before, but got some fee tickets and have really enjoyed it. Plus I didn't do too badly with the freebies either (it wasn't freebie city, but I found enough to keep me happy). I didn't get any dishwasher tablets though...

Katgoddess

I went today (free tickets) and got the goody bag, which I am impressed with.

For £1.50 you can get a Good Homes goodie bag with 2 editions of the magazine, a big bar of chocolate and small packet of crisps.

One of the demonstrators was giving away free cloths to people who watched his demonstrations, and answered questions.

If you pick up the SafeStore bag it contains adverts and a small packet of sweets.

I enjoyed myself, but only because it was free and I didn't have to travel far. I brought a shopping trolley that folds away and can fit into a bag for a fiver.

acguest

I gave my tickets to my parents - they haven't been since about 1986 .... they said it was terrible (now not then) no samples or new products, half the stands were empty and the houses looked shabby.

They got the voucher booklets but that was all.

ziggy-star

Ive been going for the past 10 years and unfortunately found this years show to be pretty poor, majority of the health/beauty & gadgets had been moved downstairs and upstairs had been partially boarded up. The eating area was double the size of previous years and there were empty tables galour!

Stall holder said that to rent space was so expensive that it had priced the one man business out which is a same as I always thought it gave a good platform to show the unusual and quirky stuff

x

cuffie

I have to say I'm glad our tickets were free. I would have been very miffed if I had paid to go in this year. The houses were naff, and there were not as many exhibitors that I thought there would. One stall selling a mop!! Blimey - when we went 10 years ago, there were about 3 or 4 - all fighting for the competition...none of that this year though. It was very quiet. My mum went yesterday and said the same. It is because there are so many home stores now which stage room sets - there is no need for people to see these rooms anymore, and so many showhouses for you to nose around in your own area than see a staged one at the show (they were VERY disappointing). The best bit was the garden bit. All their stuff is 30-40% less than the garden centres so this is where you get the real bargains. We got a garden set about 40% cheaper than we would have done in the shops (make sure you barter on the price - we ended up with free delivery (norm £20), a free parasol base....this was over and above their other offers - we just said "if you can do x, y and z for £700 then we will have it (and that saved us about £40).)

I think the Ideal Home Show will die a death. Apparantly this is one of the worst years for them. The best bag was "good homes". £1-50 for 2 mags, chocolate, and crisps. Most of the other mags (ideal home, real homes) were £1 each, but I already had these issues.

The stall holders didn't seem bothered and weren't interested in getting your attention to sell stuff. The lady at Venture Photography was yawning as I was talking to her and kept asking her "junior" where our nearest studio was, and saying that if we'd have gone to the "junior" she wouldn't have got us the discount she herself was giving. Then she said that our nearest store was lovely and really popular (even though 5 mins before she'd been saying she'd never heard of the area!).

If you haven't got free tickets, don't bother (unless you want a bargain on the garden stuff.....that is WELL worth it). Oh, and if you are after a hot tub - loads to view - but not sure if they were "bargains" or not coz I'm not sure what they would sell for normally.

rainee

If the floor space is so expensive no wonder nobody was giving out free stuff! I've we've all had a poor experiance then we wont go back. I think imho that they need to re-think and get it back up to the standard of pervious years no wonder they have had to spend loads on advertising on buses etc
my son loved the wii stand but no stock to sell they could have made a bomb we've been trying to buy one for ages !
the staff said stock was regularly available!!