Lefties has arrived at Lakeside, and its fitting rooms have something worth investigating. Secret Shopper finds the technology more convincing than some of the clothes.

A new shop at Lakeside was always going to get a visit from me, particularly one promising the sort of prices that make picking up a few extras seem entirely reasonable. Once the doors opened, Secret Shopper Mum and I were ready to investigate.

For anyone unfamiliar with the name, Lefties is the Spanish budget fashion brand belonging to Inditex, the group behind Zara and Pull&Bear. It began as an outlet for leftover Zara stock, which explains the name, but has since developed its own collections.

Already established in continental Europe, Lefties made its UK debut at Liverpool ONE in August. Lakeside is its second British store, covering 36,000 sq ft, and it certainly feels substantial once you get inside.

Lefties has already drawn plenty of comparisons with Primark, with both offering affordable fashion at broadly similar price points. At Lakeside, you can put that comparison to the test without even changing floors, as Lefties sits on level two directly opposite Primark. We came away with some worthwhile purchases, although the thing that impressed me most was not actually an item of clothing.

A very stylish place to hunt for a bargain

First impressions were strong. The warm wood and pale interiors give the shop a much more polished feel than its prices might suggest, while large digital screens make the displays feel current. There is a definite Zara family resemblance, with some of Pull&Bear’s younger styling and an Ikea-ish practicality underneath it all.

It was also extremely busy during our visit, with plenty of people exploring their new shopping option. The store had that opening-period buzz, although the size of it meant there was a lot to spread out and investigate.

Womenswear was our first stop, but the menswear and children’s departments looked substantial too. Homeware had been given proper space rather than a token corner, and there was plenty of activewear alongside the pyjamas.

Within womenswear, the different looks had been grouped quite deliberately. Some areas felt aimed at teenagers, while others concentrated on basics. Elsewhere there were glittery going-out clothes and more fitted pieces, with looser, slouchier styles offering an alternative. Whatever your taste, there was probably a section intended to catch your attention.

Some designs looked remarkably familiar. A co-ord immediately reminded me of a Zara set I already own in another colour, and several of the trousers and tops prompted the same reaction.

The presentation was doing a very good job of making everything look tempting. Once we started looking closely at the individual pieces, though, our enthusiasm became more selective.

There were good finds, but also quite a lot that did not do much for either of us. At times, the experience reminded me of working through a Zara or Pull&Bear sale, where you know there may be something excellent waiting but have to pass over plenty of other things to reach it. The rails were organised; it was the clothes themselves that required a bit of sorting through.

Secret Shopper Mum and I agreed that basics were one of the stronger reasons to visit. Men’s T-shirts were around the £5 mark, while some of the everyday tops I picked up were £11. A warm insulation top for early-morning winter dog walks cost £10, which felt like a very sensible purchase for somebody who would much rather remain under the duvet.

Outerwear was another strong point, with plenty of coats to look through. The faux-suede jackets were particularly appealing, and one came home with me. I am already planning an outing to wear it, although how well it holds up will need a little more time than a first shopping trip can tell us.

There was also a nice jumper among my purchases, but the overall basket leaned towards useful wardrobe additions rather than an exciting whole new outfit. Beyond that jacket, there was not much that made me want to plan the rest of my clothes around it.

Homeware was a different story. The Christmas displays were lovely, with festive bedding styled properly on a bed rather than left for shoppers to imagine from a packet. The cushions and decorations made that part of the store particularly inviting, and it is somewhere I would happily return for another look.

The fitting room feature I now want everywhere

The fitting rooms were where Lefties became much more interesting from a retail-tech perspective. During our visit, we could walk straight in without somebody counting the garments or handing over a numbered token, which made getting started refreshingly efficient.

Inside the cubicle, however, things were rather less impressive. There was a metal rail for hanging the clothes I wanted to try, but no separate hooks for the things I was taking off. There was no chair or stool either, leaving me trying to balance my own clothes on top of my handbag to avoid putting them directly on the floor.

For somebody who is a bit of a germaphobe, that was not ideal. Nobody is expecting a luxury John Lewis fitting room experience at these prices, but somewhere to put your clothes and somewhere to sit do not feel like extravagant requests.

Then came the feature that almost distracted me from all of that. In the wall was what looked rather like a cat flap, labelled for unwanted items and hangers. Push the flap open, put through anything you have decided against and it lands on a conveyor belt behind the fitting rooms. The clothes are carried away towards the sorting area, ready to be dealt with and returned to the shop floor, rather than remaining in a pile beside you.

This was the point at which Secret Shopper became disproportionately enthusiastic about a hole in a wall. Instead of gathering up all the rejects at the end and trying to keep them separate from the things you wanted, you could send them through as you went. It also freed up space inside the cubicle, which was particularly welcome given the lack of anywhere else to put things. Watching the items move away down the conveyer belt made the whole arrangement feel satisfyingly practical.

It was easily my favourite feature of the visit. The idea is simple enough for shoppers to understand without instructions beyond the sign, and it deals with an irritating part of trying on clothes. Lefties had managed to make rejecting an item feel almost as efficient as buying one.

A few hooks and a stool would have made the experience considerably better, though. Being impressed by the conveyor did not stop me wishing my own jumper had somewhere more dignified to sit.

Self-checkout without the usual faff

The checkout continued the useful tech theme. You put your clothes into a recessed basket and the system identifies the items together, bringing them up on screen rather than asking you to scan every barcode individually.

It reminded me of the setup at Uniqlo, and of the similar systems that have not always behaved quite so well for me elsewhere. Pull&Bear, you know what you did. At Lefties, the process worked quickly, which is exactly what you want after trying on a sizeable selection of clothes.

There were no hard security tags for me to wrestle off either. The screen instructed me to keep the clothes in the basket while it dealt with the security tags, and I did not have to detach anything myself. Inditex has been rolling out soft-tag alarm technology alongside its assisted checkouts, so this fits with the wider changes happening across the group.

A member of staff did have to come over and approve my transaction before it could be completed. Whether that was connected to how much I had spent or another check, I could not tell, but it was dealt with quickly. Not every shopper appeared to need the same intervention.

There were plenty of checkout stations, with staff nearby to help, so it did not feel as though customers had been left to work everything out themselves. A separate returns area was another sensible touch, although this being my first visit, that part of the service remained untested.

You could choose a printed receipt or have it emailed, and I opted for the latter. The email then arrived in Spanish, from the “Hola” greeting to the instructions for downloading my receipt, which was a slightly unexpected end to a shopping trip in Essex.

Given Lefties’ Spanish roots and international operation, this could simply be a default language setting that has not quite caught up with its UK expansion. Without knowing what caused it, I cannot say whether other customers had the same experience, but it is something worth checking. After making checkout so straightforward, sending customers instructions they might need to translate adds a bit of unnecessary complication.

Great tech, but Primark needn’t panic yet

Coming away from the visit, the comparison with Primark felt less straightforward than the opening excitement might suggest. For my taste, Primark still offers more variety, and there are bargains there that Lefties has not automatically beaten. This is another option for affordable shopping, rather than somewhere that makes its neighbour redundant.

What Lefties does particularly well is make budget shopping look appealing. The displays encourage you to browse, and the technology removes some of the usual faffing around once you reach the fitting rooms or till. The clothes do not consistently live up to that first impression, but there are worthwhile pieces if you are prepared to look.

My jacket is the purchase I am most excited about, while the basics will earn their place through being useful. That is enough to bring me back, especially with the homeware offering another reason to visit, but the range needs to be more consistently tempting before this becomes a five-star shopping trip.

For me, the technology gets 5/5 and the store layout 4.5/5, while the clothing range sits at 3.5/5. Overall, Lefties earns a solid four stars because, however much fun it is sending unwanted trousers through a hatch, the clothes you actually want to keep still have to do most of the work.

Secret Shopper rating: 4 out of 5 stars