New service: Man Buys Present

I've been looking at this new website, manbuyspresent.com. It seems like a good idea. You have a reason to buy a female loved one a gift - birthday, Valentine, anniversary it has a lot of categories including, reassuringly, "just because" (you do not, repeat not, need an excuse to get your partner something nice).

It's blissfully easy to do. You enter the information - relationship to the giftee, their age, the occasion, your budget - and it comes up with some suggestions. Enter your card details and it's all delivered nicely wrapped (this could be a problem; if it doesn't look as though a retarded chimpanzee has attacked some expensive wrapping paper with sellotape whilst wearing boxing gloves they'll know I didn't wrap it myself).

So far, so faultless. There seems to be the odd glitch - I tried finding something for my daughter and on the shortlist of three presents there was a friendship bracelet, which isn't quite dad-ish. But the other stuff was OK.

I have two minor problems with the idea, though. The first is with the concept itself. I've a horrible feeling it's entirely correct to say that a lot of us blokes are hopeless at buying stuff, or we forget. But my wife and daughter aren't stereotypes, they're real people. I prefer to take the time to get something for them specifically rather than something to suit some random female.

Embedded in there is my other issue. Guys, I have male relatives as well. And they are difficult to buy for, BUT THEY DON'T WANT SCENTED COAT HANGERS I CAN ASSURE YOU.

Maybe this should have been called Manbuyspresentforwomen. That's certainly its market. And it does a reasonable job, if you're genuinely too busy or too bone idle to do it for yourself. Perhaps male presents could be a followp-up service..?

A Suit that Fits hits John Lewis

I've written in the past about a few tailors - I went and visited my current supplier, King and Allen, only yesterday. My introduction to having stuff made to measure, though, was with A Suit That Fits (order a suit through that link and I get a voucher - I mention this in the interests of full declaration). And they've done something interesting by getting a concession area in John Lewis in London's Oxford Street.

If I'm honest, this is a slightly odd one in my opinion. If I go into a shop to buy something I tend to want to walk out with my purchase. This clearly isn't the way the operation works. Also if I'm in most retail premises I tend not to want to need to make an appointment. The model from A Suit That Fits, however, remains appointment only - mostly because they expect to take an hour measuring you up and going through the various fabric and style options with you. I can see how you wouldn't want passing trade with a business like that.

This is why I find it's an odd fit within a busy department store, particularly when the business has a permanent office just down the road off Regent Street. Nevertheless the branding's a bit of a coup for the company and will no doubt confound several of the competition. The publicity says you'll get a bespoke suit for prices from £299; technically this is true but the limitations on style and fabric will be pretty severe at that price, I'd expect to pay around £500 for something better, and wait around 6-8 weeks before it's wearable unless you're an awkward shape in which case you may need more than one fitting.

There's no reason not to wish them well - but I'd welcome readers' comments on whether you'd be comfortable making an hour-long appointment in a busy department store in London.

Discounts on Smithfield Case

Yesterday I wrote about the success of the Smithfield Case personal shopping service. There was nothing to be gained for me in doing this, I was genuinely pleased to be recommending a service I found useful.

They took payment from my card as agreed - this really is an easy process - and sent me a discount code for anyone else who wants to try it. Feel free to order a case of clothes and add the code "CLAPPERTON-30" at the checkout and they'll give you £15 off your first selection.

This offer will expire on 7 April, and in the interests of full declaration I should say they'll give me a fiver for everyone who orders, up to a maximum of fifty quid. Once again I had no knowledge of this before the two previous blogs on the subject, which weren't written with any gain in mind - but I'd be daft not to mention this discount to you now.

If anyone else orders with them I'd be delighted to hear how you got on in the comments section below.

This is idiotic or brilliant...

I'm going to try a new service. It's called the Smithfield Case. In spite of its name it is nothing to do with a meat market in London. The idea is simple; you decide it's time you had some new clothes, the wardrobe's due for a refresh, so you order a case of them.

You can make specific requests of course but mostly the system seems geared towards blokes who can't be bothered signing up and hitting the "I'd like some decent clothes please" button. They deliver them, you try them on, decide what you like and what you don't. They pick the rest up and then charge you for the stuff you've kept. It sounds very simple, and of course you can specify stuff you like and stuff you don't - I've asked for "no jeans" for reasons that will become apparent very quickly to regular readers (he says, mysteriously).

They take your sizes, your preferences - I opted for "casual/weekend", ignored "edgy" for example - you say which colours you like and what styles you like wearing. You also set a budget and they're quite frank that the cheaper stuff isn't their market; anyone wanting trousers for under £75 will need to shop elsewhere.

So I'm just waiting for my first box to turn up. It might contain stuff from APC, Bertie, Diesel, Gant, Paul Smith, Reiss, many such designer brands.

Reasons I think it might work: I rarely have the time to go out and look at shops. And when I do I often find my wife has a better eye for what's going to suit me than I do. The convenience and the ability to ask her what she thinks at leisure could get me some very nice pieces.

Reasons I think it might not work: The idea of just getting "some clothes" bothers me a little. Many people will be a little more specific than that in their needs. Or a lot.

I'll let you know how I get on.

The gift card: a rant

Flickr: Wonderdawg777

Hello, welcome back and I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. I was lucky enough to get a Fat Face gift card.

Regular readers will know I like Fat Face. Casual clothes, watch some of the patterned excesses if you're my age but good quality, nice design. You get the picture. So I went online to the site and found they had a rather nice pair of black Chelsea Boots (I'd have preferred the brown but they'd sold out, fair enough). Casual, slightly beaten-up looking, really nice for casual wear.

I haven't got them though. And why not? Because like so many other retailers they don't allow you to use gift cards over the Internet when the cards were bought in a shop. This is far from unique to Fat Face. Last year I had a WH Smith gift card (by now a useless shop I'm afraid; when I asked on the week of its release whether they had the Blu-Ray of "The King's Speech" they didn't, whereas every other DVD retailer in the universe had made damned sure they had loads - WH hadn't even stocked it in the first place) and once again, I could only use it in actual premises.

I'm sure there are technical reasons it's difficult to have a preloaded and top-uppable card working online. No doubt someone from IT would be able to explain it to me.

But as a tech journalist since 1989 guess what - I don't care. If you're a High Street retailer you're going to be under threat by now from the online world, and if you have an online presence as well then your gift tokens need to work seamlessly - or else I'm going to start buying my gift tokens elsewhere next year.

A stereotype says men hate shopping. Personally I don't - but I do like a business to accept genuine money when I offer it regardless of the channel. It's now 2012 - retailers, your New Year's resolution needs to be to make buying with you a seamless experience, whether the customer is in front of the computer, on a smartphone or in your shop.

Charles Tyrwhitt opens a shop

To London's Regent Street, an eight minute walk away from Jermyn Street, the alleged shirt capital of the UK - and a swift visit to the new Charles Tyrwhitt shop. Inevitably there was an offer on.

I've never been a fan of the ongoing offer in retail. When I was a child there was a company called Queensway - I think they sold carpets, but whatever it was there was a constant "Big Q Sale" (so called because there was never a big queue outside the stores, I imagine). DFS is the same now for sofas.

And Charles Tyrwhitt, I'm afraid, is becoming one of those companies like T M Lewin which gives the same impression for shirts. At the moment - you can possibly just about make it out in the photo - Charles Tyrwhitt is selling shirts at four for £100. TM Lewin is doing roughly the same and I've no doubt all the other shirt makers are joining in. The problem is that it gives out the idea that the items were never worth full price. I can't remember the last time I paid the RRP for a shirt, and I certainly don't recall receiving a catalogue or going to a website without an offer on.

Guys, if you want to charge £25 for your shirts that's fine. If that's the fair price you've arrived at and it's going to be that for most of the time, then great - just make that the RRP and your customers will understand. But as a customer I'm getting really, really tired of these permanent "offers" so many of you are adopting - they stopped making any difference to my buying decisions ages ago when everybody else joined in.

End of rant. It's a welcoming shop, on two levels and with helpful staff. Shirts range from formal to casual and don't be too put off by phrases like "slim fit" - if you're not actually potbellied this can be quite a flattering cut even if you don't count yourself as "slim" - it's more of a tailoring term than an accurate description of the customer, although I find the ones over the road at Austin Reed are just that bit too snug (ie I look ridiculous in them).

The new Charles Tyrwhitt shop opened in Regent Street last week - all existing branches remain open and are unaffected.