This affordable fashion chain with Primark prices is opening its second UK shop – just 30 minutes from London

Bargain hunters and frugal fashionistas, listen up. There’s a new affordable clothing chain in town.

If you consider deal scouting an essential skill, you probably spotted the news that Zara’s budget sister brand Lefties made its UK debut this summer. The inaugural British store opened in Liverpool in August, a few weeks after the quiet launch of the chain’s UK website.

Now, Lefties’ wallet-friendly apparel is accessible to shoppers daan saaf thanks to a new location in Essex. Lefties’ second UK store spans 36,000 square feet of the Lakeside shopping centre in West Thurrock and features a range of clothing, footwear and accessories designed for men, women, teens and kids. It also stocks baby and newborn lines, as well as the brand’s home collection of textiles, fragrances and décor.

Lefties is an Inditex-owned brand which first launched in Spain in 1999 as an outlet for Zara leftovers (hence the name). It moved away from selling its big sister’s unsold wares around a decade ago, stocking its own range of clothes instead. 

According to the Guardian, Lefties’ British outlets use in-store robots, which has enabled the brand to reduce staffing costs. Not only are clothes hangers sorted by bots working on conveyor belts behind the scenes, but each changing room is kitted out with a hatch for unwanted items. Behind each hatch robots sort items into separate department rails, ready to be taken back to the shop floor or packed into the stockroom. 

T-shirts at Lefties are as cheap as £3.99 online, while a pair of trackie bottoms will set you back as little as a tenner. 

The UK’s second-largest shopping centre will also soon be home to a branch of Lefties: the brand’s third outlet will open inside Metrocentre in Gateshead. 

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