Choosing shoes over food; the student scam

The plight of being a poverty-stricken student really hit home a couple of weeks ago when a friend invited me to attend the student 'Lock in' at Topshop.

The 'Lock in' is a night held at Topshop outlets nationwide when everything, yes everything ladies is 20% off.

It is also a time when large squadrons of students, mainly females, march aggressively into the store, running around manically trying to pick up the latest fashions.

Clothes are discarded and strewn all over the shop floor, while stressed out sales assistants desperately try to calm the baiting crowd of hormonally-driven and some might say even sub-psychotic young women.

Boyfriends collapse sullenly on the sofas, sipping on the free squash and munching on the large quantity of Haribo being passed around by the Topshop employee's.

And it is amidst this rather bizarre scene that I start to question, rather philosophically, what the point of the 'Lock in' actually is.

We are, after all, broke, hungry students and yet here I was standing amongst a crowd of skinny blonde fashionistas with crazy back-combed hair, spending an extortionate amount of money on goods that are far from bare essentials.

One girl in particular, Sarah, a 21 year old Management student from Manchester was draped in so many clothes she looked just about ready to collapse in a heap.

I couldn't help but feel slightly dumbfounded by the sheer number of students draining their loans on frivolities

Sian Elliott-Williams

When I questioned her about her purchases, and whether she in fact actually needed any of it she replied that getting 20% off was a bargain not to be missed, and that she was stocking up for the year.

Now, I'm no mathematical genius, but to me getting 20% off an £80 pair of shoes isn't exactly cheap, especially not when they're being bought alongside new jeans, a new dress and an array of new tops.

In fact I found it quite ironic that in the current economic climate, when many people face the danger of losing their jobs, and the financial market is unstable to say the least, these girls were so blasé about cashing in on £200 worth of stuff.

We are after all heading for a recession, and with things looking set to get a whole lot worse I couldn't help but feel slightly dumbfounded by the sheer number of students draining their loans on frivolities.

One girl I got talking to - a 19 year old English student from Leeds laughed when I implied that maybe spending so much money on clothes wasn't such a great idea given the circumstances.

In fact her response was that she would choose shoes over food any day.

A humorous anecdote or a dark warning of things yet to come I'm not sure, I think I'll let you decide on this one....