Buying clothes that you like often takes time - unless you're male and just want to buy a pair of jeans from Gap. Furthermore, by buying clothes a few weeks before your holiday, you can take them home, try them on again, and if you don't like them, then take the clothes back to the shop and change them for something else. The time pressure of "I need something to wear NOW" doesn't exist - bit like doing Xmas shopping before it gets to 24 December
The time on holiday is short and precious. A trip to the High St has rather less value so makes more sense to buy stuff while in your home town, and then spend as much time as you can while on holiday enjoying yourself instead of trawling the clothes racks in a department store abroad. While retailers are slowly becoming more pan European, people generally are keen on brands they know.
Everyone needs to buy food to eat - meaning they have to visit the High St. Retailers in the UK know full well that people are going on holiday and will try every trick in the book to get people to buy clothes. Clothes shops in Spanish beach towns can only compete *once* you get to Spain - by which time people generally have minimal need for extra clothes.
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 13th Jul 2012 at 20:56.