I love shopping at stores like H&M, ZARA and Topshop, but shopping at these trendy and affordable retailers is no easy feat. It takes determination and great courage to take-on the gazillion racks of great, on-trend pieces, while retaining your mental health. Most importantly, it takes some serious skills to prevail. Here’s a few tips to shopping like a pro, maximizing your time, and walking out victorious — with the goods and your sanity intact.

TIP #1 Get there early

Get up early, pickup your grande caramel macchiato at Starbucks, and head over to the stores around 10am, when most of them start to open. This is the best time to shop because the racks are neatly organized with new inventory and the fitting rooms are tidy and readily available. Some stores, like H&M, get a foot traffic of over 900 shoppers every day after 1pm. That’s your queue to be done and out of there by then.

TIP #2 Shopping in the afternoon

Just because you’re not a morning person doesn’t mean you have to miss out. If the store is crowded, you should shop for things you know will fit so that you don’t have to try them on. This, however, does not mean you should ignore the fitting room. Check the racks back there, sometimes costumer’s castoffs are exactly what you’re looking for.

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• Tags
• shopping
• HM
• H&M
• ZARA
• Topshop
• Forever21
• American Apparel
• Urban Outfitters
• Mango