ARE STUDENT LOCK IN’S REALLY WORTH IT ANYMORE? MEADOWHALL EVENT FAILS TO ENTICE STUDENTS

Not like an evening spent in Meadowhall is bad enough already, it appears that the latest series of “Student Lock-In’s” at one of the UK’s largest shopping centre’s flopped with a record low turnout of steel-city students.

Meadowhall hosts two student lock-in’s every academic year as students are promised enhanced discounts as well as the typical “free booze” outside Urban Outfitters and “a sick DJ” inside the Levi’s store.

These novelties have soon worn off and there’s plenty of reasons why:

• Students have access to similar discounts from organisations and sites such as UNiDAYS and Student Beans on a regular basis unlike the lock-in which is only twice a year.

• We now live in an age where discount/voucher codes are offered to students through endless emails with free delivery too which saves the long tram journey to ‘Meadowhell’.

• Outlets such as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton bump up the discount for students frequently throughout the year.

• Nowadays student lock-ins are treat more like school disco's with talentless house DJ’s playing in shops offering a ‘whopping 5% discount’

This is just one of many reasons to why these events are now going downhill. But why?

Five years ago when Meadowhall hosted their first student lock-in students flocked to grab a discount. But the way that people shop is constantly changing.

Competition is that fierce between shops, they’re having to reach out to their main audiences (young people and students) with regular discounts over small periods of time.

We at The9amlecture spoke to some of the retail staff at yesterday’s lock in. Joe Williamson, a customer sales assistant at footwear store Schuh picked up on the low turnout in the final student lock-in of the academic year:

“I’ve worked the student lock-in for a good few years now and this is by far the lowest turnout I’ve seen. Usually it’s heaving but it’s felt just like a regular night. I think it needs freshening up, I think people are bored of the same-old discounts. I think they should really push the boundaries next time with discounts up to 30% or 40%.”

Jenny Taylor, a store supervisor at The Body Shop believes that discounts are available too much now for the lock-in’s to work:

“We’re regularly on the Vouchercode and Vouchercloud app offering superb discounts in which we have students coming in and using them often and on student lock-in night the discounts aren’t even as good as the ones on the apps, and that’s the case with other stores too.”

University of Huddersfield student Natasha Longbottom was in attendance at last week’s lock-in at the Kingsgate Shopping Centre and it appears that Meadowhall wasn’t the only shopping mall that disinterested students:

“I’ve been to the last two now and I’ve literally not seen a better deal instore than online, there’s a large percentage of students that agree with me too.”

With the academic year of most students coming to an end, it seems the Kingsgate’s and the Meadowhall’s of this world will have to draw up a plan to lure in students when they return in September.