When Chris M and I ducked in here on the way back to his in need of some milk, who'd have thought…read morewe'd be grabbing amazing bargains by the armful. Our first introduction to Lakeland Groceries involved giant bags of Barbecue Doritos for less than a quid, and huge quantities of eggs at criminally low prices (free range before you start finger-wagging!). Wow, where had this place been all our lives? Situated right near Castlefield Gallery, it seems to be operated by one or two friendly staff, and it's a lovely hotch-potch corner-shop-like offering with a surprising range of products. Anything from a stonkingly generous variety of cheeses to pretty much a whole deli counter, snacks and store cupboard essentials and bits and bobs. You can even buy a bit of booze here if you've had a hard day at the office. So, The Southern Gateway eh. Sarah-Anne M's right, this residential area doesn't have a single recognisable retail outlet less than a ten minute walk away. Well forget hopping all the way to Whitworth Street West's Sainsbury's and Oxford Road's Tesco for your essentials and forgottens, if you're in need of a bit of milk, juice or even some cold cuts and nibbles to lay out for guests, here's your spot!

This little grocery store is genuinely worth a visit. I went in today for primarily yelping…read morepurposes and for the first time I was delighted with a convenience store. Not only do they have a really impressive range of everything you could expect, from chocolate and crisps to newspapers to necessities such as ketchup and tobasco, but they also have a cold meat and cheese counter! It's a little mini version of the Cheese Hamlet in Didsbury, with a great selection of different cheeses and cold meats that are much much cheaper than your usual cheese shop prices. A really nice little surprise find. Check it out!

There's a Tesco, Sainsbury's, Co-op popping up on every corner of the city centre and it doesn't…read morestop at one branch of the supermarket giants' one stop city centre shops. The domination and battle of the supermarket giants are ever present in the city centre, you can find like four mini Tescos around the vicinity of Deansgate and Piccadilly areas. A lot anyway. So here's to the Xpress on Whitworth Street West, one of a few cornershop types springing up in the city, to balance the equilibrium of the chain store masses and inject a little local to the often impersonable, daunting city centre. Xpress Local has recently opened up on my route to university. I've watched it been transformed from an empty space, learnt what it takes for a cash machine to be installed whilst thinking damn, this is where my late night snacking will take it's higher form. Xpress stocks all your basic groceries, milk, cheese, bread and acts as your off license too. I've used it for the range of bad snacks on offer, which has been bad for the healthy eating regime plus the purse. It annoyingly does not display prices on a lot of things which I thought was because it was opening mid-finish but this isn't the case. Annoyingly so, one late night purge, I watched my tube of pringles being scanned to reveal £1.99. I knew I should have purchased the half price ones in Tesco. Xpress is one of those places you just pop in and get the things you want or crave or when you're under time pressure. There may not be an extensive range of fresh or organic what nots but you can expect a pleasant none lengthy queue if you do find yourself in here.

Despite being a small store, this branch remains to be much better than the nearby store on Quay…read moreStreet, it is located on Deansgate just off Bridge Street. The staff seem friendly enough and they seem to have occasional sampling going on here pre-COVID times including Carabao who had a stall here - a Thai energy drink company which is pretty good. The store is small and in terms of overall selection I do prefer the Co-Op which is a couple of minutes away, but this isn't a bad alternative if you're going down Deansgate through the city centre or searching for some Sainsbury's own-brand products. 3*

In my continuing quest to find Sainsbury's own-brand fruit and fibre cereal in central Manchester…read morefor my girlfriend's breakfast I hit this Sainsbury's Local on Deansgate. I'm getting quite worried now. These Sainsbury's exploits could almost turn into a list, of me basically reviewing the same thing over and over again, all without the feted fruit and fibre ever appearing. Needless to say, this Sainsbury's Local doesn't have the fruit and fibre. It's just packed with city workers buying ready meals on their way home.

Shudehill Convenience Store is located on Shudehill, it is basically next to Shudehill, Shudehill /…read moreMayes St (Stop Nm) bus stop and around a minute or two on foot away from Shudehill, one of the main bus stations in the city to get around Greater Manchester. As suggested by the slightly unoriginal name, Shudehill Convenience Store it is a convenience style newsagents store, one of the many stores of its' type in Manchester city centre which includes one of four in the Shudehill area, including a Manchester Souvenirs and News and Spar across the way, and Arden News inside Shudehill Bus Station. Sadly, compared to the trio of extremely nearby neighbours this store ranks the worst. The store seems a bit confusing and hit and miss, and appears to do too many things at once, after entering the store through a step it is kind of cluttered to navigate as there is the main counter which includes MyHermes drop-offs, another counter which appears to be for mobile phones and/or cigarettes and then the rest of the shop floor. The overall look and feel of the store isn't fantastic, and in the case of essentials, the selection is kind of limited. The service didn't seem great, with staff not standing out as friendly. Once again, I'm struggling to see the need for this store with so many similar rivals nearby, on a plus side this is the only MyHermes drop off store in the Shudehill area with the Spar store across the way not offering the service, but this once again is seen as less as a bonus with many other stores nearby who offer the service just a short walk away. Due to a poor, confusing and cheap overall feel and the store not offering something you can't get just a stone's throw away and overall being quite disappointing from selection to staff and everything in-between, I sadly feel a one-star rating is in order here.

A pretty small Spar store at St Mary's Gate, I like to avoid this store if I can as it isn't the…read moremost inviting of stores, people (and sometimes the staff) like to smoke outside, and there is a lot of homeless people outside the store most of the time (very sad) The store is pretty small inside and a little dark, the selection is okay, but I do much prefer the Spar store at City Tower, or local Sainsbury's and Tesco locations in terms of product range and selections. Some of the staff seem friendly and they do offer MyHermes drop-offs, which can be handy, especially considering my previous favourite Hermes store, Sainsbury's Local, no longer offer this service. 2*

I don't know when it started but there seems to be a bit of an on-going turf war between Govind's…read moreNewsagents and their neighbour newsagent Metro Convenience Store. To the best of my knowledge there's been no fist fights or smashed windows involved, just a competition over which business can offer customers the lowest prices. So far, Govind's News seems to be winning with 2p for photocopies and Half Price on all the daily and weekends tabloids and broadsheets. Handily, they also sell beer, milk, bread, soup, crisps, baked beans, spaghetti hoops, toilet roll and chocolate bars - making it a bit of a one-stop shop for students and locals on a budget.

This place has recently changed its name from Govind's to Govin News Agents. Where did the 'd'…read moredisappear to? I really don't understand. Is it a typo? Absolutely similar to Metro Convenience Store next door, Govin seems to have slightly less stock, with a basic slection of bread, eggs, milk and the like. It gets a point for offering photocopying at an incredibly cheap 2p per page. If you're a student with a handing-in deadline and you fancy beating the library queues and saving a few pennies whilst you're at it, Govin is the place to go. Govin News Agents, just like Metro, also sells odd items. Coloured drinking straws? A football? People must be buying this stuff I guess...

This Co-op Food location is one of my favourite small supermarkets in the city centre, not only…read moredoes it remain rather modern following the store improvements after they took over the unit from Little Waitrose, it has a rather good selection of many essential items, including a small gluten-free selection as well as a selection of brands which can be hard to find in other stores including a selection of iced teas, Shaken Udder milkshakes and many others, including the Co-op own brand which have some nice gluten-free varieties of ribs, chips and more. The staff seem pretty friendly and happy to help, which is especially good during these times and the Coronavirus pandemic. I do feel the price of some items is a little expensive, for example, to buy just four pints of milk it is £1.50. In comparison, most other supermarkets charge between £1.10 and £1.15 for 4 pints which is over a third more, you can make this considerably cheaper through the purchase of 2 lots of 4 pints, which works out a gallon for £2.20. They do have many similar multi-by offers on to-go drinks. 4*

A useful Convenience Store open 24/7 in the city centre on Piccadilly, just a couple minutes away…read morefrom Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly Stations, while the prices are high they do have a pretty good selection of essentials which is great if you live in town. The prices, on the other hand, are on the pricey side, there are other stores nearby who offer a similar, or even better range of products at a lower price so if you are visiting during the day (when those stores are open), you would be better off going there. Sadly, there didn't seem to be a gluten-free section. They did have some but limited offers around the store, and while most items were overpriced, some were competitive value. Decent store, useful location if you're in a rush or late at night but there are similar/better stores within 30 seconds on foot away. 3*

This place sucked poor customer service etc I don't have time to waste discussing how bad this…read moreplace was

They are selling fake cigarettes from under the counter, the man took out the cigarettes from…read morethe cabinet behind him, then looks like he swapped it from under the counter, flimzy box and packaging, cigarettes harsh on throat and feels flimsy also, but charged as if selling me originals

This newsagents is on Piccadilly, and sells a few international newspapers outside which I always a…read morefind to be a nice touch. It reminds me of being on holiday in France and trying to find an English newspaper to read up on the football. They have loads and loads of magazines in here, all the major titles as well as seemingly most of the obscure ones as well. And for what we all use newsagents most for, they have a truly excellent selection of sweets, chocolates, crisps and cigarettes.

This Tesco Express (formerly Tesco Metro) location is over two floors on Market Street, on the…read morecorner going onto Brown Street, right opposite the Arndale. It is probably the largest convenience store in the city centre, stocking a range of essentials and a little bit more over two floors, you can get between the floors using an escalator, but there also is lift access (the lift is super slow though and has been for years!). There is a decent selection of to-go food and drinks, including a Costa Express coffee machine, you can also find the occasional item on the small yet useful hot food counter, but that does tend to go fast. The layout of the store is easy to follow, I personally dislike the two-floor format for a store like this, as it means having to spend more time going up/down escalators and searching around the store, this is the type of store you want to get in and out quickly, and being over two floors and a lack of supporting mobile payment similar to Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer nearby, there are drawbacks. Most of the staff seem friendly and helpful, but there are a couple of bad apples. There are plenty of self-service checkouts, and a couple of manned checkouts too, there always seems to be a handful of machines either not in use or broken down, so there's always a wait at the checkout for some reason. The prices are much higher now than they were under the Tesco Metro brand, so you are paying a good bit more than you would in a regular Tesco store, which is annoying! 4* - A good and large store in the city centre, yet could be far better.

We all know by know that I'm not down with Tesco. I understand most corporations are intent on…read moremaking as much profit as possible regardless of other businesses. I think what distinguishes Tesco from their peers and contemporaries however, is the limits they're willing to go to get an extra slice of the cake. Speaking of which, the reason I loathe this Tesco Metro more than the company's other stores is for the truly bad produce. I've accompanied friends shopping here and can honestly say both the bakery and ready meal section are truly disappointing. As is the dairy and meat selection downstairs. On the positive side, the wine and liquor section appears well stocked and the fruit and veg appear fresh and reasonably priced. The worst thing about this particular Tesco Metro is the atmosphere and the dodgy characters. The staff always seem harassed and it's usually so busy it's impossible to walk round without feeling stressed or like you should be on guard.