This is a great really well laid out matalan. Its a really good size with a great new party…read moresection. The location is fab near abbey centre and the prices are great! Great parking.

The area around the Abbey Centre has grown over the last few years to become as much of a draw as…read morethe shopping centre itself. My first stop is always the huge branch of TK Maxx. How I love that shop, with its shoes and home wares and clothes and jewellery and stuff, stuff, stuff. Always a bargain to be had - I even lugged a huge chest of drawers out of there once. After paying for it of course. Curse those efficient security guards. There is a branch of every high street shop you can think of - Mothercare, Pets at Home, M&S, Tesco, JJB Sports, Matalan to name a few. I always like a look around Matalan where there are some bargains in ladies and children's clothes and a selection of birthday cards and invitations which has to be seen to be believed. Make a quick pit stop in McDs and you'll be ready for round 2 in the shopping centre itself. The Abbey Centre is pretty big, with several different 'wings' coming off the central point. Highlights for me are River Island, the bargain emporium that is Primark, Top Shop and Wallis. Apart from clothes, I also like going to the Abbey Centre for books - Stewart Miller and Easons always have offers on new releases. Chick lit I'm afraid to admit but someone has to read them.

Ah, my good old friend, the Abbeycentre. How I love it…read more Just a short trip up the road from me, I have been shopping here for as long as I can remember, and take a browse around its' many shops at least once a month. There is a large amount of on site parking, so you can usually get parked with ease (unless you go stright after Christmas when the January Sales are in full swing) then its an absolute free for all! There are many shops here to suit all pockets, from sport shops, to fashion clothing, from banks to mobile phone and gaming shops, from card and gift shops to butchers, you will get pretty much anything you want at the Abbeycentre, without the headache travelling into the city centre can bring. There is even a new Poundland store for some of the old bargain hunting. And long may it continue!

I generally don't tend to shop in here, although Quiz does sell some nice clothes. I tend to go for…read morethe more 'alternative' look and as Quiz generally sells mainstream fashion it is unusual I'll find something I'm after in here. Saying that though if you're tastes aren't as odd as mine, or if you're just after a pretty wee dress or the likes then often you could do a lot worse than shopping in here. The prices here are around the same as most other High Street stores, in fact they're probably a good bit cheaper compared to some places, so if you're on a budget but fancy something more upmarket than Primark, Quiz would be quite a good choice for a nosy around to check out their latest wares. The staff are standard, not cheeky but they don't exactly go out of their way to help you either. All round average shopping experience, more often than not I'll leave empty handed.

This store is one of the newer shops to open in the ever expanding Abbey Centre. It offers high…read morestreet fashion in yet another clothing store catering to women of all ages though mainly aimed at the younger generation. Exhibit has a number of branches though this is the first to open in the Abbey Centre and indeed Newtownabbey. They sell your basic run of the mill fashion trend clothing. It is quite a small shop though they do manage to squeeze a fair bit in. I've bought a few pieces out of here, mostly in the sale which offers some great prices for what would have been over priced fashion clothing (in my opinion) but in the sale I don't mind (I know I sound like a cheap skate!) I've seen a couple of imitation Ed Hardy pieces here which look pretty cool and they're a fraction of the price you would get them if they were the genuine article!

This store does mens, ladiesand kidswear, plus footwear. Most items are branded goods, with well…read moreknown labels such as Converse, Soviet, Vans, Jack & Jones, Lipsy, AX Paris, etc. Ad you walk in, its mens/boys to the left, ladies/girls, to the right, with the customer service counter in the middle. As USC stores go, this is a pretty small one and I never really find any clothes in there to my taste, but they do some fantastic discounts on Converse (and you can never have too many pairs of those!) - I got my son a new pair for £17.

One of the smaller USC stores around. A few years ago they…read morereduced the amount of ladies clothing that they stocked and increased the men's! Which means I now find very little that is to my taste. They have a large range of footwear from converse, firetrap and rocket dog (nice brand) and always have quite good offers on there shoes which is the main reason I still visit this shop regularly! My other half uses this as a go to shop when he needs something for a night out! Staff are helpful but could maybe smile or at least look like the are happy to be there!

A shop for the larger ladies, Evans recently opened its doors here and since has done a thriving…read morebusiness. Although the clothes unfortunately couldn't be described as high end fashion it certainly does the job in that it caters well for plus size ladies and makes clothes shopping that whole lot easier. If you don't fancy a trek around the shop then you can browse through their items online and you can return items to your nearest store, how's that for handiness! If you're wondering about sizes, the clothes cater for sizes 14 -32 and as far as shoes go they offer size 4 to 11 and they also offer two different widths E or EEE for those with a wider foot. As far as lingerie is concerned the sizes range from C to G cups which should suit even the most voluptuous of ladies. Evans is a great shop for curvy ladies, Even Beth Ditto has created a snazzy new collection for the shop which is worth checking out.

This shop is brilliant for fashionable and trendy, up to date ladies clothing. It's perfect for all…read morebudgets as they have their new season stock which is expensive, but not overly so and then they have their sale rails which are always bunged so you can always find something whatever amount of money you have! Dorothy Perkins does a good maternity range which not every shop does so I'm sure this is very convenient for pregnant mothers. They also offer student discount all year round, win! They also sell some lovely shoes and gorgeous jewellery so you can find your perfect outfit all in one shop which means less shopping more time for getting ready and going out, woohoo! Come on girls, lets get shopping!

This shop is at the higher end of the price range. It's a shop which sells designer gear and is…read moregenerally aimed at older ladies. There are a number of branches of this shop in various locations and like the others; this branch seems to do a fair bit of custom. The clothes aren't really to my taste, but I'm not in their target market and I do know that it is quite popular with the likes of my mum and my aunts etc. I've been in here a fair few times when my mum is after some new piece to add to her already extensive clothing collection, and the staff are generally very pleasant, the shop is well laid out and always clean, tidy and easy to navigate around. Bearing all these positives in mind it's easy to see why the shop is so popular with female shoppers. Maybe when I'm older I will appreciate it more.

Not the most exciting review as everyone kind of knows what they are getting from Marks and Sparks…read morebut I felt like this one needed to be written due to the size of this particular store. It seems at the minuet M&S 'express' stores are popping up all over the place but this one breaks the current trend as it's warehouse huge! It's surface area is easily larger that a football pitch! But is bigger better? Well, in this case yes because this store stocks everything you could possibly want - clothes, homeware and food a plenty! I visited on Valentines Day eve to grab a Dine in Meal for two, this was my first time here and I was impressed. The food section is great - there's a larger selection than other stores and this means they have unique products - particularly craft beer. We went quite late on a Friday evening and there was loads of reduced food items - so if you're looking for premium food at a cheaper price go here later in the evening. The staff were extremely friendly and very chatty, the lady on the tills chatted to us for a good 10 minutes, mainly because there was a problem with the card machine but she made the whole experience light hearted. As mentioned you generally know what you're going to get with M&S but I'd recommend going here if you're looking for something specific as it will save you searching one of their smaller stores!

MASSIVE. This is the biggest M&S i ever did see. It has restaurants and cafes and clothes galore.read more