I am a big fan of thrift stores. I love having a mooch through the rails to try and find that one…read moreoff or hidden treasure. Thrift is a new addition to the Birmingham scene and they have really excelled with this new shop. Oldschool decoration and vintage furniture sit alongside both branded and unbranded pieces of vintage from the 70s,80s and 90s. From the minute we walked in the people working were so friendly and happy to help, they explained that they have only been here a couple of weeks so if you are in the area go and have a look for yourself, get involved and possibly meet that one off special item you didn't even know you were looking for.

This shop seems to have been on the castle square forever! But it caters for everyone's needs. It's…read morecheap and cheerful the staff are helpful enough and if you go in here looking for something 9 times out of 10 your walking out the shop with it. It's sells everything the house whole needs from cleaning stuff to garden stuff, things for back to school, anything to do with the kitchen and a whole range of DIY gear. It's not a fancy shop it's more of a stack it high and sell it cheap but the castle square would be lost without shops like this for the locals that's for sure

Smash & Grab in Weoley Castle used to be an absolutely excellent shop, but in recent years has gone…read moredownhill and is nothing special any more. The range of body care products is still very good and well priced with most items costing just 99p, but almost everything else they stock is boring tat which tends to be poor quality. The store is well laid out and quite large with plenty of shelving units and racks, if only they'd pack it with more interesting and useful stock then it would once again be a wonderful place to shop. As it is they sell appalling quality kitchenware (the enamel comes off after the first use), useless storage boxes made of low grade card, washing up liquid that doesn't bubble and uninteresting looking novels that no-one wants to read. As I mentioned above the cosmetics side of things is great, they stock body lotions, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, handwash and anything else you might want to buy to look after yourself. They even sell pregnancy tests, which amazed me as no way would I trust the result of a pregnancy test which costs less than £1 for a twin pack! My fella has bought DIY equipment and tools from Smash & Grab but always complains at what bad quality they are once he tries to use them. I know you're not going to get a top notch tool for £1.99, but if you buy a hammer you don't expect the head to break off after banging in a nail or two. He thinks the sandpaper is good, but you can't really go wrong with that can you? The staff in Smash & Grab aren't great, they're friendly enough but it annoys me that a lot of the time they are too busy chatting to the person in front to notice that a queue is forming. Last week the girl kept me waiting so long that I just put my basket down and walked out because there is no excuse for ignorance like this.

Northfield isn't home to the most swankiest of shopping centres, but it is a great place to go for…read morelocals and visitors alike, who are wanting to explore more unique shops. But don't get me wrong, the centre still boasts a large collection of big stores such as Poundland, WHSmith and Iceland, which are all greatly needed for the Northfield locals. It means that they don't have to travel elsewhere for their necessities. The overall aesthetics of Northfield's precinct are very outdated and generic, however, the actual shops themselves are varied when compared to the usual shopping centres of Brum. It's the independent shops that make the centre different, and there's a great collection of clothes stores for all ages and genders, from the men's shop Little Italy, to the girl's clothes accessories shop Miss Bizybody. I was quite surprised at the actual size of the centre, and expected it to be much smaller for the area (considering that there's quite a few shops on the Bristol Road outside as it is.) The centre is a great find, and is definitely worth checking out if you're in the area.

Ok this is not the best shopping centre in the world or the most exclusive, but I like it due to…read moreall the cheap bargains you can get here!. For me it is not the best place to go clothes shopping but it is great for Poundland, Superdrug, Peacocks, Iceland, WH Smith amongst many more. They also have clean toilets which is more than some shopping centres have. It was recently been refurbished also..

I have very fond memories of this shop and the chap (Mr Guraya I presume) who runs it - my Nan used…read moreto live up the road so we sometimes used to pop over to pay her paper bill and have a chat. He was always really lovely and twinkly with my Nan but these days the shop is run by a younger crowd - who are equally sweet if a little heavy handed on the remote control (when Coronation Street is on, it can get LOUD in there). Popular with students and people from the nearby flats Guraya's is a corner shop and off license whose frontage is pretty much entirely covered by signs - they offer special deals on booze and you get a free bottle of wine if you spend over 20 pounds in store -no fags. They also do a pretty mean samosa here and I sometimes stop off on my way to work to pick up a coffee - half the time they make it out the back for me because the coffee machine is broken. Anyway I really like it here and if you are a student in need of a late night snack or bottle of wine for under a few quid then I suspect you could do worse.

I'm in the shop every day, every single day 7 days a week to buy foods and a few cans of beer. It…read moreis immaculate and the proprietors, Laki and Guraya are extremely helpful and kind, so the person who wrote this..."this is a very small run down and usty off-licence. keeps a small selection of essentials only." Is just flat out lying. I would hardly buy my food there if it wasn't spotless. This is a top little shop!

Heron Foods is a cross between a freezer store and a local corner shop. There are two aisles of…read morefreezers and shelves of general shopping. This particular store is my preference when shopping for frozen goods, and is great when you're following a low-carb diet as they have tons of high protein meals, frozen meats and frozen vegetables at low prices - certainly cheaper than the high street supermarkets. If you're feeling less healthy then they've always got offers on biscuits, chocolate and some very nice frozen desserts! The staff are friendly and they open all the tells very quickly during busy periods - something the big supermarkets might learn from!

Cut Price Discount Stores is an unpresuming Aladdin's Cave of bargains! This independently run…read morestore is situated directly opposite Aldi Supermarket on Bristol Road, Northfield Town Centre. The inside of the shop is nothing fancy time looks as though it has stood still here for a long time. However, the shop is packed with nearly every conceivable household item you could imagine (excluding furniture and appliances). If you are familiar with Latif and Sons in Birmingham City Centre, think of this shop of a condensed version of the same type of store. Another way of describing it is as 'Northfield's General Store' - everything from kitchenware, cleaning products, garden, diy, computer and automotive accessories are in stock at very reasonable prices. I managed to buy a bunch of last minute Christmas presents here this last year and I had never thought a shop on Northfield could offer such choice, quality and value. The couple who run the shop are lovely too; very friendly. Also, If there is something you are after and they don't stock it, they are happy to source it for you. Often I have bought items from larger stores and supermarkets only to find the same products sold here at a cheaper price. I now usually pop in and check here first if I am after something in particular before shopping around It saves the disappointment! Definitely recommended, especially if you are setting up home and need a local, independent shop to buy the basics!

This is nothing like your average retail park; most are nearly always home to the usual large chain…read morestores and supermarkets. Okay, so Rubery's has a Morrisons, but it doesn't go overboard on the generic stores (and one supermarket is definitely a necessity for Rubery locals anyway.) At the centre of the park you'll find a Premier Inn, and surrounding that, there's a pub, bowling and cinema. So there's loads of great things for visitors to do, without having to spend too much money on travelling into the city centre everyday of their stay in Brum. However, there are quite a few roads that go through the park, and it's a little bit annoying having to cross each one to go to different store. But the park is home to one of two Empire cinemas in Birmingham, so it's definitely worth a visit to see movies on the big screen (other than at Cineworld or the Odeon) The location of the park is really great too; it's really tranquil and open planned with lots of grassland, so customers staying at the hotel don't have to breathe in the smog of the city centre all day long.

I'd parked right at the bottom of the high street, so on my way into the centre of Halesowen this…read morewas the first shop I came to. And it's not a terrible place to start - particularly for someone who loves antiques and secondhand trinkets. The shop is heaving with stock, all higgeldy-piggeldy jammed in, with two ludicrously narrow aisles to navigate down - definitely not a space for wheelchairs or pushchairs, and my large frame struggled squeezing past other shoppers without causing a landslide! I spent some time drooling over some seascape paintings that most people would think were vile, but eventually concluded I have enough bad 70s art on my walls at the moment. Should I feel like having a change around, I'll head back here to stock up on some more vintage pictures!

With no real sign to the store you only discover what this place is called from the tiny print out…read morestuck in the doorway. It is jam packed from floor to ceiling with stuff, so much so that there should be a designated one way system to navigate the store otherwise it's traffic jam central. It is a treasure trove of stuff, literally stuff. There are cabinets full off wade figurines, multiple coffee and tea services, furniture, books, mattresses, clocks, pretty much anything you can imagine is probably hiding in here somewhere. There are stacks loads of books at the back that i was desperate to much through but because of a pile of mattresses and heap of other stuff in front of the cabinets I couldn't get anywhere near them. Price points vary with really cute 50's coffee sets for £4 to G plan furniture from £80. You can definitely bag a bargain here but on other things the owners really know what they have and price accordingly. I was tempted by several things but didn't buy so i'm not sure how they are on the old haggle but give them a try, I'm sure there is room for manoeuvre.

Selly Oak's Battery Retail Park can deliver many services from electrical, DIY, outdoor, retail and…read morefood. The Battery Retail Park provides many stores such as: Halfords, Currys, PC World, Comet, Next and Frankie and Benny's. I would say this is very handy to have situated around the corner as I have purchased many things that are needed within the last minute, like mp3 speakers for your phone on a sunny day and a quick snack if you're not feeling Selly Oak's standard food outlets. The Battery Retail Park provides a large open and free car park in which you can use for your benefit if wanting to purchase a large item or wanting a long gander around the not very busy Next high street store. Even if you are not travelling by car, I think the Battery Retail Park is great to just have a look around.

The student area of Selly Oak is a veritable hotbed of convenience stores, so Lifestyle Express,…read morelocated on the upper end of Bristol Road in the area, has its work cut out to distinguish itself from its numerous, extremely well priced competitors. It does this in a few ways. Firstly, their service goes above and beyond. I've been in a couple of dozen times and the service has never been anything less than fantastic, always friendly, and they can't ask if you need any help quickly enough it seems. The second way is by a great range of products, going much further than usual shops, selling cards (although admittedly this section is sometimes sparsely populated) and an above average selection of frozen goods (these are often mysteriously missing from small shops such as this). The best (in my humble opinion) is their low canned drinks prices, with some available from as little as 30p, a price you rarely see in this day and age.