This place is awesome for its convenience right by the Auckland Airport. We were at the gas station…read moreand my wife asked if there was a department store nearby. I did a quick google search and found this place. Perfect when you need last minute food items for the plane or gifts to take home. This place is also awesome for its wide variety of items they sell. Everything from food to books to groceries to home goods. A couple drawbacks, there is a limited selection of specific types of items. Not to contradict myself but what I mean is that there were only several tiny aisles of food items. Second, prices for food items were slightly higher than the Countdown market right next door. Unfortunately, we went here first before Countdown. Nevertheless, we enjoyed coming here and killing time.

This is the best place to get all your households goods in one place. They have a good selection of…read morebeds, furniture, whiteware, electrical goods. I like walking around seeing what new toys, TV's, Hifi, camera's, cellphones etc to put on my Christmas list.

Cheap shoes. Cheap dresses. Cheap appliances. Maybe it's…read morebecause we don't have K Mart back home, but I get excited to go here when I'm back in NZ. This is my go to spot when I need some quick supplies visiting my in laws. Forgot my jandals? No problem. $7 at KMart. Need some new swimmies? Cheap ones here that aren't ridiculous. Need new summery dresses for cheap? Yep. Golden. And then grab a cheap kapiti on the way out the door and your life is made.

I absolutely love Kmart for extremely obvious reasons. Not only do they have great bargains here,…read morebut they have almost anything you could want (although let's not get technical) and they are open until midnight- just three reasons there, but isn't that enough? The Botany Downs Kmart is my favourite. It's massive and I love exploring this place (although I do come here at least once a fortnight). The staff are great here, I'm always greeted when I arrive and when I leave and they're always nearby if i need to ask of something. Kmart is great for buying clothes to lounge around the house in at a cheap price and the occasional baking utensil (I just can't resist sometimes). My last visit had me going home with some new lounge trackies for $15 and 6 pairs of socks for $6- a really good bargain if you ask me. This Kmart also has the self-checkout service with handy hanger bins, and I definitely prefer to buy my items this way when I've only got a couple of items. Working in retail, I've seen Kmart sell similar styles they have in malls for a fraction of the cost and usually Kmart has better quality. Just goes to show that it's not always about brands and quality doesn't always have to mean a high price.

The Looksharp empire has a few different branches now but this big shop in Onehunga in the best use…read moreof the old Woolworths/Deka building I've seen in a long time. While it probably doesn't get as much as foot traffic, it's worth the drive - even if you just visit this one shop. It's basically an Asian super-store, full of all the things we've come to expect but crucially MORE. There's just more products and BETTER products - there's an entire "naughty" section here as well as an entire range of inflatables. Need an inflatable palm tree for your living room? This is your place. There's neck ties, fake flowers, party supplies, home supplies, kitchen stuff; you can easily spend several hours here treasure hunting. Best of all, you will find items that are available at upmarket gift stores for the price they really should cost - buggar all.

Unfortunately Looksharp is only a recent discovery of mine and I wish I'd known about this sooner!…read moreOnehunga is probably one of the quieter branches but is still packed to the brim with a lot of things you may or may not need. A friend and I visited when everything in store was 30% off- and to think that Looksharp prices are already really reasonable, we definitely stockpiled on a few things! We made the trip because she was having a luau-themed birthday party- Looksharp had just about everything we were hoping to get! Flower leis, an inflatable floral ukelele, palm tree drinking glasses, bamboo torches, lei bracelets, floral dishes; I could go on! We did catch ourselves making jokes such as "wouldn't it be awesome if they had....", only to find said item seconds later. The selection there was great and I'd come back in a heartbeat for any party goods and decorations. I'm huge on gifts so I loved seeing all of their goodie bags, chinese boxes in an assortment of colours, as well as their scrapbooking section- everything was so well-priced, much cheaper than getting similar products somewhere else, like Spotlight. There's literally so much at Looksharp, I'd make the trip only because I have a feeling it won't be your last!

Some lovely looking clothes are in Vaccinni at very good prices. They are not amazing quality…read morethough, so don't expect too much time to go past before your jeans wear out or the sequins fall off. I'm not sure where these clothes come from, but they are all asian brands (no big brand rip offs, so that's a relief). I enjoy having a squiz and the shop lady is always very friendly and helpful. There's never a time I walk in that she doesn't greet me and offer her help. Find this shop between Michael Hill Jeweller & Shanton at Westfield Manukau. It's great for someone on a budget - their ball dresses are stunning, so I'd pop along here if I'm looking for that special one night gown.

Aside from being overpriced in some ways, Farmers does have some of the best specials seasonally…read more Red Dot Sales are ushered in with mannequins wrapped in red and white plastic out in the display window. You wonder in and these red dots are everywhere! After Boxing Day a couple of years ago, I managed to score both a hair straightener and a hair dryer for about $50. I was super stoked with that. I've also indulged in their massive clothing sales. They have a slightly upper class vibe in places (despite their very country bumpkin name), selling Gucci bags and clothes for exorbitant prices. They are definitely 2 cuts above Kmart in quality, but to sell Gucci is a bit far fetched. A slightly wannabe Smith and Caugheys, but still celebrating the heart of kiwi thriftiness, Farmers has a bit of an identity crisis going on. However, I still enjoy coming in here and spending some time browsing their great range of products.

Yay. This is my favourite Farmers to shop in. It has all the standard Farmers features - kitcheny…read morestuff, homewares stuff, lots of beauty counters and stocks of cheaper beauty products, a decent lingerie section, and a lot of truly dreary menswear. The great part is the women's fashion. I'm sure it must be the largest women's wear section in any Farmers in Auckland, and it's absolutely crammed full of every brand and every type of clothing you can imagine, from the vast sportswear section to endless midrange options, to tonnes of workwear and more formal stuff. Brace yourself with a coffee before you head in, then gather a good pile of clothes and head to the fitting rooms, which even feature a three-sided mirror (so you can pretend you're on Trinny and Susannah as you tell yourself how marvelous you look).

Our new couch just arrived this afternoon! I am so excited. We had been looking at couches at…read morequite a few places, and once we reached Sofa Plus, we stopped looking and cancelled all our previous plans. These guys know their stuff and are really passionate about the work they do. Yes, it's more expensive than the other couches we were looking at, but you can see the different in quality and craftsmanship and definitely in service. Plus a 10 year warranty! And, an excellent service bonus - they even took our old couches and redelivered them to our friends' house! I'm totally happy with our purchase, and would gladly recommend Sofa Plus to anyone.

Absolutely love Sofa Plus - they are passionate about providing the best possible quality and…read moreservice - and YES it is all NZ Made out of the best quality materials including wood, frames and coverings. Cut out the middle man and buy exactly what you want from the people that made it. I have two natural NZ leather sofas which have aged with absolute elegance - now 8 years old!!. Highly recommend without hesitation.

Farmers is an all out sort of store. You can get a little…read moreof everything here. Like household items and clothing and cosmetics and so forth. This specific farmers has really gotten a do up recently. It has a whole new layout and the bottom floor specifically has a great outlook now. It is totally open spaced and light and bright and airy. There is a really inviting atmosphere there which is nice and a perfect change from before when it was all dark and gloomy. The staff are nice and very helpful when you can find them. It is a big store and sometimes it can be a little bit hard to find the right person to help you, let alone a person.

I find Farmers department store better for its clothes than it's household items - if you want…read moresomething for your house/flat at a reasonable price then Briscoes is your man. Stevens do good deals in their yellow sticker sales and Farmers in Henderson mall contain a Stevens shop so there is a big selection to choose from. As I was saying, I think they are better value for clothes as I bought a new suit and shirt and tie in their 40% off sale before xmas. The whole combo only worked out at about $240 and trousers and jacket were of good quality and will hopefully last for a while. Farmers also caters to some of the bigger men as you can get XL, XXL and XXL sizes which is not often the case in some of the trendier mens boutiques.