Everyone knows what a Londis shop does... they sell groceries and alcohol along with soft drinks…read moreand confection. But perhaps not everyone knows that they are a franchise like Spar and the Life Style convenience stores, and so they are owned as independent businesses, and are not to be confused with supermarket chains. The essential and important difference is that supermarkets make their profits for the organisation, whereas shops like Londis are profitable for the individual owners. A friend told me an interesting statistic the other day... apparently 80% of the money spent at supermarkets leaves the local economy whereas 80% of the money spent at independent stores remains within circulation locally, which is great if it's true! If high percentages of money leave a localised area, then impoverishment will eventually ensue. So, to retain 80% of the money you spend within the area in which you live means the opposite!

A good and fairly decent sized local Tesco Express. I generally find that unless I'm after a…read moreparticularly specialist kind of foodstuff, I can usually get what I'm after (so useful in an emergency). I also think that they have a very good system for when the queue gets to long (the cashier rings a bell and some more staff will turn up), which is simple yet effective. I do have a slight niggle with this Tesco though, and that is the frequent power cuts it seems to have, thus meaning that all of the chilled and frozen food becomes unavailable to buy (they should really sort this out. Aside from that a very handy local convenience store.

An older Tesco Express that's been open a couple of years in the Castleview Shopping Centre (though…read moreyou can't actually view the castle from here). Typical Express, with a couple of coolers full of sandwiches and drinks and "fill-in" type shopping. Reasonable selection of beers and wine too. Plentiful parking. Signs are in English and Welsh.

This is a great little Spar store. It's got a free ATM, sells alcohol, rents DVD's, sells food and…read morecoffee to go (lattes are £1.50) and is also a Paypoint. What more could you want??? I love Spar stores for a whole host of reasons, the main one being that Spar is a franchise like Londis and the Life Style convenience stores, and so they are owned as independent businesses, and are not to be confused with supermarket chains. The essential and important difference is that supermarkets make their profits for the organisation, whereas shops like Spar are profitable for the individual owners. A friend told me an interesting statistic the other day... apparently 80% of the money spent at supermarkets leaves the local economy whereas 80% of the money spent at independent stores remains within circulation locally, which is great if it's true! If high percentages of money leave a localised area, then impoverishment will eventually ensue. So, to retain 80% of the money you spend within the area in which you live means the opposite! I can often buy things cheaper here than I can at bigger supermarkets. I find it interesting that we have all bought into the fallacy that supermarkets sell things cheaper. It's just not true in many instances! There's no denying that the massive supermarket chains indulged in a price war to kill off their smaller competitors, but when they felt that they had done as much damage as possible, they allowed their prices to steadily rise, allowing them to make more profit per customer. Perhaps what they didn't reckon with is that shops like Spar and Londis were going to preserve a lot more independently owned convenience stores than they thought. Not only is this competition essential to keep the larger stores in line, but it also means that local convenience stores have access to larger bulk buying discounts, thus often making them more able to undercut the big boys! Because Spar shops are all franchises, they can, if they want, participate in national promotions, and offer discounted items for a limited period. Not every Spar shop is the same. Being independently owned means that the proprietor of each shop can buy in stock that is culturally relevant to the local area in which they trade. This has to be seen as a distinct advantage Spar has over its larger rivals, but the main benefit to the local communities which they serve is that when locals shop at Spar they are making an investment in the future!

For me the choice is between this Spar and the Coop in Taffs Well. I'm afraid that the Coop comes…read moretop in almost every aspect. This shop often seems a tad sparsely stocked and the range of bread and cakes is not all that good. What they do have is a nice selection of whole foods from Nature Valley and some pretty good biscuits. Always good for a pint of milk. One thing that used to be a total favourite with my kids is the mini shopping trolleys (kids are not so mini any more so the shopping trolleys not so attractive). Watch out for the busy lunchtimes when the Radyr Comp kids are swarming.