I was dragged into this little shop recently by my girlfriend. Lucky me. You might be able to tell…read morefrom my previous yelps, that I am not a 'vintage home' kind of guy. This shop, on the bottom floor of the Wayfarer's Arcade, selling home furnishings and gifts, seems to be one of those newly- popular, anti-Ikea type stores. Everything in here seemed to be covered in flowers or hearts or cupcakes. My girlfriend ooh'd and ahh'd over the Cath Kidson range in store, but the prices are far too expensive. This shop would be perfect for someone looking to make their place seem a bit more homely, or a desperate gift for those hard-to-buy-for women, however, I am not convinced by these pseudo-vintage/kitsch/1950's shops. Playing into people's nostalgic tendencies, does anybody really need a retro style telephone? Maybe I'm just being cynical. And a man. Who would not pay £8 for a baby duck soap.

Molloy's is an odd sort of shop. From the outside, it's filled with a range of decorative vases…read moreand various bits of china such as plates and figurines and as you delve inside you discover furniture and more home-related ornaments and bits and bobs. The shop itself is not large in size but is pretty full with stock, meaning it can get a bit overpowering at times (especially if you worry you're going to knock something valuable over, like I do). One thing I did find rather strange however was a very large meerkat figure that was standing guard at the front door of the shop. Next to him stood a few smaller, less intimidating meerkat figures that seemed to carry on the theme that had began at the front of the shop. Now whether they decided to stock these after the success of the 'Comparethemeerkat.com' adverts or whether the owner is a meerkat nut I don't know, but it's a strange yet interesting thing to sell there nonetheless.

From the owner: Furniture and Giftware.read more

Dunelm Mill is located on the Ocean Plaza shopping park, meaning it is easy to access with plenty…read moreof car parking space. It is possible to park for free for 2 hours, any longer and you must pay and display. Dunelm Mill is a large store with a wide range of goods on offer. They have everything from bedding, to curtains to fabric and also a selection of home and kitchen ware. The store is laid out on 2 levels and there is plenty of space for browsing. There is a really nice coffee shop on the 2nd floor. It has a very modern design, is very clean and well kept with around 20 tables and chairs and a couple of comfy couches. The drinks and food are reasonably priced and very good quality. I can recommend the vanilla latte! One bad point about the store is that there are very few staff on the shop floor, so it can be difficult to find someone to help you if you have a query. Overall a great place to visit, even if just for a coffee.

This shop sums up Southport for me really. As much as it might think it's all modernised and well…read moreto do these days, it's still an old lady's town with strange shops in even stranger places and those old ladies aren't going to loosen their grip on it without a fight. You arrive in Southport via train. You wander out, expecting either tourist traps full of rock and candy floss or high street shops. You do get high street shops, to be fair. But directly on your right is a giant, utterly superb Wilko. Ohh how I love Wilko. I love everything about it. It effortlessly combines a huge amount of DIY stuff with the eclectic likes of chocolate biscuits, stationery, crisps and soft drinks, giant tins of sweets, huge tubes of Pringles... it's like Home Bargains and B&Q had a steamy affair and produced this strange half-breed lovechild. I used to visit the Wilko in Salford Precinct regularly as a student as it was great for decorating the student digs. Yes, I wasn't allowed to put solid pictures up or paint the walls, of course. But Wilko offers solutions for EVERY home. I was able to brighten up my little flat with special peel-off stencil stickers in lovely flower shapes, and before I knew it I had the nicest gaff in the block. You can get EVERYTHING here, from quilts to patio furniture, barbecue accessories to paint, wallpaper to Christmas selection boxes, kids' stuff to extension leads, fuses to light bulbs... I could go on but you might wind up in a household product coma. I'll conclude with the fact that you get all that, ALL those things, and we're talking branded produce here... for peanuts. It's so amazingly cheap in this shop you'll wonder why you haven't shopped here all your life.

Although that i agree that wilkos is an amazing shop, which sells everything you can imagine and…read morethen more, this particular store is one of the worst shops in southport. the staff are more than useless, prefering to talk to each other than offer any form of help to the customers. several times i have been in in my WHSmiths uniform and been harrassed by other customers thinking that i work there, so they were obviously not getting the help they need. Avoid like the plague whenever possible!

The name of this shop is a little bit misleading, only a little bit mind. You might imagine that…read moremost of what is stocked here is of the home improvement sort-of-type-of thing and you would be sort of right but they also sell all sorts of other garden bits and bobs and things for doing manual jobs around the house; washing baskets, step ladders; door mats and many and much, much many more! Obviously I'm not really aware what these sort items might actually be used for - I'm far too important to do my own washing or tidying up or DIY. It's not that anyone else does it; I just don't. I live in a crumbling house surrounded by my own mouldering clothes and festering dishes. On the plus side I have a lot of free time. They also do key cutting here and have a pretty extensive selection of wall clocks and indeed I've personally bought a wall clock from here before which to this day ticks and tocks and all that good stuff. Obviously it's a bit more expensive here than at B&Q or Homebase but you pay a premium for being able to get the stuff without having to spend several hours of your life, and sacrifice a chunk of your soul wandering around a retail park.

Formby Hardware is an odd shop. As well as housing the usual hardware bits 'n' bobs, it also sells…read morevarious garden ornaments and decorations, something you wouldn't expect from a small hardware store such as this. This could be an attempt to compete with larger companies like Homebase and Focus, who completely blow this shop out of the water in terms of size and choice. However, if you're looking for something specific then this is the place to go, with its location in the middle of Formby village meaning you don't have to go out of the way to get all your DIY necessities, although it does come at a price. I don't generally use it very often (I'm not much of a DIY guy quite yet) so usually my trips in there are restricted to buying electrical tape for my footy socks. Whenever I go in there however, the staff are friendly and will happily point out which tape I'm looking for when they discover me looking puzzled as I end up in the complete wrong section, as well as reminding me of its correct location and recommending the best tape to use.

By far the best quality furniture shop in Lytham, courteous professional service. Customer service…read moreexcellent unlike another furniture shop in Lytham who demands payment up front then doesn't want to know if there are problems afterwards. You need not worry buying anything from this shop

great service.great prices.good quality furniture.every care taken on your needs.very help full…read morestaff.nothing to much trouble.we are very happy.thank you.