East Kilbride is the biggest town in Scotland so its local newspaper has a lot to cover including…read moresome affluent areas some less affluent areas. The area encompasses a hospital, shopping centre and tons of schools, all typical breeding ground for good stories. Annoyingly, the office is in Hamilton which is miles away. Such office closures need to be carried out in the face of tough times for the print media but it is a shame to lose the local paper face to face feel. However, the East Kilbride news have tried to salvage this by offering editorial surgeries every Thursday lunchtime in the library.

It's an indication of the demise of local newspapers in the UK that the East Kilbride News was…read moreforced to close up shop in the town it covers. Instead, it is now based solely in Hamilton in a move which will surely dilute reporters' abilities to have fingers on the local pulse. It's a great shame for a paper like the EK News which actually retained good links with the community.Indeed face to face contact has now diminished to one weekly editorial surgery. Nevertheless the paper continues to battle valiantly on and offers good exposure to local organisations. Serving one of the biggest towns in the UK, this is a generally better-than-average local paper with plenty of scope for a wide range of news. The initial signs have been reasonable, but only time will tell if the lack of a local presence will take its toll on circulation figures long time. Hopefully not.

When working at tha ABC, this place does me well. I can be out the door, over there, buy some scran…read moreand be back to rip tickets/flyer in the space of 2-3 minutes (traffic pending). Another "they sell everything" stores, as they're aren't obviously enough in Glasgow/along Sauchiehall Street, it's smaller than most, but equally as stocked. Still semi-pricey, but I suppose, now adays you have to pay for convenience. Tut.

This shop came in really handy for me as one late night I was walking home and I had the sudden…read moreurge to buy a play toy Siberian tiger that is about the size of a small dog, low and behold Mr News had one in his shop window my luck was in! No that defiantly didn't happen and I doubt it ever has so why do they sell them in this shop is beyond me, guess you'd have to ask Mr News himself but it really cracks me up! I understand they want to sell as many things as they can and this is helpful as it is a late night convenience store but large soft toys? Really? Apart from that the shop isn't all that interesting but is a good stop off for a late night munch after a hard night on the ran-dan.

A spacious shop with a good range of magazines and newspapers. There are also various provisions,…read morefresh snacks, cold drinks and large racks of confectionery. You can play the lottery too and there's a free cashpoint outside. The friendly lady who was serving in there yesterday afternoon could not have been nicer. She pointed out some current special offers which I would otherwise have missed and then gave me some excellent travel directions to another town where I was heading next!

This is a handy wee local newsagents if you ever need some bits and bobs. Most of the locals call…read moreit Collinsis rather than Collins, just the nickname it has had forever. It's not the original owners but I'm glad the new owners, Mohammed, decided to keep the name. I like going in for number stickers, they're the only place I know of who does it. It's when you find a nice card and it's a special birthday for someone and it doesn't have the number on the card. They have silver or gold ones, I always opted for silver. Then you can stick the numbers on the card and make it a e.g. 30th, 40th, 60th etc. They are also a (PP) Paypoint and I thought I could pick up my Network Flexi-10 First Bus Pass, as the First Bus Lanarkshire & Glasgow websites say I can buy at any Paypoint shop. Unfortunately they had never heard of it. I was totally disappointed, as I've never been able to buy this type of bus pass in Lanarkshire. I always end up having to go into Glasgow to buy, which isn't always handy. They are also now licenced so open much later now. They also expanded the shop many years ago making it much bigger as it just used to be a counter as soon as you walked in. It's much better and they also have a wee section for cards and wrapping paper Apart from no network bus pass option it's a no bad wee shop and they are always friendly and willing to help you out where they can. Like I said, handy for any nick knacks you may need.

A 5 star newsagents? It does exist, and it's here in Glasgow…read more Thanks to Kelly R's tip the other day, I found out they sell Frankie magazine here (thanks again Kelly!). Frankie is an Australian magazine which I was totally addicted to, back in the day. I didn't know it was even sold in the UK so when I saw the tip I screamed (I'm not kidding), and visited Barrett as soon as I could. As I scanned the shelves, and scanned them some more, I came to the crushing realisation that they didn't seem to have it. The girl behind the counter was super helpful, looking it up on the system for me and chatting to me about the magazine. Sadly, it had sold out already but she offered to take my name so that for all future copies, they'll have one for me. How's that for customer service?! She was super helpful and friendly, and I really appreciate that she offered to go that extra mile for me. Even though I don't live close to Barrett, I'll be heading here for all my magazine needs in the future.

I love these places…read more Glasgow Convenience Stores You can tell when you enter one of these that you are back in Scotland. Askit powders by the register and Irn Bru in the fridge. This one is great and I used to drop by on my walk to work. It carries a variety papers, bottled waters, loads of gingers, and all of the miscellany that I would require during my day. Sometimes, it is not the big things that remind you of a place. You can take an immense amount of pleasure in the small things.

Tommy Tango is a little corner shop in Whifflet main street that has the biggest selection of…read moresweets that you have ever seen. It sells loads of sweets by the quarter such as the old classics sweet peanuts, pear drops and Cola Cubes. I still feel like a kid when I go in to this shop and see all the jars of sweets lined up waiting to be measured out. Staff are nice and as well as sweets can buy other items including magazines etc. I stocked up recently with Cola Cubes and Pear Drops to make flavoured vodka's and the prices were really reasonable.