Very close to several large student housing blocks this is a shop with one clientele in mind. For…read moreone thing these dedicated guys are open every day from 7am till midnight. A quick walk around the shop reveals all the student essentials you can imagine. They have tights, fruit juice, a wide range of male and female toiletries, a stationary section and the largest selection of biscuits I have ever seen. This is not an exaggeration; think Hobnobs, Digestives, Crunch biscuits, ones I'd forgotten about, one's I've never even heard about! A whole wall of biscuits - extraordinary. As all students necessitate the stuff there's obviously a wide choice of beers and wine with regular deals and discounts. Ready meals, soups, pre made sandwiches and for those on a budget the morning after, miniature boxes of cereal. A well thought out shop keeping Bristol's students satiated.

If temp bar and waiter work is your thing (or catering / hospitality in general), then West One…read moreRecruitment should be on your hit list. The staff are really personable - you can register immediately and they give you a crash course / refresher in how to lay a table and carry multiple plates. They aren't one of those agents that never get in touch - quite literally you could have work the next day. They often have to send a few staff at a time to certain venues - so if any of the other temps has a car, they organise drop-off and pick-up from the office, which is a great help.

A funny little convenience store, very dark inside. Unlike many convenience stores which add and…read moreextra 3 pounds on the bottle for the convenience, the wine here is pretty good value. It sells some sandwiches and convenience food at the back of the store, has some basics and a freezer with things like pizza's and an ice-cream freezer. Unlike many small convenience stores, the ice-cream doesn't look like it has melted and frozen about 3 times before you've bought it. It also sells milka chocolate - hurrah! The staff here are very friendly, although I'm afraid I can never understand what the young guy is saying to me.

You could be forgiven for not ever going to this particular McColls, or even knwoing of it's very…read moreexistence. But that is perhaps why it is so great! The people that go in are mostley locals and commutors, this means that the service has an extra personal touch, and even if you don't fit into any of the above catagories some of that feelign brushes off on you when you go inside. However none of these re-deeming factors stop the obvious fact that it is a bit expensive.

This McColls is near to where I live. In fact every wednesday (and sometimes on Thursday) 6 of my…read morefriends and I all meet up near Circomedia, and on my way there I will pass McColls and get a little snack for my journey. Unfortunatley I have had to cut back on that luxery recentley as I am in training! It is a friendly store, but the food and drink is all a little overpriced, good for a quick shop for the odd bit of food, but I would warn you away from here if your cupboards are empty and you are looking to do a bit of a shop as you could quickley find yourself spending £20 on pretty much next to nothing.

To people not from these parts some place names are legendary about Bristol: The Tobacco Factory…read moreand the Docks for example. Once you live here there are others: The Bear Pit, Cribbs etc. Another place you don't really know about until you live here is The Best. The (self titled) Best Supermarket is legendary. The shop is open 24/7 every day of the year. Even in the harshest of blizzards I have never seen the door closed. They sell crisps, chocolate bars and various other things you would expect of such a convenience store. It is after hours however when they really become something else. This is the only shop that will sell all types of alcohol at all hours. The staff are hardened as you'd expect; their clientele the late drinkers: poets after another bottle of inspiration, students after more beers and all the rest of it. The Best Supermarket is, well, what it is.

Yes it has all your desied goods!…read more Yes it is 24 hours! And yes you can satisfy pretty much any food or drink craving at any time of the day by getting something from here. But 'the best supermarket'?, i'll give them a little le-way for artistic license but I think they should perhaps pre-fix the name with 'Arguabley' then it will give them some margin for error! But seriousley, this place is pretty good, great to have a place of convieniance and open all hours, reliable and plentiful, not bad...

Ashley Stores is the epitome of the phrase 'service with a smile'. They may not be the best…read morenewsagents in Bristol (in fact they're quite far off) but they do maintain wonderful smiles all day and night. It's a pretty sparse store this one, with a lot of space not used all that well. One side is rammed full of all the tinned and canned food you could imagine, packets of noodles, sauces and spices. Then there's a sort of no-man's land with a few packs of dog food and some cleaning products. If you're feeling quite cramped over here rest assured the other side of this deceptively ample store is unpleasantly sparse. A huge chest freezer homes some ready meals, frozen veg and a hoard of ice cream. A little beyond this is quite a good selection of DVDs for rent and not much more. The saving grace is putting the films next to the Ben and Jerry's but that's about it. It's a newsagent. They sell what you'd expect and their very nice about it. It's just very much about the end, and not so much about the means.

With its friendly staff always up for a chat, Ashley Stores always makes you feel local no matter…read morehow far away you live. It's probably got the widest selection of any store in this part of town, given that the nearest Tescos is still pretty far away. Prices are a little steeper than chain supermarkets but that's always the way so Ashley Stores is no different. It's got just about everything you could urgently need, albeit not in a massive wide selection. Perhaps not the best place to do your weekly grocery shop, but in the immediate area it's undoubtedly the best place to stop by and pick up a carton of milk and chat to the staff if you live in the area.

A costcutters!? I hear you say, whats so special about a cost cutters!…read more Well i'll tell you, this one sells balloons! Want more explanation, ok. I often find myself walking home from town crossing Bristol bridge and realising I have forgotton something. On this one particular occasion I had forgotten to pick up some balloons for my housemates birthday, so I popped into this particular costcutter on the hope I could pick some up... and lo behold they had some! and some other random party stuff (bangers etc). So now I have no fear if I have forgotten something as I know costcutter will save me! The alcohol selection is pretty good, and for those of you with more of a sweet tooth there is a pretty good sweet selection on the shelves infront of the till. They are also very friendly in here and I found myself explaining why they wern't invited to my friends party! Brillian!

This branch of Costcutter is a great place to frequent on the way to Templemeads train station if…read moreyou're looking to save an arm and a leg on snacks and news items. Boasting the usual spread of magazines and newspapers, in addition to groceries, confectionery and the like, this little shop will take care of your travelling needs. And if it's a long journey you're about to embark upon, this store sells an impressive range of alcohol, with regular deals thrown into the bargain. Another asset to this Costcutter is its opening times: open seven days a week, from 7 until 11, you may well find yourself 'Gawd Blessing' this shop, religious or not.

With park street, and indeed alot of the top of town, you will somewhat surprisingly find that…read morethere are not that many places to pick up a paper or get some chewing gum (or even some sweets if you need to satisfy your sugary craving!) Lexie's gives you the option to get those everyday desirable things, without having to walk all the way down to the tesco's at college green. Unless you live near the bottom then it would make more sense for you to go to tesco unless you want a bit more excersize! A nice clean shop, and stock's everything you would expect it to, very friendly inside.

Paint the picture - It's a warm day, you have spent most of the afternoon shopping and your hands…read moreare raw from carrying so many bags. The sun is beaming down as you face the dreaded walk up Park Street. You are nearly at the top. The Will's Memorial building is shading the sun from you, yet you are starting to feel faint from all this exercise. No worries, Lexi's is here! Pick up a sweet treat, a cheap and cheerful sandwich or a ice cold drink all for a fraction of the price that any other shop would sell. Fantastic.

Located at the back of Bristol Temple Meads train station this is a convieniant news agent type…read moreshop to buy a sandwich or a drink before hoping on the train (it is also about twice as cheap as buying from the WH Smith located in the train station itself. They are very friendly in the store and it is a very handy place to come to. Selling everything from cerials to stamps and cream to coffee! The one thing that is quite annoying about this shop is that it does not open on a saturday or a sunday which I find quite odd, it also means the shop is not as convieniant as you would like it to be. Like all McColl's it is a little pricey, but the food that they sell is usually on the more upmarket side of grab-and-go food.

Never underestimate the bargains to be had in your traditional newsagents, that is what I learnt…read morefrom frequenting this McColls for two years while I worked next door at Bristol News and Media. As well as selling everything you'd want to pick up in a corner shop(and this is literally a corner shop). Think newspapers, magazines, drinks, sandwiches, chocolate, crisps, chewing gum, fags and lottery tickets. You also get some little gems. Cheap booze, discounted multipacks of chocolate, cereal and even baked beans oh and birthday cards, advent calendars and even household cleaning products. Seriously, the mark downs in here are amazing and they never seem to have any shortage of discounted snacks and supplies - much to the pleasure of half of the hacks next door who exist on Lucozade and chocolate. You can also pay on card (as long as it's over a fiver), which is always handy.