Matalan, Matalan, Matalan! The poor office drudge's favourite shop! For inexpensive, decent quality office attire, no one does it better than Matalan. £6 pairs of skinny leg black trousers, £4 button down shirts, and £10 smart jackets -- you too can look like a train conductor, for under £20! In the past few years, Matalan have started branching out to include lots of fun party wear, at a slightly higher quality and cost, and have some really fun and unique going out items. If you like sequins, and don't mind everyone knowing it, shop for your clubbing gear at Matalan. Matalan also do a nice range for the "sophisticated" (read: old) lady, including some nice jacket and skirt sets, and some good gardening wear for the retired lady. The Matalan in Birmingham near the Cite Centre is massive. It's kind of a Brum landmark, with its enormous Mosque-style dome, and absolutely enormous lay-out. This place is the size of a football field, if not bigger, and it has EVERYTHING. If Matalan carries it, the Brum outlet has it. Most of the stock in the Matalanverse is here. The staff are helpful, and there are a lot of them, spread throughout the store, so it's pretty easy to find what you are looking for. There are a lot of tills, but you'll still need to queue for awhile, as there are even more shoppers! The selection of lingerie here is very good, with a big, fine selection of bras for the larger busted lady, at reasonable prices (nothing worse than being forced to shop luxury brands simply because you're larger in the chest!). The selection of clothing at Matalan is never going to win any awards for being trendy, cutting-edge or wonderful, but they are cheap, accessible, and a short bus ride from most anywhere in Brum! read more

This is my favourite branch of Matalan because it's such a huge shop that I can always find something for me and the kids and everything is always in stock in every size. There is plenty of room to move in the shop and aisles are wide enough that you don't have to worry about constantly bumping into other shoppers, I've usually got the pram with me and have no trouble at all getting around even though they provide trolleys which everyone seems to get even if they're only popping in for one t-shirt! There are plenty of changing rooms for you to try the clothes on and I have never had to queue up for a changing room even when the shop is busy. The changing rooms have those annoying curtains rather than doors, which I hate as trying to get changed in such an enclosed environment means I worry about flapping the curtain up on accident and flashing my bits to people outside! The ladies clothes are great and I always find them to be an excellent fit and accurate to the size on the label, particularly the bootcut jeans which fit perfectly even though I am quite short. Some jumpers come smaller than you think they are going to so it's important to try these on even if you know your size down to the last millimetre. The kids clothes are great, a nice mix of trendy and traditional clothes which are reasonably priced compared to most of the kids clothes shops in Town. Again the sizes are accurate and I can easily go in and buy my daughters' something off the shelf without them being there and be sure it's all going to fit when I get home. I don't really buy mens clothes from in here as my fella likes sporty clothes which Matalan don't seem to sell often, but I've had a browse and they sell a lot of jumpers and jeans along with t-shirts and socks. The prices for mens clothes is quite a lot higher than the womens section, but it all looks to be of excellent quality so if you like this style of clothes then you should be ok. read more