Debenhams is one of the many department stores in such a small area of Leeds city centre on…read moreBriggate which includes the likes of House of Fraser and Harvey Nichols, this is a rather unique branch for Debenhams as it doesn't follow the original branding in all aspects of the store, with it being so close to the old part of Victoria Leeds and many stores from designer brands to department stores and even a Starbucks having a victorian name-sign, this was no different. I like how they had a direct lift from outside the store going out to the cafe, although it looked more like a service entrance - this was one of the easier ways in, saving time too especially if you just wanted a seat with food or a beverage. Pretty much your average Debenhams in terms of offerings, although the toilets could have been in a better position and more clearly labelled, staff again were average. It is over multiple floors, as I recall there are three or four floors with Click and Collect on the top floor, another idea I don't like as I believe Click and Collect should be quick, it feels like this way they're punishing online shoppers by making them go through the store, possibly hoping they buy more. Still a decent store by Debenhams standards in a good, central location, I also like how this store tries to be slightly unique compared to other stores, but still, it remains pretty much average - with some flaws such as the service not matching a traditional British department store, and the location of Click and Collect, and perhaps a lack of a food and technology section especially compared to other department stores nearby. Slightly generous three-star rating as this store is bold, unique and stands out and inside, pretty much average, albeit above average for Debenhams, who tend to have some pretty old and terrible stores across the UK.

So, I was on a seemingly never ending search for a bridesmaid dress. You've probably heard me…read moremoaning about it, and if not before, you have now as you're reading this. Yes, it seemed an impossible endeavour to seek out the perfect vintage style deep purple, slightly plum, bridesmaid dress. That was, until I found the concession within Debenhams, Debut. For starters, all the dresses on this concession were lovely. All in beautiful silks, tailored for the most part from the empire line which is always flattering, and they were in a variety of classic colours. They had deep red, turquoise, deep navy, ivory, forest green and my beloved purple! I immediately rummaged for the sleeveless maxi in my size. To my delight it was there! I took the dress, and a couple of others for good measure, to the fitting rooms and had a try. Fantastically, as I was browsing solo, the staff were incredibly helpful and gave me a ton of advice - including a hand with the zips! I explained the situation regarding my sister's wedding and they advised accordingly, not once pressuring me to purchase, but assuring me that the fit and look were perfect. Happy days! I was able to put the dress by so that I could come back and confirm with a friend later in the week, which I did, and so purchased the most lovely deep purple maxi silk bridesmaid dress you could ever find. Woo hoo! I shall go to the ball. I was really pleased with the service and the price, at £110, was a lot less than I had expected to have to fork out for such a lovely garment. So, if you're on a similar quest, my advice is try Debut. I'm going to glitz mine up with a home-made fascinator and such, so as to make it my own, but for the most part this dress will speak for itself.

One of the larger stores in Bolton town centre, Marks and Spencer have a good store on Deansgate…read morewhich has improved since my last visit back in 2017. Due to COVID, they are only using the front entrance at the minute, I'm not sure why they aren't using the entrance which is located by the Food Hall, considering this is the only part of the store that is open due to UK government lockdown restrictions. The store had a pretty good selection in most areas, especially the Marks and Spencer Gastropub range, it was a shame that the Free From section was pretty small with multiple empty shelves in that department, and there didn't seem to be as many fresh counters here as my local store in Manchester, but the product range wasn't bad nonetheless. This store also supports Marks and Spencer's new scan and go, where you can scan and bag items, pay on your phone and leave, this is the first time I've managed to use it as many stores either have awful signal, for example, my local store has the Food Hall in the basement meaning you can't connect to the app, and in other stores, it just failed to load, I loved doing this and it made my shopping experience easier, it isn't without its problems however as even though I was charged, the screen froze on the "payment failed" option, with no option to go back or get a receipt. The staff members seemed friendly and were happy to show me to the Free From section and tried to offer the support they could with the app, which is a new concept so is obviously going to have some teething problems, it's just lucky I didn't need a receipt. 4* - Large Marks and Spencer store with a good food hall and friendly staff.

Just off of Victoria Square, it is in the midst of loads of other shops, so convenient if you have…read morea number of things to pick up. Because it is in the city centre, you'll have to use one of the car parks which do cost money during the week, but on weekends it is free to park. I haven't been to any of the other floors as I am usually headed in to pick up some food. The layout is not too cluttered, although the area around the self-checkout area and some of the aisles of food near it are a bit cramped and actually a little confusing about where the queue for the self-checkout begins. I have often seen a number of people standing there trying to figure out where they should be or if they have cut the queue. There is a bakery area and in front of that are coolers that have ready-made food for those stopping in on their lunch time. In fact, it is quite a large selection of sandwiches, salads, fruit, etc. I don't shop at Marks & Spencer for my regular shop as it is a bit pricey and we are on a tight budget. However, I do like to pop in for some special items every now and then... like items for antipasto, some of the desserts are nice, fresh baked breads and pastries, and I do like their selection of wines. They also have a small section of toiletries, cleaning supplies, and pet supplies, but they are limited. If you are looking for a bigger selection, you may want to head further afar to the M&S at Middlebrook... it has free parking as well. It is also located next to a number of other stores if you haven't found everything you need there. However, if you happen to be in the city centre and need a couple of items or want to treat yourself, this location does the job.

Next at Leeds Trinity is one of the mall's largest anchor tenants, it is over multiple floors. The…read morestore's big, bold and bright signage makes it stand out within Trinity Leeds, while on the inside, it follows the typical look/feel you'd expect from a Next store. There is a Lipsy here, but compared to other locations there isn't a lot of brand kiosks featured inside this store, and I do hate how they seem to pack so much into the store, making it much narrower than it has to be (temporary shelving), I mean come on you have a huge store over multiple floors, allow the customers some more space. The staff seem friendly enough, they do have regular sales and a nice selection for the whole family (Men, Women, Children), including a Home section, that isn't too bad. 4*

Well, disappointingly I feel that next has slipped back down in the fashion stakes after having…read morequite improved a couple of years ago. Before the improvements I would buy clothes for work here but would never have considered buying regular items from here. Then it seemed they had a change in direction & stopped stocking all the 'dad' fashions & moved itself into modern times. Unfortunately the last couple of seasons of items here have been very disappointing and seem to have regressed back to how it was previously. And as for the Christmas jumper range that they stocked this year... I don't feel that I can comment due to the bit of bile stuck at the back of my throat!!!

Yes the store is VERY nice and very upmarket. The Selfridges store (huge!) in London's Oxford St is…read moreIconic in many ways - it was the FIRST department store in the UK and founded by an American who wasn't able to do his thing in the US - there is a TV series about it. It was the first store where women of the day felt comfortable and safe shopping alone.... Growing up in the UK my parents would take me there at least once a year (almost every time we visited London actually - so maybe 3-4 times a year. Yes there were upmarket things, and recently we were there and sure there are many expensive brands with absurd prices. But there are also more "normal" goods for sale. Not so much in Manchester - all Louis Vuitton and simile booths all around. A good friend who knows London very well explained that the smaller Selfridges don't have the room for affordable goods and it is all for the very affluent. So come prepared to go home broke or enjoy a window shop! Even the restaurant upstairs seemed very toffee nosed to be honest- not fun :( Review #4 2020

This is a large Selfridges store, although I do prefer their Birmingham location and their flagship…read moreLondon Oxford Street location (this location appears to be much more basic and laid back than those two, which are both in stunning buildings which stand out massively). I do think this is a good department store, it is one of the largest and more high-end department stores in the city centre, which is a fading game with Debenhams on Market Street closing and House of Fraser on Deansgate soon to follow. The store looks pretty good and is opposite Marks and Spencer in the Manchester Arndale, sadly Selfridges doesn't have a Food Hall similar to their other branches, at this location, this is a real shame - perhaps that is due to the Basement level of Marks and Spencer (a different business) having a large food section? There are two different San Carlo restaurants in terms of eating or drinking inside, I would have loved to see at least a different brand to add something a little more different, similar to what you see in other department stores such as Harrods etc. They do have some unique experiences here occasionally, Manchester City did bring the Premier League and Carabao Cup trophies here a couple of years ago which was super exciting for me as a big City fan. It can be pretty difficult to navigate at first, but they do have a store plan which is somewhat helpful, the store remains modern and clean. Some of the staff seemed a little snobbish and unhelpful, this was mixed as other staff members seemed great and happy to help. 4*

A pretty average Marks and Spencer store, located on Briggate and serving Leeds city centre, sadly…read morethis store still has the older style layout, despite being a pretty busy location in a large city, it hasn't received the newly refurbished layout we've seen in other stores such as Meadowhall, Sheffield and Manchester. My main reason for visiting the store was to visit the Food Hall, this is located on the lower level, I do think the layout again could have been made much cleaner and simpler, compared to other Marks and Spencer stores but they did have a good product selection for a store of its' size. The staff members seemed friendly and happy to help, unfortunately, this store does not have car-parking, a cafe or an optician, which again is disappointing as the facilities do lack compared to other large stores in similarly-sized cities. 3*

Marks & Spencer seems to really be trying to push itself to the forefront of fashion and trying to…read moreappeal to a wider audience. You only have to see the TV adverts to realise this. The store on Briggate does stock the usual older fashioned style blouses and knitwear but have now intrduced even more up and coming designs to their Per Una range. This store also has a large cafe and a huge food supermarket downstairs so you can pretty much do your weekly food shop here and pick up some nice bits and pieces. I really don't like the layout of the store and feel that they need to change the decor inside to keep up with the new attidue they have. It looks a little drab. But anyway, it's well stocked and that's the main point!

Debenhams are quite a large chain of department stores in the UK, on the more affordable range…read morecompared to the likes of Harvey Nichols, and Selfridges who are more high-end, and the latter actually have one of the anchor stores in the Traffor Centre it is located in, which as I recall are three department stores being John Lewis, Selfridges and Debenhams. As mentioned, being an anchor store for the intu Trafford Centre, this branch of Debenhams is quite large, with a fragrance hall as well as a selection of both male and female clothing over the two floors. I'd also like to comment, as this is such a large store in such a busy location, I'm surprised it has only received 15 reviews, most of which being in 2009 and the most recent being in 2011, I'm not going to say all the things that have happened since then, including Gary Lineker being forced to present Match Of The Day in his underpants, following Leicester City's Premier League win, previously dubbed impossible. Moving on to my original review, this is quite a nice store, it is quite large and does look quite modern, but as you go into it, it sadly feels less modern, albeit it does have quite a nice, cool staircase towards the end of the store. Sadly, most of the clothes here just seemed poor quality, and honestly look dreadful, which proves it isn't the most fashionable place to buy clothes, unless you like to buy things which look like curtains and towels. The staff here didn't seem too friendly, they just seemed average. Overall, this store is okay, it is nothing more than that but I sadly feel it hasn't done enough to earn three stars, with one of the only positives being the size and location of the store.

I don't mind Debenhams to be honest. It's a good department store. Whenever I come here it's always…read morethe men's wear department that I visit. You'll be heading down some escalators when you come in to find it. There's loads of famous fashion names on offer, like Levi, Rip Curl and many others. It's always worth a visit as well as you sometimes find things cheaper here than in the labels' own shops. One thing I would say is that it's really difficult to find the escalator to get back up out of the basement floor! I ended up wondering around for five minutes trying to find the bloody thing!

Marks and Spencer in Burnley is in the outside area of Charterwalk Shopping Centre within Burnley…read moretown centre, the store is OK, it is over two floors with the Food Hall on the ground floor, this does, however, mean that due to the ongoing UK government lockdown, the upper floor selling non-essential items such as clothing is closed, I do think they should have made it partially open as it also means the toilets are closed too, given a lack of public toilets around Burnley town centre. Nothing too exciting, the Food Hall range was just OK, the store was mainly clean and the overall staff attitudes were mixed, there was a lady who seemed friendly and happy to help and a man who was quite the opposite. The store does close pretty early at 6 pm, I think it would be really useful to keep it open later, like many other Marks and Spencer stores, especially for the Food Hall... on a Sunday it shuts far earlier at 4 pm as it decides to open early instead of at 10 am, this is obviously limited due to Sunday Trading laws, but I would prefer 11:30 - 17:30 on Sunday's, which is again common at other stores. 3* - OK store, some good things, some bad, it wouldn't be my favourite Marks and Spencer branch to visit but it isn't bad.

The Marks & Specncer store in Burnley is a large store based right in the centre of town. It's…read morerecently undergone a makeover but I am struggling to work out what exactly has been changed. The food hall has had a it of an overhaul but besides that, they just appear to have moved things around a little bit. The Burnley store stocks clothing for men, women and children as well as homewares, food and drink and the compulsory M&S undies. There's also a small Revive café if you find the choice to overwhelming to explore in one go! The store can be a little difficult to navigate with clothes grouped into different ranges rather than clothing types. This means if you're looking for a new pair of trousers you'll have to explore the whole store if you're looking to make an informed choice. The store does get busy, particularly at sale times when it fast becomes bedlam and the food hall always seems to be busy when I visit, despite the extortionate prices!

I'm an M&S supporter. I've been shopping with them since 1973 and I trust them implicitly. The…read morequality of the food they sell is really beyond dispute and represents great value for money on quality. When there were food scandals here a few years ago like the horsemeat scandal their name never arose. Sure you can go to the other big stores but when you look at the prices they charge for their comparable quality provisions they actually usually charge more than M&S do for their M&S labelled products. Buy cheap folks and buy twice. I only needed croissants, Parma ham, roasted cashews and some of their exquisite Indian meals but I had grandkids in tow so things like Percy pig sweets, banana milk, sugary cereals, doughnuts and fresh baked cookies ended up on the counter. We all then went to the M&S upstairs cafe; adults for cappuccinos and kids for apple juice - before this it would have been to the Starbucks in this vast centre but since they charged me 5p for a plastic cup for iced water (in Portsmouth) I've not been back. M&S provide jugs of water with glasses for free in their cafés - you don't even have to buy anything.

I like Marks and Spencer's location in the Trafford Centre, it is over multiple floors with a large…read moreFood Section, they also have the Scan and Go capability, meaning you can scan and bag items as you walk around the store, and then pay on your phone and leave, which makes the shopping experience much more simple. I do find the checkout area to be a little hectic here sometimes, so that makes the app much more useful here. While I do prefer their Manchester Arndale location nearby in terms of item stocked and overall look/feel of the store, this store certainly isn't a bad alternative and I do seem able to get the majority of the items I need when I visit the store. The layout of the store is pretty easy to follow, I like how they've combined the cupboard and fridge "Made Without Wheat" range to be right next to each other, which makes the whole shopping experience much quicker. There are no toilets in store which is rare for a large Marks and Spencer, there are plenty of toilet facilities around the rest of the Trafford Centre though. 4*