upstaires you get a great all day big breakfast :)read more

My old school friend text me to say that he was up for Christmas from Manchester. He asked if was I…read morestill kicking about Blantyre and I sure am so he suggested heading to Asda Blantyre Cafe. When he came to my bit he had fortunately changed his mind and said 'Howsabout EK instead?' Yay, you betcha! I love the East Kilbride Shopping Centre or it's more the Centre West bit that I like best nowadays. It's actually split into several shopping malls, Prince's Mall and The Plaza were the first then they linked up The Plaza to the Olympia with the ice rink and cinema. I loved that part when I was younger. Then they covered up Prince's Square to become a mall then recently added on to The Plaza, Centre West. If you enter from the bus station it is a bit grim but keep heading through and it does get better. I normally park at Centre West but my friend likes parking at the Olympia. We still don't know how you can park in the underneath car park. Hmm?!! Anyhoo it was lovely to grace this entrance, it was completely mobbed, lovely to see the ice rink still as busy as ever. *Flashback* First time I was ever on an ice rink with my mum. Did witness someone fall and have their hand slashed though. I remember the paramedics and blood on the ice. Fortunately it didn't put me too much off ice skating. We mostly window shopped as we didn't see much we fancied in the sales. We decided to stop for a wee coffee at Costa in The Plaza. There's plenty of food courts and coffee shops about in all the malls. I love the food court in Centre West best. The one at the ice rink not so much nowadays, if you saw it you would understand why. It's great to come here especially when it's raining as everything's all under one roof and it's call Toys R er maybe not. Did most of my Christmas shopping here as there's a great variety of shops. There's still empty lets in the various malls but there's still plenty of shops to make you drop.

East Kilbride shopping centre elicits a mixed opinion from me. If you'd shopped here 5 years ago,…read moreit was a plethora of shops and you were able to get absolutely everything you were looking for. Today, it's a bit pathetic and every second lot seems to be lying empty. There's everything here you'd expect in a shopping centre; Topshop, a huge Debenhams, Waterstones and a selection of others. There's also a couple of cafés, a McDonald's and a decent sized food court. There's also a huge ice rink and upstairs there's an Odeon cinema and a library. It has a lot in it, it's just a bit depressing to walk through and see most of the lots lying empty.

There isn't much for the men, but the 40 or so businesses that mostly cater to women are…read moreextraordinarily charming in this upscale American-style mall. It's a lovely stop along the outdoor Buchanan Street pedestrian mall. With four levels, lots of retail, a few restaurants, and one great chocolatier, Princes Square Shopping Centre is worth a few hours of shopping for the ladies on vacation in Glasgow. The facility is just steps from the St. Enoch subway station on the Inner Line if you need a reference to the metro stops.

Not being much of a shopping centre fan generally, I actually really like Princes Square. Granted,…read moreI don't actually do much shopping here but it is nice for a place to take cover on a rainy day and browse the shops. This is an upmarket shopping centre which has more expensive high street shops like Reiss, Ted Baker, Vivienne Westwood and Cos (which I'm still yet to check out!). The centre is certainly decorated to match the crowd it's looking to attract - glitzy, glam and always clean and tidy. I like the size of the centre as well - it's very dinky but still has lots of shops and is easy to navigate. There's also a host of restaurants, bars and cafés but I'll be honest - I've not visited many of them. I ate at Barca probably 4 years ago and also one of the places on the bottom floor but I think that's changed hands. One down side is that if you are dining at a restaurant on the lower level, parents will tend to let their kids run riot in the centre circle which can be a bit of a mood-killer. Princes Square doesn't have a car park due to its location but it is really close to train and subway. If you do really fancy driving, probably St Enoch or Mitchell Street are the closest car parks.

It's not their fault, it's the economy, and that's why we need to buy cheap imports via discount…read moreretailers such as Primark. The whole ethos of these types of stores is cheap disposable clothing sold at discount prices to keep the customers coming back for more. Fortunately for them this is the type of economy that our government is intent on supporting it is of course nonsense thinking. The store itself is large and carries a large range of ladies clothing, a reasonable range of mens clothing and small selection of childrens clothing for any particular age group. I personally have a problem with shops that are either too busy or too hot, this shop is both and probably goes a long way to explaining my utter antipathy for the place and all those people who swear by it. Rather grudgingly I'll admit that I usually end up buying a few items from here and the kids are more or less exclusively dressed in Primark, we just can't afford to buy better quality clothing and when you're down a hole you tend to do what you need to to get by which is why these shops do well. When I was in today it was busy by 11am and I was beginning to get ratty, it doesn't help that they only have a few tills on and you're forced to queue for a few minutes (not fun with a small bored and over heating child), in fairness the queue does tend to go down rather quickly, so the counter staff do do some kind of a good job. Still, it's only getting one star because I hate the place.

A large shop located within East Kilbride town centre. Primark took over the old somerfield store…read moreso its a big shop. Has a HUGE ladies dept, mens is quite small and again a large childrens dept. Its usually very busy--worse at weekends . My main gripe with Primark is that they dont have 2 sets of tills on so the tills in the ladies dept is usually wrapped around half the shop--luckily it does go down quite quickly but its not fair when you are standing with a basket and a pram and an agitated toddler. Plenty of friendly staff around to assist you. Shoe dept does look like a jumble sale at points but there is usually an assistant on hand tidying up. Their kids pyjamas are great value at only £3 and wash and dry well.

The Peacocks store in East Kilbride is a large store and one I frequently use when I visit my old…read morehome town. The store is located in the Olympia part of East Kilbride Shopping Centre and is positioned directly across from Sainsburys. The store is spacious and has ladieswear at the front with a smaller selection of menswear. My one gripe about this store is that although the store is large, it seems as if there is barely enough room to move due to the large amount of merchandise on offer and the way much of it is positioned on hangers located too close to other sections displaying merchandise. The East Kilbride store has a nice selection of footwear on display and a small lingerie and nightwear section. The store also stocks childrenswear and my daughter likes some of the branded items they get, in particular for High School Musical. The store does get busy at peak times so you may have to wait a while to pay but overall this is a nice branch of Peacocks offering bargain clothing for all the family.

This used to be Focus DIY before it lay empty for quite a while. It then became a hive of activity…read moreand there from the ashes of Focus arose a B&M Home Stores. Yay! Says me! Bargains-a-go-go! As Focus was huge I was expecting good things from B&M and I was not disappointed. There is plenty of groceries, beauty and cosmetics, baby stuff, toys, home furnishings, DIY and an outside section for garden products, which they've kept from Focus. The prices are mighty good and I thought that this year I would do a little bit of Christmas shopping here for a change. I noticed while I was in Asda that they sold some of the same products but B&M was much much cheaper. They have a good selection but I have to admit I did struggle for the men in my family, all the ladies and babies are sorted but I'll need to go elsewhere to sort out the menfolk presents. I've been popping in over the few months it's been open and I've always managed to get the bits and bobs I've needed. It's very handed as it's only minutes drive down the road from me. More and more of these B&M stores are popping up and I have to say they are rather good.

This is a good sized shopping centre with a few car parks. The centre is split into different…read morenames, plaza, centre west etc. The shops that can be found here range from debenhams, bhs, marks and spencers to primark, card factory, pound shop, so something for every budget. There is a libraray and ice-rink and cinema. There a few pubs and plenty of places to eat with a choice of the pubs or two food courts one at either end of the centre. The centre is clean as are the toilets and they have a customer service desk located in the middle of centre west.

Good shopping centre, very clean and a good variety of shops (over 200). I don't like that you have…read moreto pay for parking (except on Sundays when it is free). They have some one-off local shops as well as big chain stores. There is a big Debenhams, a past times. For food there is loads of places, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Shenanigans pub for pub lunches etc.

As Marks & Spencer stores go, this one is one of the smaller offerings, however if the last time…read moreyou visited Hamilton was around 12 years ago, the store is now nearly 4 times the size it was way back then - so, it's not as small as it could be!! In the last 12 years the store has been extended 3 times and even more recently has been re-furbished which means that although it's exterior looks like something from the 70's, the interior is modern, fresh and airy, just like every other modern M&S. I might be slightly biased as I worked in the store for 7 years, albeit several years ago, but I reckon the staff in the Hamilton store are among the most helpful and friendly staff employed by M&S and this is reflected in the neat and tidy, well stocked shelves/racks in the store. One of the best additions to the store in the last few years is the coffee shop - it's well worth a visit!

A haunting whiff of desperation wafts around your nostrils as you walk through the Regent Shopping…read moreCentre in the middle of Hamilton, a few lurking souls hide in the shadows, some of the store fronts stare back at you like a black abyss contained behind glass or garish trinkets vie for your attention. And then like a shimmering white eruption of sophistication at the end of the world trusty M&S looms into view. The branch of Marks and Spencer itself is probably what you would expect in a small town, recently modernised to the new M&S decor and display styles they squeeze quite a lot in, although don't expect the same range as you would find in a city centre or out-of-town style branch. They have smaller ranges of the usual clothing departments, a home accessories section and a cafe. The food-hall is good for this size of store; at the end of the day, post-work, the shelves are generally well stacked as the staff are busy beavering away to replenish the stock. This is the part of the shop that I visit most and do find it to be the busiest, at least in the evening when I think most of the customers are popping-in on their way home.

I placed an online order with HoF and paid for next-day delivery. I received a confirmation from…read moreEvri that the package was out for delivery, but then I received an update from them one hour before the delivery time slot indicating that they could not deliver the package until the next business day. Four days on, Evri cannot locate the package. Today, I attempted to contact HoF customer service, which is an exercise in frustration. I requested a full refund but have only been refunded the delivery charges. Had I known that HoF uses Evri I would have never placed the order. I certainly would never order from HoF. I honestly can't say whose customer service is worse - HoF's or Evri's. They're both terrible. Unless you enjoy being gaslighted (by both HoF and Evri), I would highly discourage anyone from making an online purchase from HoF.

My review today is not for the shop as a whole but of the free personal shopping service they…read moreoffer. I have used this service twice now and loved it both times. The first time I used it I had lost a lot of weight and did not know what suited my new figure. I was going to a wedding so went to get an outfit for that. I think if your going to do this you should be open-minded and try everything they bring, this is what I did and I got a beautiful dress that I would never have picked for myself. I have a wedding coming up in December so decided to do it again. They offer services for any type of outfit you need, like going on holiday, new work clothes and they also offer a wardrobe renewal if you fancy a change. I booked online which was quick and simple they ask you a few questions about what your looking for, what you like, colours and your sizes. I was given a 90 minute slot. I headed to the personal shopper area, based near the men's shoes department. I was met by my personal shopper, Jordan. He explained that the normal rooms they use were busy so I was brought to a make shift dressing room in Mr Fraser's old office, which was stunning, apparently not many people get to see in the office. It made the experience even more special. Jordan asked me a few questions and then he headed off to find me some outfits. I sat on the couch and looked at magazines and relaxed. Jordan then arrived with armfulls of dresses. I then began trying them on. There was no pressure to like them, but I tried them all on. Nothing in the first lot suited. So Jordan headed off again. The 2nd last dress I tried on was the one, loved it, and again like my first personal shopper experience it was a dress I would never have picked for myself. I would highly recommend giving this a go, I think you worry that you are going to feel pressured into buying something but it's all very chilled out and fun to get a little pampered.