A useful Convenience Store open 24/7 in the city centre on Piccadilly, just a couple minutes away…read morefrom Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly Stations, while the prices are high they do have a pretty good selection of essentials which is great if you live in town. The prices, on the other hand, are on the pricey side, there are other stores nearby who offer a similar, or even better range of products at a lower price so if you are visiting during the day (when those stores are open), you would be better off going there. Sadly, there didn't seem to be a gluten-free section. They did have some but limited offers around the store, and while most items were overpriced, some were competitive value. Decent store, useful location if you're in a rush or late at night but there are similar/better stores within 30 seconds on foot away. 3*

This place sucked poor customer service etc I don't have time to waste discussing how bad this…read moreplace was

Tesco's Church Street location might not be the best/largest convenience style store in the area,…read moreand I may prefer the Co-Op across the way, but this particular location isn't too bad, it is accessed through a small staircase and/or a lift which always seems to be out of order. They have a good selection of to-go food and drinks, fruit and vegetables and a small but satisfactory range of essentials, some prices are slightly higher than a regular Tesco store due to the convenience style location. Most of the staff seem friendly enough, there's a small number of self-serve checkouts which are useful if you're in a rush. If you have more time and you're looking for another Tesco nearby, the Tesco Metro location on Market Street is much larger/better, but this store isn't too bad. 3* - OK, not the best convenience store in the area for overall size/selection, it isn't even the best on its' street but it isn't that bad and is located inside a nice building just outside a bus stop.

Remember the nursery rhyme about the count sat in his counting house counting all his money?…read more That's what runs through my mind every time I hear about Tesco opening a new Metro or Express throughout the country. Allegedly, the company now have over 60 branches within a 15 mile radius of Manchester city centre and yet, they still decided to open another earlier this year in the city's independent area; the Northern Quarter. Having lived in the area myself for a couple of years, I know it was difficult to get everyday essentials like bin bags, toilet rolls and washing up liquid without a long walk. Personally, I'd still rather go for a long walk than put money in Tesco's pocket though. It's not just that they're prepared to stamp out independent retailers and farmers across the world in exchange for profit and market place domination, it's that their fresh vegetables, salad and bread don't taste that good either.

Manchester Souvenirs & News have had locations popping up all over the city of late as the…read morenewsagents' chain look to expand - this is probably one of my favourite stores they have in the city, and I do like it much more than their newer locations at Arndale Centre Exchange Square, Shudehill and Deansgate, as well as their other location at the other side of Piccadilly Gardens. Refurbished of late to include a Post Office, this is one of the latest opening Post Offices in the area which is open from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening throughout the week, opening a couple of hours later on Sunday and 8 - 8 on Saturday. The Post Office inside this newsagents is all the more important especially with the Town Hall's refurbishment meaning the Post Office there is out of action for now, and this one does seem a little quieter with less queuing compared to the other Post Office in their other store at Piccadilly Plaza. Despite being located in an older building on Mosley Street, close to Primark and Metrolink services, the inside of the store is pretty modern including multiple friendly staff working the store and Post Office checkouts as well as a pretty decent drinks/news selection, although I do find the prices to be a tad higher compared to nearby. 4* - A very innovative idea to add a Post Office into this store after the Town Hall's closer for refurbishment was announced which meant there would still be a Post Office on Mosley Street, while still being a useful store in a good and central location too.

I had major beef with Aleef (hey, I'm a poet and I don't knoet!) when I was fifteen years old, I…read morewas always the designated cigarette buyer in my clique back in the rebellious days of youth simply because I was the tallest, and I always used to get really irritated with newsagents when they ID'd me. Uh, newsflash, my Daria-esque snarky teenage self used to say. There is no ID that proves you're sixteen. Only that which proves you're eighteen. Actually, now I type that I realise that passports can prove this and always have. Well, I never thought of that at the time, it made me very angry. I was such a self-righteous little whinger. Moving on, now with hindsight this proves that the Aleef franchise is rather discerning and ensures it does what it is supposed to do, which is checking young scallywags are old enough to engage in self-abuse. As I'm older and wiser I realise they were doing their job, and now, having used their kiosks many a time, I have to say they're a great little brand (despite certain bosses being investigated for certain tax frauds... http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1024144_aleef_bosses_jailed_for_fraud - still, you've got to admire that thinking) and their Printworks outlet is a work of genius. A newsagent a work of genius? What on earth are you talking about, I hear you ask. Well, it's the fact that there's a cinema round the corner. Pay extortionate prices for your beverages there? I think not. Grab 'em to go at Aleef, some sugar free fizzy Vimto perhaps and stash it in your bag. Heck, even get the sweets there, they often have £1 offers on big bags of goodies. You've saved a fiver before you know it. It's open until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays so you can imagine that Opus (ARGH!!! http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/opus-manchester-2#hrid:IbKBK3KYd86ORI3E2S9-rg) revellers grab a few snacks to go here after forcefeeding themselves R n' B and overpriced beverages. There's plenty a bar in the Printworks area so Aleef are certainly catering to their audience. Who hasn't craved a bag of crisps or a soda after a few too many wines? Aleefs are located conveniently pretty much everywhere in the city, but you're certainly likely to make a lot of savvy use out of this one. I'd recommend it on location alone.

This Aleefs used to be my snack bar back in the days when I was employed with the Odeon in the…read morePrintworks. I used to run into here during my short breaks to grab a pack of quavers (Oh how i love em) or maybe a drink or two. Now, its my stop for the usual gums and chocolates. It's a cute little stand at the start of printworks and works well for anyone here! Say, you;re going for a film at the Odeo but don't want to be ripped off by the expensive nachos or popcorn in there, grab a bag of something from here and go ahead! Well saved and well savoured!

This Spar has loads of magazines and newspapers to choose from, which is probably the only reason I…read morepop in every now and then. Other than this, it's fairly unremarkable but is slightly better stocked than the other convenience stores in this area. It's tucked down a little side street off Shudehill which sometimes puts me off late at night, but if you go early evening you can queue along with rest of the local young professionals for your bread, milk, Guardian newspaper and four pack of Becks. Oh, and it had a really large selection of wines, beers and spirits considering the size of the store.

Expensive... minimum card transaction of £5.... and very miserable staff…read more I only shop here in emergencies. There's always at least one homeless guy sat near the ATM.

There's a Tesco, Sainsbury's, Co-op popping up on every corner of the city centre and it doesn't…read morestop at one branch of the supermarket giants' one stop city centre shops. The domination and battle of the supermarket giants are ever present in the city centre, you can find like four mini Tescos around the vicinity of Deansgate and Piccadilly areas. A lot anyway. So here's to the Xpress on Whitworth Street West, one of a few cornershop types springing up in the city, to balance the equilibrium of the chain store masses and inject a little local to the often impersonable, daunting city centre. Xpress Local has recently opened up on my route to university. I've watched it been transformed from an empty space, learnt what it takes for a cash machine to be installed whilst thinking damn, this is where my late night snacking will take it's higher form. Xpress stocks all your basic groceries, milk, cheese, bread and acts as your off license too. I've used it for the range of bad snacks on offer, which has been bad for the healthy eating regime plus the purse. It annoyingly does not display prices on a lot of things which I thought was because it was opening mid-finish but this isn't the case. Annoyingly so, one late night purge, I watched my tube of pringles being scanned to reveal £1.99. I knew I should have purchased the half price ones in Tesco. Xpress is one of those places you just pop in and get the things you want or crave or when you're under time pressure. There may not be an extensive range of fresh or organic what nots but you can expect a pleasant none lengthy queue if you do find yourself in here.

They are selling fake cigarettes from under the counter, the man took out the cigarettes from…read morethe cabinet behind him, then looks like he swapped it from under the counter, flimzy box and packaging, cigarettes harsh on throat and feels flimsy also, but charged as if selling me originals

This newsagents is on Piccadilly, and sells a few international newspapers outside which I always a…read morefind to be a nice touch. It reminds me of being on holiday in France and trying to find an English newspaper to read up on the football. They have loads and loads of magazines in here, all the major titles as well as seemingly most of the obscure ones as well. And for what we all use newsagents most for, they have a truly excellent selection of sweets, chocolates, crisps and cigarettes.

A pretty small Spar store at St Mary's Gate, I like to avoid this store if I can as it isn't the…read moremost inviting of stores, people (and sometimes the staff) like to smoke outside, and there is a lot of homeless people outside the store most of the time (very sad) The store is pretty small inside and a little dark, the selection is okay, but I do much prefer the Spar store at City Tower, or local Sainsbury's and Tesco locations in terms of product range and selections. Some of the staff seem friendly and they do offer MyHermes drop-offs, which can be handy, especially considering my previous favourite Hermes store, Sainsbury's Local, no longer offer this service. 2*

The Co-op is a fresh, innovative, new store concept "Co-op" to go which is a twist on its current…read morefood stores, being located just outside Piccadilly Station the location is ideal for this concept. It is located fairly close to Greggs and Leon in the old Little Waitrose unit, it opened recently to replace. When hearing about the closure of this store and being taken over by Co-op, I honestly was disappointed being a fan of the Waitrose brand and I knew that they'd have to do something pretty special to at least match the store, much to my delight and surprise they've perhaps surpassed it and done even better. The store is really modern, it's one of those nice stores with writing in modern letters above key areas such as hot food, coffee and water, some of which are my favourite parts of the store with a small hot food section and a coffee machine next to it from Seattle's Best Coffee, a subsidiary of Starbucks meaning you can grab a coffee if you're in a rush ahead of getting your train without having to go in any other stores or coffee shop. Another cool, modern feature is the "water", as well as selling pretty cheap bottled water there's a card machine which lets you pay using contactless methods to make a small donation to water charities and you can even fill up your own water bottle for free, which is a feature I really like. The selection of to go foods once again was good which included a gluten-free sandwich, however sadly it was on seeded bread which I didn't like, this is something most big brands tend to do which is frustrating for gluten-free as I'd much prefer regular gluten-free white bread. There is a small free-from section which is pretty much generic of the store of this size and nothing too impressive The selection of to go drinks was okay, it would have been nicer to see a bigger selection of certain drinks however such as more flavours of Coca Cola including Diet and Zero brands, and Lipton Iced Tea. A large range of modern, self-service cash machines which are also well suited to the "to go" environment also help this store. I think this store deserves a four-star rating as it is cool, exciting modern and certainly fills the big boots it has done by succeeding Little Waitrose in its unit, a modern store which has adapted and decided its-self to its' location being one mainly used by railway passengers at Piccadilly so the focus on to go, food beverage (including free water) and the checkout process etc is , with prices being quite reasonable compared to elsewhere within such close proximity to the station so I feel this innovative Co-op store deserves a four-star rating.

Despite being a small store, this branch remains to be much better than the nearby store on Quay…read moreStreet, it is located on Deansgate just off Bridge Street. The staff seem friendly enough and they seem to have occasional sampling going on here pre-COVID times including Carabao who had a stall here - a Thai energy drink company which is pretty good. The store is small and in terms of overall selection I do prefer the Co-Op which is a couple of minutes away, but this isn't a bad alternative if you're going down Deansgate through the city centre or searching for some Sainsbury's own-brand products. 3*

In my continuing quest to find Sainsbury's own-brand fruit and fibre cereal in central Manchester…read morefor my girlfriend's breakfast I hit this Sainsbury's Local on Deansgate. I'm getting quite worried now. These Sainsbury's exploits could almost turn into a list, of me basically reviewing the same thing over and over again, all without the feted fruit and fibre ever appearing. Needless to say, this Sainsbury's Local doesn't have the fruit and fibre. It's just packed with city workers buying ready meals on their way home.