I'm a creature of habit and so when I've run out of beer, cat food or crisps, this provides them in…read moreabundance. It's not huge and it's mostly dedicated to crisps and snacks. There are some strange and wonderful things here. God knows where they get them from. The beer section is entirely chilled which is unbelievably good on a hot summers day and there is a nice selection of goodies.

The post office refused to accept the parcel because I've missed the last collection despite the…read morefact I have by law until 11:59PM to post it at any post office. 24 hours after the purchase of a postage label, that was purchased 10/02/2020 by click and drop. So I've had to buy a secondary postage label. The old man then started swearing at me and then tried to remove the secondary postage label that I bought and damage the parcel. I told him that what he was doing is a criminal offence and he then started swearing at me and throwing homophobic words. He threw the parcel on the floor and told me to get out of his shop. I have paid for the first tracking label ..... and tried to post it in time 4:55 PM. This is by far the worst experience I have ever encountered and this is not how I expect a Royal Mail officer to behave. He refused to hand over my parcel that contains a very fragile and expensive item.

Yes, there's a big Tesco's in Barry, but my two favourite convenience stores are Londis and Co-op…read moreFood! Why? Well, there's a multitude of reasons... all of them an essential consideration when making ethical choices about where to shop. The first is that I can often buy things cheaper here than I can at Tesco's. I find it interesting that we have all bought into the fallacy that Supermarkets sell things cheaper. It's just not true in many instances! There's no denying that the massive supermarket chains indulged in a price war to kill off their smaller competitors, but when they felt that they had done as much damage as possible, they allowed their prices to steadily rise, allowing them to make more profit per customer. Perhaps what they didn't reckon with is that shops like Spar and Londis were going to preserve a lot more independently owned convenience stores than they thought. Not only is this competition essential to keep the larger stores in line, but it also means that local convenience stores have access to larger bulk buying discounts, thus often making them more able to undercut the big boys! Because Londis shops are all franchises, they can if they want, participate in national promotions, and offer discounted items for a period of three weeks. Not every Londis shop is the same. Being independently owned means that the proprietor of each shop can buy in stock that is culturally relevant to the local area in which they trade. This has to be seen as a distinct advantage Londis has over its larger rivals, but the main benefit to the local communities which they serve is that when locals shop at Londis they are making an investment in the future! A friend told me an interesting statistic the other day... apparently 80% of the money spent at supermarkets leaves the local economy whereas 80% of the money spent at independent stores remains within circulation locally, which is great if it's true! If high percentages of money leave a localised area, then impoverishment will eventually ensue. So, to retain 80% of the money you spend within the area in which you live means the opposite!

Half newsagents, half convenience store, this little shop isn't really sure what it is…read more Fair enough it has the usual requirements of a newsagents. Papers, magazines sweets etc but when I wandered in I found razors and all sorts. I can't figure out if it's really necessary considering that there's a tesco metro a few doors away but I'm guessing it's a throwback from before tesco existed.

This is a perfect sized little co op which has a great selection of items including a pretty decent…read morerefrigerated wine and beer area. (Perfect for those summer evening beer runs) It's that great size too, that's somewhere in between a corner shop and a big supermarket. The fact that there is fresh fruit and veg (though possibly not the best) gets the thumbs up from me too. Where else would you go at 9.00 when you realised you needed mushrooms.

Located on Barry's high street, Premier offers everything from toilet roll and toys to spirits and…read moresmokes, making it less like a corner shop and more like a mini grocery store. The selection of wine is much better than what you'd typically find in a small shop, with prices that rival Tesco to boot. Premier also offers frozen goods, grocery items, even arts and crafts supplies (I found a Silvine memo book for only 74p, which I quickly scooped up). However, the main draw for me was the stock of individually-wrapped ice cream without a trace of freezer burn - it took everything I had not to devour a mint Magnum in the early hours of a cold and windy weekday morning. The lovely lady behind the counter actually took a few minutes to speak to me about the looming Christmas holiday and what she plans on buying her grandkids. This is definitely a shop that has a steady stream of regulars coming in, judging by the amount of conversations that went on between customers and staff alike.

We decided to visit the restaurant as it's newly opened. It seems to have the edge over other…read morerestaurants in the area as it offers unlimited refills on soft drinks, the salad bar and the ice -cream machine. This makes it a cheap meal out. However, the vegetarian choice is awful we went for the buffet. We did not have a choice it was cheese and tomato pizza and that was it. It was burnt on the bottom and as my daughter put it Tasted like chalk. We needed the drink refils to wash it down! The utensils were all dirty so I didnt know if the pizza slice had been used to pick up the fish (it looked like it had). The food was awful, the service was sloooooooow and it just wasnt a nice experience. I did say that next time I'd try the restaurant meals rather than the buffet but I honestly dont think I'll bother there's a Weatherspoons around the corner I'll go there instead!