Premier Convenience Store, also known as the Clifton Food Market, situated on the troubled Clifton…read moreStreet, is one of several convenience stores that are vying for diminishing trade since the one way system was implemented about a year ago. One of the ways that this store attempts to compete is by keeping its doors open as much as possible, and so it is open seven days a week from 8.00 in the morning to ten 'o' clock at night. It is also one of the few places that still stocks newspapers, and of course the discounted alcohol that it carries remains ever popular! Another thing that is impacting the smaller corner shops on the street is the fact that the council have granted permission for a Tesco Metro midway up the street. Although Premier Convenience Store is part of a chain, it is run as a family business, allowing the owner to make a reasonable profit for the responsibilities of running a complex shop of this kind. Conversely, Tescos employ people on minimum wage to work all hours, and then keep the profits for themselves. This means that huge sums of money leave the local economy, and end up in the pockets of the fat cats in London. This is really bad news for Clifton Street and Cardiff as well as Wales as a whole. What Cardiff and Clifton Street need more than anything else is for the council to stop making choices that will further entrench the recession, making it ever more difficult to turn these desperate times around. Cardiff needs a good flow of money within the local economy to endure the vicissitudes of the global slump. If this does not happen, the people of Cardiff can look forward to the prospect of working unsocial hours for an almost punitive wage, with all of the profits being siphoned out of the economy and shipped off to England! If this happens the people of Cardiff will not have the spending power to improve their lot over time!

Costco is a wholesale retailer which you have to become a member of to shop at. Its about £20 for a…read morebusiness and then you add so member of the staff too. This places is just fantastic for parties. They sell loads more than food, but the selection of pre-prepared foods and nibbles is awesome. The fresh food selection is great too, plus they do fantastic cakes that they can personalise. They also sell electrical's, they have a photo centre and sell car stuff amongst other things. If your prepared to buy in bulk you can save a fair bit on the household bills.

This costco had no lines at checkout in the evening which is unheard of in the states. The store…read moreseems new and clean, staff is super friendly, and the food court selection is better than in the states!

This is a good little Spar store. It sells food and coffee to go (lattes are £1.50), as well as…read morehaving a bakery. It's also an off-license and sells lottery tickets. Perhaps best of all it has a free ATM. As with so many of the Spar shops it has free off-road parking. What more could you want? I love Spar stores for a whole host of reasons, the main one being that Spar is a franchise like Londis and the Life Style convenience stores, and so they are owned as independent businesses, and are not to be confused with supermarket chains. The essential and important difference is that supermarkets make their profits for the organisation, whereas shops like Spar are profitable for the individual owners. 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! I can often buy things cheaper here than I can at bigger supermarkets. 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 Spar shops are all franchises, they can, if they want, participate in national promotions, and offer discounted items for a limited period. Not every Spar 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 Spar has over its larger rivals, but the main benefit to the local communities which they serve is that when locals shop at Spar they are making an investment in the future!

This branch of Spar is a really small store on Queen Street in Cardiff city center, I came here…read morewith it being a 24 hour store to pick up some drinks to take back to my hotel. As mentioned even in the name of the store being an Express store, this store is really small, even considering the brand standards of Spar and that there branches seem tobl be small enough as it is. There were only two rows, one of which being the queue so it means at peak times you can be restricted from browsing due to having to queue at the same time as the store, this was inconvenient and in a way felt like you were being rushed out, due to a lack of things to look at and everything being really small and narrow. There were two members of staff on the till, they both seemed unwelcoming and not very friendly and didn't seem to be doing anything. To conclude, there are loads of similar places in Cardiff center, even close to my Hilton hotel so it would be worth taking a look at Tesco Express or Little Waitrose in lieu of this store, so sadly I feel it deserves a single one star.

No matter what you think of the Spar company, there's one thing you can't deny; Spar know how to do…read morebusiness. There's no doubt that our fair city is a lovely cosmopolitan shopalooza, but on top of this it is also a rapidly developing residential area, filled with a series of high rise apartment buildings where the executive earners of Cardiff are massing. Whilst the city could once have gotten away with the small town vibe it used to carry, Cardiff is no longer a place that can close its doors at 6pm every night; it has residents to think of. On top of this, you have the drunks who are attracted to any establishment still shining its lights at 5am, especially if they're selling Ginster's pasties to the masses. This is the market Spar have tapped into. Where Tesco and Sainsbury's close their doors at 8pm, Spar caters to everyone all night long. Admittedly, it's irksome having to shout orders through a waist high letterbox after 10pm, but it is a price people are willing to pay if that's the only place they're going to get a 4am cigarette refill.

Albany Convenience Store is one of several in this immediate area. It sells all of the usual…read moreproducts from fresh, tinned, snack and frozen food through to newspapers and magazines, booze, soft drinks and tobacco. Ice creams and confection are also available. Services include being a 'payzone'. So nothing too exceptional there! It is somewhat extraordinary in one respect however. Instead of leading with discounted alcohol, with the accompanying posters pasted all over the windows, Albany Convenience Store has a blackboard by the door where the latest offers are displayed. During my most recent visit they were offering two loafs of bread for £1.40, and Kingsmill Value at £0.89. Bread is a long way away from Special Brew or Dr. Carlsberg as it also known, and I commend this store for its more family orientated focus! You could also get two pints of milk for £0.89 on the day that I called in recently, although this price is pretty standard for this shop, and so it's not likely to have changed in the meantime.

Albany Convenience Store is one of your standard mini-market establishments. You walk in and you've…read moregot the papers and the magazines, you have a bit of fruit and veg, plenty of biscuits (though the cracker selection could do with some work) and so on and so forth but make your way to the back of the store. Here you'll find the booze section, stocking all the usual suspects. So what I hear you cry? Delve deeper and you'll find something of pure evil. It comes in black and red striped can. It costs £1.20. It has the potential to destroy everything in Roath / Cathays. I'm talking about Oranjeboom Extra Strong. That's right the student standby is now going for the trampy jugular with a brew weighing at a mighty 8.5%. You have been warned. At least if you do partake in a bout of total liver destruction, you can pick up a box Sugar Puffs on the way out for a comforting final meal. Albany Convenience Store is handy like that.

This Lifestyle Express outlet used to be S & S Newsagent before it was bought out. The name and…read moreownership may have changed, but that's about it. It's still a local off licence, newsagent and convenience store, regularly frequented by the locals from the surrounding residential area. It is perpetually inundated with kids, who all abandon their bikes and scoters on the pavement outside, re-emerging from their brief sojourn, brandishing ice pops and sweets. During daytime hours it's the liveliest corner of the street.

Food is delicious there, I had a six inch sausage roll which was warm and tasty, and I also had a…read moreslice of sweet and luxurious cake. The service was amazing with fast working staff, who are very chatty and very friendly. The ambiance isn't too good but fair enough for a corner shop. It's pretty cold, smells pretty shit and just isn't too much of a vibe.

Waynes, Victoria Park is one of the smaller Spar stores in Cardiff. It sells food and coffee to go…read more(lattes are £1.50), but does not carry alcohol like so many of the others. It does however have on-site parking and so it's a great stop off point to stock up on picnic supplies before heading off into the park. I love Spar stores for a whole host of reasons, the main one being that Spar is a franchise like Londis and the Life Style convenience stores, and so they are owned as independent businesses, and are not to be confused with supermarket chains. The essential and important difference is that supermarkets make their profits for the organisation, whereas shops like Spar are profitable for the individual owners. 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! I can often buy things cheaper here than I can at bigger supermarkets. 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 Spar shops are all franchises, they can, if they want, participate in national promotions, and offer discounted items for a limited period. Not every Spar 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 Spar has over its larger rivals, but the main benefit to the local communities which they serve is that when locals shop at Spar they are making an investment in the future!

I wish they had corner shops like these for Yanks. I mean, I know there's a small selection of…read moregoodies at Wally's and House of Fraser, but a range of stores dedicated to all things USA would be a new business venture I could get behind. Just putting it out there... Until then, I'll visit Polski Sklep with my best good friend, whose fair country enamoured my American sensibilities back in December when I enjoyed a warm and welcoming extended Polish Christmas celebration (three days of partying? Yes, please). Offering everything from sauces and cold sliced meats to toiletries and magazines, Polski Sklep is the perfect haven for any member of the Polish émigré community who's feeling a bit homesick and craving the creature comforts of home. Bizarrely, they even have Cheetos crisps, a perennial favourite of both me and Britney Spears that I've only seen back on the shelves of grocery stores back home. Only this flavour was ketchup, so I didn't collect them with the fervour normally reserved for my favourite crunchy snack. Bummer.

Run by the same people who operate the Polski Sklep on Mackintosh Place on the other side of town,…read morethis Polski Sklep is a slightly smaller proposition. But as my favourite adage goes, good things come in small packages. It's crammed with everything you'd ever need to make the ultimate Polish banquet. For some reason, people often cringe when I tell them that I love Polish cuisine, but they are being philistines! And if you haven't tried borscht (beetroot soup, with little bits of pasta or dumplings in) or goulash (a kind of beef stew, but much better than the usual beef stews we get here) or perogi (boiled or fired dumplings usually filled with potato, cream cheese and onion) then make a beeline for this place and get your taste buds buzzing. And yes they have my beloved bacon flavoured pretzel sticks, the best thing you can buy in Cardiff for 35p. FACT.

Great local shop and an institution! Good people!read more

8 Till Late sells an assortment of basic food and grocery items as well as national and the full…read morerange of local newspapers, non-specialist magazines, pre packed foods, toiletries, baby care products, tobacco products and alcohol. It's also a payzone and top-up store, but it doesn't do the lottery, (although with trade along this stretch of road suffering more than most, it kind of does!) Service is always proficient, and pleasant enough. I prefer to shop here for my odds and sods than at the garage down the road. With all of the local newspapers and regular offers on the booze, there's a better range of product here than at the garage.

AVOID sending your parcels here to collect. I made the mistake of doing this, the shop keeper who…read morewas totally inept could not work the scanning machine and refused to give me my parcel even after showing ID and the required documents and bar code. Both shop assistants were rude and incompetent- would have been easier to pick up from the post office. Avoid like the plague send your parcel to a tech savy shop who understand why you used this service in the first place. If i could give minus 5 stars i would.