It's simple. If you like weed a lot, you will like Dr Herman's a lot…read more If, like me, you don't really like weed, then the existence of Dr Herman's will be totally inconsequential to you. It is to me. In Dr Herman's there are loads and loads and loads of bongs, pipes, papers and other accessories to help you smoke the green stuff in all kind of ways. The whole shop is dedicated to the weed. Apparently there are enough people in Manchester that like weed that much to fund its existence. Fair enough, I guess.

Kratom Chacruna San…read morePedro Blue Lotus Jurema Yopo If you're already familiar with some of the above, chances are you already shop at Dr. Hermans! For those folks who draw a blank, Dr. Hermans specialises in a wide range of smoking paraphernalia from tobacco seeds to seed banks, grow bags, grinders, pollinators, vapourisers, roaches and blunts. The reason I've only given them three stars isn't because their shit isn't good - it's because the shop looks and feels like a hippy tardis. Everywhere you look, there's horrible flashing lights, crappy lava lamps and cheap looking bongs. I know most customers are probably too high to notice but the decor makes me think of migraines! Personally, I'd also be extremely reluctant to smoke something called Fly Agaric but hey, it's your lungs!

The gentleman who operates the shop is always welcoming and helpful when I send or collect parcels…read morewith Yodel or FedEx. The shop is well presented and very clean.

When I came into Mirage News I thought it was just a bog standard newsagents. Crisps, sweets,…read morecigarettes, bottles of fizzy pop and few newspapers. That kind of thing. That's certainly what it looks like from the outside. And it does sell all of those things. But what it also does is tobacco. So what I'm talking about is cigars. In fact a couple of cabinets full of the things, with a wide range of types. They also sell tobacco, in flavours such as apple, banana and toffee, all weighed out to the amount you would like. They also sell paraphernalia like pipes and lighters. The guy serving is nice enough too. What Mirage News is really great for is its tobacco though.

Great shop ,amazing service, great products great prices very good atmosphere at Christmas time…read moreregards Baroness von Kuchler Francis kray Winchester Mcgladdery Gallagher

I'm not massively too sure how much of a brisk trade this place does when smoking seems to be the…read moreultimate sin in 21st century life... But for the 5 mins I was in here it definitely seemed to be busy enough with fans of the old brown weed. Needing to pop in and buy some Havana cigars for our friends wedding, the staff were very helpful, knowledgable and friendly - helping me choose the 3 pack of Bolivar's (£48 for 3) that went down a treat once all the service and speeches were complete. Personally myself, I have no probs with people choosing what they do with their life and bodies as long as they're not blowing smoke in mine or my kids face and these sorts of places used to maybe be ten a penny back in the old days, but it's nice to see something so traditional as a classic, artisan tobacconist on the high street still. When the next big wedding is on, I'll now know where to go to get my zig-a-zig'ar on!

AFTABS! What does that mean? Is it a name? Does it stand for something?…read more If I was commissioned to decide what it stood for, I'd say.... A Fine and Timely Auspiciously Beneficial Shop. Its Fine, not so much in the sense of selling finery and beautiful decorative products (for which it is not the place), but in the sense of there being nothing wrong with it. Its got all your basics, from bread and milk to a fine selection of confectionary and crisps. Its Timely, certainly, because there are no other shops in the area, and if you're walking from Deansgate or Trafford to Oxford Road, you'll find the journey bleak and woeful. As you battle through the barren wasteland that is Hulme, AFTABS will come to you as would an oasis in the Sahara, providing a much needed Boost (or Twix) to get you through the remainder of the journey. Auspicious, because auspicious implies success in the future while propitious means favourable conditions in the present; auspicious means promising or of good omen - not just special or memorable. Aftabs have a range of new deals on beers, ciders, wines and spirits, which I think will ensure future prosperity once the students from the surrounding area cotton on. Beneficial, because you will benefit from the products purchased there. The reason for this is that you have purchases the products that you want or need. Shop, because is it a shop. A place where money may be exchanged for goods approximately to the value of the money paid. This money is usually in paper form and until recently was backed up by gold reserves in national banks.

24 hours of service, as mentioned below convenience is very much the faceless phantom in student's…read morelives. Open all hours you plunder and pillage for alcohol whenever you need. It does everything that a convenience store needs to do.

On a drunken mission to get the bus from Trof to the Roadhouse, Medic Friend and I realised that…read moreneither of us had a lighter. Or fags, for that matter. We stumbled across Premier and were DELIGHTED to find that as well as fags, they sold 'zippo' lighters with sexy-lady decals. That's right, kids, for just £1, you can own a fake zippo with a badly printed vinyl sticker of a woman in a pink bra and knicker set! Woo hoo! Medic Friend and I were suitably excited, and promptly bought the sexy lady lighter, and called her Sue. But then, tragedy struck! When we tried to light up, we discovered the lighter was EMPTY! That's right, it didn't work! Useless! We were upset. Upset because not only did we not have a lighter, but we had also been lied to, and our excitement turned to despair as I popped into Gaffs for matches. OK, so maybe buying a dodgy lighter for a quid isn't all that bad, but you weren't there, man. You weren't there! Premier sells an OK array of booze. The wines are standard corner shop fare; Paul Masson, Blossom Hill, that kind of thing. And the beer selection is good, with many of the beers refrigerated for instant party-readiness. The booze can be on the pricey side sometimes. I'm with Rob on its blandness. The only thing it has going for it atmosphere wise is a sense of being constantly watched by the man behind the counter. To be honest, there's nothing *wrong* with Premier, but it's not got the huge selection of Sainsbury's, or the weird (and annoying) features of Gaffs. It's just a bit nothingy. But useful if novelty lighters are your thing. As for Sue, I believe she still lives with Medic Friend, though I am of course too polite to ask.

Euronews is a huge newsagents right on Piccadilly Gardens…read more It also doubles up as a mobile phone shop that is a convenient place to come and get your mobile phone unlocked if that's what you need. That's it basically. It's a newsagents. Crisps, magazines, papers, sweets, fags, gum and polo's are its thing (as well as phones, obviously).

Yeah Euronews! Nothing to do with Europe. I thought it was an absolute find, because I always come…read moreback from holiday with somewhere between 7 and 30 Euros knocking about in my wallet. You can imagine my joy when I saw this shop, and imagined myself redeeming my Euros against a large pile of newspapers, fizzy pop and sweets. It was terrible news then, when I discovered that you are expected to pay in British Sterling. Jokes aside, it's a good little newsagents. Especially worth a look at is all the Haribo style sweets, that are not Haribo branded, but taste the same, and are about half the price. The selection is great. Plus its got some strange random items that tourists might be interested in. This is just speculation though, as I don't know any tourists.

Jet News is a superb newsagents and convenience store on Kingswood Road. Its also the only one…read morebetween Fallowfield and Mauldeth Road, so if you are in the area, or you live nearby, you'd better make this your local stop for all things immediately required. Its basically a normal newsagents, which sells all the usual things, but there's absolutely no point (within reason) on which you can catch it out. Newspapers, confectionary, milk and bread, alcohol, its got it all, and always in stock, at good prices. Also, its got an alarming collection of football stickers if that's your thing. The piece de resistance though, without a shadow of a doubt (the phrase not the Hitchcock film), is the wine. For £5, that's right, just £5, you can buy 2 bottles of wine. That's £2.50 a bottle don't you know. And the most surprising thing.. its absolutely fine! If I had to call it either way, I'd say its nice! Honestly. Its worth the trip down there to stock up, as I have never witnessed such good value vin rouge this side of the English Channel. P.s. they sometimes close for an hour at lunch so be prepared for marginal disappointment on occasion.

I am perhaps biased about the quality of Jet News due to it's sheer convenience to myself. Located…read moreapproximately 2 meters from my front door, it is the corner shop of dreams. It has everything I could ever possibly want! From newspapers on a Sundays, to bacon and eggs on a hung over Saturday, to a cheeky packet of chewing gum on my way to work during the week. It meets every single one of my needs perfectly! But by far and away the best thing about it is, as Alfie has already mentioned, is the 2 bottles of wine for £5. All I can say is that whoever is putting them at that price clearly knows nothing about wine. It's really good red wine, but only costs £2.50 a bottle. I have spent a tenner on bottle of wine in the local supermarket that were not a patch on the Jet wine. I reckon I have probably saved hundreds of pounds this year alone from that absolute bargain, and for this reason alone, Jet news gets the thumbs up.

what a fantastic shop, got everything in store bongs, pipes loads of smoking stuff!, they have wood…read morecraft art, jewelry, phones, vaporizers, and if your that way inclined you can buy herbal/legal highs and laughing gas paraphernalia. great shop loads of funky stuff you dont really see!!

I don't know when it started but there seems to be a bit of an on-going turf war between Govind's…read moreNewsagents and their neighbour newsagent Metro Convenience Store. To the best of my knowledge there's been no fist fights or smashed windows involved, just a competition over which business can offer customers the lowest prices. So far, Govind's News seems to be winning with 2p for photocopies and Half Price on all the daily and weekends tabloids and broadsheets. Handily, they also sell beer, milk, bread, soup, crisps, baked beans, spaghetti hoops, toilet roll and chocolate bars - making it a bit of a one-stop shop for students and locals on a budget.

This place has recently changed its name from Govind's to Govin News Agents. Where did the 'd'…read moredisappear to? I really don't understand. Is it a typo? Absolutely similar to Metro Convenience Store next door, Govin seems to have slightly less stock, with a basic slection of bread, eggs, milk and the like. It gets a point for offering photocopying at an incredibly cheap 2p per page. If you're a student with a handing-in deadline and you fancy beating the library queues and saving a few pennies whilst you're at it, Govin is the place to go. Govin News Agents, just like Metro, also sells odd items. Coloured drinking straws? A football? People must be buying this stuff I guess...