There are plenty of arguments for and against the social impact of segregated communities in…read moreManchester. One of the overwhelming advantages of such communities however, which I'm sure will gain universal approval is their complete immunity from being threatened by giant retail food chains. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones that've been driving out small independents outta business across across the country. I LOVE the fact that the communities remain militantly loyal to local foodstores like Madina. Upon close inspection, turns out the reason is a little more complex than just cultural affiliation. One of the main one reasons? This place is AWESOME!! There's literally a library of spices to buy (at BARGAIN prices) and experiment at home with. Any foodie/charlie out there who's sick of the monotonous nature of the shopping experience, will find this to be their culinary/chocolate factory. True, London probably bigger volume of such establishments, but they probably cant beat us for sheer quality. So next time you're stuck in traffic driving to town on Stockport road (through Levenshulme) have a break, and instead of having a kitkat, park up and have a cheeky gander.

Despite having a deceptively small storefront, once inside Madina Superstore turns out to be…read moreanother Desi supermarket easily on a par with branches of Worldwide Foods or Manchester Superstore. With the UK 'hungry gap' upon us, I bagged a box of lychees plus sundry Desi vegetable and fresh herbs. Freshness of the produce was very good, although a bit of banter with a Desi customer revealed that he was passing up on the tinda as being too big - although this is no doubt an out-of-season issue. For the mobile cosmopolitan foodie such as myself, the aim is to know where all the ethnic food stores are so that ethnic food shopping can be done with a minimum of detour from other city business and pleasure. Although there is nothing really oustanding about Madina Superstore to make you travel beyond your nearest Desi superstore, it is nice to have a proper Desi supermarket in Levenshulme to save Levy locals a trip up Stockport Road to Longsight. And visitors such as myself can combine a visit to Madina Superstore with a trip to the monthly Levy Market, or else the permanent Trove café bakery or POD deli.

This is a large Sainsbury's store, on Heaton Park Road in North Manchester…read more It is a large supermarket, so the selection is fairly good as you would expect from a store of its size. The Cafe area was transformed recently, with Boparan Restaurant Group, and now features brands such as Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Ed's Easy Diner and Carluccio's, offering a reduced menu to what you'd find in their usual restaurants, a cool idea in principle but the limited menu offering leaves pretty much nothing for those with allergies. The store is in the middle of having receipt gates, similar to what you may find in The Netherlands, at the entrances and exits, where you must scan a receipt to leave the store, they are currently advertising this to be in place, but it is not required yet, which would cause a great deal of confusion. I'm against the idea of receipt gates anyway. Besides the receipt gates, the store appeared to be clean and easy to follow, with a good selection of clothing and grocery products. The staff in the store seemed friendly, I visited later on in the day, and the staff still seemed helpful and in good spirits. Prices seem in line with what you'd expect to pay at Sainsbury's, there are some good deals to be found, but many items you'd be better off purchasing elsewhere. 4* - A useful location, with many good points, and the fact the store is open until 23:00 during the week is also handy.

One of the best supermarkets in North Manchester. All the usual Sainsburys food goodies as well as…read morea large clothing section and household wares. This supermarket was completely rebuilt 2/3 years ago so everything is still fresh and new. There is a nice cafe upstairs with views outside. There's also some random things you don't always get at a supermarket such as key cutting, shoe repairs, foreign exchange, a dentist and a pharmacy. They recently reduced the size of the clothing department a little in order to add a small Netto supermarket next door. This is the best of both worlds now as without moving your car you can pop into Netto for a few bits then into Sainsburys for the rest.

I've been on a mission to discover more of north Manchester recently. Cheetham Hill is one of the…read morereas which holds a lot of interest for me as a foodie with Cheetham hill road being a great example of multi-cultural Manchester. As well as being another central hub of Manchester's south Asian community it's also adjacent to Manchester's Jewish community. This Superstore sits inbetween the two communities and is buzzing with activity all week long. It's probably one of the biggest stores of its kind in the city. The summertime is a perfect time to visit, for me at least because it's mango season! Honey mangos are shipped in all the way from Pakistan and are priced very reasonably considering they are HEAVENLY! There's also a butchers in house and the store houses a library of herbs and spices. In short there are stores like this littered aross the city in smaller denominations. And in all honesty they probably cater for all the things that are available here. But if you want that remote spice from a youtube recipe or want a faluda flavour ice cream like I do, this is the only place to go.

Wow, no review for the largest branch of Manchester Superstore - says a lot about the current…read moredemographic of Yelp reviewers in Manchester! There are actually two large premises of Manchester Superstore directly opposite each other on either side of Cheetham Hill Road, and if you are into these kind of stores then you will need to check them both out! It may be the case that the one on the left as you travel out of town is more for a quick shop, but it also has a bunch of stuff upstairs - cookware, and kebab shop consumables! Across the road - on the right hand side of the road as you travel out of town - is a building of impressive architecture, which seems to be the wholesale premises, although it is open to the general public, no problem, and this is where I will be shopping from now on. I go for fresh produce, and freshness was above average plus I think Cheetham Hill prices are a bit lower. Just the usual routine for me - stocked up with okra, drumstick, karela, fresh chickpeas, plus fresh herbs which are the bargain of the century at 2 huge bunches for £1. Always good for a bit of ethnic atmosphere. Not quite as much of a feeling of a well-oiled machine as say Worldwide in Rusholme and not as busy at the tills, but the manager is a bit more friendly here on my visit, and opened up another till to get me through quickly. Really love my Desi supermarkets!

Last month, I visited ASM store, using curtsey car due to a car accident that rendered my vehicle…read moreunusable. As I understand, PCE, manages the car park of ASM. The car park is free for customers. However, after making payment at counter, the customers' needs to make entry of car registration number on t the display screen next to exit door. Regrettably, it appears that during this process, there might have been an error on my part--I may have inadvertently entered an old car registration number or, worse yet, forgotten to input the details entirely. Upon receiving a notice of car parking charges from the rental company, I promptly lodged an appeal, attaching proof of my shopping receipt from ASM as evidence of my visit. Despite providing this concrete evidence, which unequivocally verifies my presence at your store during the specified time, my appeal was callously overruled. This unjust dismissal of my appeal, despite furnishing proof of purchase, suggests a blatant disregard for customer goodwill and fairness.

ASM Cash & Carry is a surprisingly large Indian grocery store in the style of Worldwide Foods in…read moreRusholme, although ASM has the added attraction of a sari shop under the same roof! All the usual favourites are there, the dhals, rices, spices and speciality fruit & veg and fresh herbs. So if you are in Ashton experiencing hunger pangs for okra or yam or a big bunch of coriander leaf or fenugreek or a box of honey mangoes - ASM Cash & Carry are your people! On this visit, I discovered some different poppadum makes and varieties - including one incorporating fenugreek leaf which I can't wait to try! A plus for me is that this place appears to be totally vegetarian, and that would make sense as the adjacent Indian café-restaurant is called Lily's Vegetarian - I think Lily's is owned by the same people. The staff are really sweet, and the atmosphere is understandably a bit less hurried than Rusholme equivalents. I will definitely visit ASM when I'm in the area, and any Ashton foodie worth their salt should be a regular visitor!

I have started shopping here for my "weekly" shop. I used to go to Sainsburys but the Nectars…read morepoints deal changed. They halved the number of points you would get for amount you spend. I was also thinking of changing as I think Tesco is overall cheaper. One other reason I now go to Tesco is this one has one of those Self scan things - called Scan as you Go. Basically you get your a scanner which you use as you go round the store, scanning barcodes. The idea is to make things quicker. I use it because its a gadget! But it is quicker as packing bag at same time and the Scan as you go queue tends to be much quieter. This store has a lot of the Tesco facilities like Click+Collect, Petrol, Pharmacy, Wifi and clothing.Its also got a wide range of food such as Polish, Halal, and Afro Caribbean. But at the end of the day, its a supermarket!

ok choice however design is awkward as can take 5 minutes just to get into from the outside pavementread more

While I was shopping at ASDA, I Decided to give this store a visit, it is a fantastic shop with…read moregreat bargains and even some Gluten Free Items. I was delighted to pick up 4 packs of DS Gluten Free Cornish Pasties for £2.95, from a range what is normally 3 pounds each. They get different stock in all the time, so it is worth going in very regularly to get all the latest bargains. If you are shopping at ASDA to get your main groceries, I would recommended giving this store a visit as it is in the same complex as the ASDA and you can pick up some really good frozen stuff for really good value. I was so shocked at the price, I had to ask the man if It was actually 4 boxes for £2.95 and It was. So many great products here with fantastic value, you wouldn't expect to see from a chain, Some of their products are so cheap, I wonder how they can make a good profit. UPDATE: I previously gave this place 5 stars but I think they is one bad thing I have been overlooking since I gave them that prestigous honour in August 2014, I feel that constantly changing stock is a bad thing, because you could go out of your way to get to this store looking for a certain product, when they could have replaced it with something else. If this store had more permenant stock without it changing as often as Portsmouth keep changing leagues, I would seriously would consider putting it back to 5 stars, but for now I feel that the fairer rating for this store is 3 stars.

Sadly, I've never got the hype about Aldi, they might be associated with "bargains" and "low…read moreprices" however I don't really agree, I always find that in ALDI you are paying less for a decreased level of quality, service and in-store experience and this branch here in the Manchester Arndale sums up my scepticism completely. This branch is in quite an unusual condition, it is located on the upper floor of the Manchester Arndale, with enterences from street level from Market Street and from Shopping centre level, where the actual only floor of the store is. The store just didn't feel nice, and it felt like a Pound shop in certain areas, it just felt cheap with the poor level of shelving etc, it just wasn't very nice at all. ALDI and LIDL are very similar in this approach across most of their branches, which are two very similar "discount" brands however another problem with the brand that this branch is a prime example of is the queuing, the queuing system was really badly handled, there are no self service tills, customer service desks or anything like that here, there is just a very low number of tills which don't cope well with queues, I eventually decided to leave and buy my products from somewhere else because of this. I did notice the store manager too who basically stared at me at a comment I made about the poor quality feel of the store and the cheap shelving and layout, he basically rudely stared at me before walking off, he didn't even acknowledge me or try to speak about the problem. Sadly this ALDI branch at the Manchester Arndale is a prime example of all things wrong with the brand especially with the poor, cheap layout and the awful queuing which isn't handled very well at all, so sadly deserves a single one star. which is a shame to start off on a negative foot as this is my first review for an ALDI store.

I'm not prone to depression but spending five minutes in this Aldi definitely made me feel like I…read morewas sliding down a long and bleak hillside. For starters, this store is about ten times bigger than any Aldi I've seen before and looks and feels like a gigantic Iceland. There's no attempt at seducing customers or displaying goods in an attractive manner - everything is just stacked up as easily as possible with horrible signage. The lights look like interrogation strip-lights and there's no music or ambience. In short, the whole focus is on the products and what a mixed bunch they are! One minute you're walking past an aisle of cheap biscuits, crackers and crisps, the next cheap cheap DVD players, walkmans and sat navigation systems. At the back of the store there's an even cheaper fresh and frozen section with perfect looking fruit and veg, meat, fish, cheese, butter, pizzas, puddings and ready meals. Strangely, Aldi seem to sell odd bits and bobs of clothing too from cheap fishing gloves and hats to wool scarves. I'm sure you could pick up some good things if you looked hard enough but frankly, I can't imagine having the time or the inclination to return.