This unassuming little greengrocers on Withington's shabby Copson Street is absolutely bleedin'…read moregreat. Let's face it, for those living in Withington, your immediate choices for fruit are Somerfield (not great), One Stop (really, really, really not great) and Withington Fruit & Veg. Which is actually great. It's a shop of two halves, really. One one hand, it's a straight-up fruit and veg shop. selling all the usuals, loose, by the pound, cheaply. And very fresh. On the other hand, it's an Indian food store, which means you can grab big bags of spices, authentic curry pastes and all the different Rubicon flavours. It also means they stock an alarmingly wide range of fresh chillis, including the scotch bonnet chilli. Beware the scotch bonnet; it looks like a tiny bell pepper, but it is as fiery as all hell! Still, a great addition to a curry, and as everything here is charged by weight, one (more than enough for a hot Madras curry) will set you back about 5p! As well as stunningly fresh fruit and veg, and a great range of Indian foods, there's a good range of Jamaican ingredients such as plantain, dried salted fish and jerk seasonings. Great for if you fancy trying something new. The staff here are ridiculously helpful, and they always have a laugh with the regulars. The shop itself, despite being small and family-run, has its own bag-for-life, which I think is a great way of getting their brand out there, and also much better for fruit and veg than plastic bags. Speaking of, although they offer those polythene bags to put your purchases into for weighing, they're more than happy to weigh your stuff without bags, which cuts down on wastage and sits a little easier on the conscience. OH, and one time I was shopping there and I found a £2 coin in the carrots, and I told the shopkeeper and he smiled at me and said "keep it, it is the Universe's reward for your honesty!"

There are around four things preoccupying ELH these days. One is the amount of travel I'm doing…read morethis year - I'm seeing many different places with lots of quality people, that's rather nice isn't it? Another is putting up shelves and building Ikea desks... household new-home silliness. The third is Robert Sheehan. Enough said. The fourth is shopping local. As I'm a huge advocate - do you know any huge advocates? Okay, that's the 'Big Rug Sale' complex (how big *are* the rugs?), I'm not exactly a huge person - I'm very *into* my independent local businesses when it comes to coffee shops and eateries, I really feel I should carry this attitude through to most of my grocery shopping. At least to the fresh produce bit anyway. Then aren't I just a lucky duck that I live round the corner from this fruit and veg store? But wait, this isn't just a fruit and veg store, and it isn't an M&S fruit and veg store either... As Rebecca D has mentioned, it's also an ethnic food shop. Kind of like a mini Worldwide Foods, you can pick up some awesome ingredients in here, and it happens to have the cheapest halloumi I've ever seen. Seriously, they jack the price up so much in the supermarkets! Just pop here instead (they have the same brand in Worldwide Foods too). Shopping local rocks, and Copson Street is a revelation. I've so much yet to explore here, but in the meantime, sure - get your bits and bobs from the Co-op opposite but please do support this indie and stock up on your fresh ingredients here, you shan't regret it.

One Stop is located in the main bit of Withington, near the nice cafés like Fuel and the banks…read more There's not really anything that remarkable or even unremarkable about this place, its got all of your basic sweets, crisps and basic groceries. There are a few greetings cards which is useful. What is very not useful in One Stop is how the newspapers and magazines are at entirely different end of the shop. I didn't like this, One Stop, and it made finding my Guardian hard. I panicked suddenly, and thought "Oh! Do they only sell Mizz and Heat and stuff but not the Guardian?" But then it was ok, and I realised that the papers were back near the door. Then I tried to pay for my paper and the nice girl behind the counter was having a nightmare restocking the scratch cards which were falling about all over the place, meaning that it took ages to get served. All of this for a Guardian.

In my Withington days, a visit to One Stop was a rare thing, fraught ith much disappointment. "They…read moreonly have frozen mince, and NO potatoes!" hissed the boyf once, when I'd sent him out to get ingredients for hungover shepherds' pie, and all the other shops were closed. Y'see, that's the only time anyone's likely to go to One Stop, when Somerfield and the butchers and the fruit and veg shop are allll closed. Because their name is a lie. Yes, it's a one-stop-shop for all things cheap-boozy, but in all other areas it fails miserably. A word, then, about the booze. It is OK. They often have decent deals on booze, one of which is a nice wine, Ogio, which is around £9, but One Stop occasionally sell it for £4. It's not exactly exclusive, as you can get it in other shops, but I've never known anywhere put it on offer as much as One Stop. The big cardboard boxes of beer (crate? case?) are also usually on offer for around £8. Good for BBQs or, y'know, stocking up the fridge. While the food section is appalling, the household essentials section is just that, essential. Bog roll, washing up liquid, cat litter. It's usually well-stocked and all quite reasonable value. In short, One Stop is a no-no unless you're desperate, but then, I guess, it is a bit of a saviour. Just make sure if you want to make a hungover shepherds' pie, to buy the ingredients the day before...

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.

A nice enough M&S Simply Food location located on Wilmslow Rd, serving Didsbury Village in…read moreManchester. It is a fairly small store, as common with "Simply Food" branches, but they still had a fine selection of most items you would expect to find from a Marks and Spencer, although it is still minimal compared to their other stores, so if you're looking for something in particular, you might wish to head to nearby branches in either Stretford or Manchester city centre. The staff seemed friendly enough, although they did leave a warehouse cage, blocking part of the aisle, which was difficult to move to due to a lack of space, so it ended up blocking certain items that I wanted to buy. The Marks and Spencer app is available here, so you can scan and pay for items using your mobile device, which is handy, especially if you're looking to get in and out of the store quickly. There didn't appear to be any manned checkouts here - self-service only. This could be difficult for the elderly, so I was surprised that Marks and Spencer which is common with older shoppers did not have a manned checkout. 4* - A fairly good store apart from a couple of major flaws which hopefully will be reviewed.

Whilst evil Yankee behemoth Starbucks gets a lot of (admittedly deserved) flak for being so densely…read morepopulated in Manchester, good old 'British as the Queen' M&S seems to escape similar treatment. Has nobody noticed their growing numbers? Has nobody noticed the Marks and Sparks devil offspring mini stores popping up on every redeveloped corner or every new outlet, public transport station or mall? No? Oh...um...well this is embarrassing...couldn't you have just stopped me a little earlier? Maybe before the whole 'devil offspring' bit?

When I first started university this building was an empty shell. My student life involved long…read morewalks to Asda which seemed especially long on the way back after I decided it was a good idea to buy 12 cans of beer, 3 litres of orange squash, 4 cans of beans etc. Thank God for those Germans and their wonderful supermarkets. Lidl arrived. It seems to have inadvertently brought along its own accordionist who is always outside come rain or shine - she's actually pretty good. I disagree with Alfie about Lidl not being the best place for a weekly shop. I often did my weekly shop here, even if it was sometimes necessary to supplement it with items from Worldwide and Tesco. The best things to buy: fruit and veg (really good deals like 29p for an aubergine, 19p for a cucumber), pesto (half the price of Tesco pesto), gin, cloudy lemonade, German beer, frozen pizzas (often half price), mozzarella, frozen Indian snacks, tortellini, antipasti, ice cream... I challenge you to carry more than £15's worth of Lidl's goods home with you.

Omg Lidl is the best shopping place to ever go to, most of the time it has everything i need and…read morethe workers always are kind and ask politely, "Do u need anything Ma'am or Sir?" Best shopping place ever.. Cheap stuff aswell the quality of the stuff are amazing..

Amazed by this place…read more I haven't seen anywhere like it since my travels to Portland. It has a real community atmosphere. Everyone involved, from the growers to the staff to the people shopping, care and it really shows. It's honest. It's exactly where you want to buy your vegetables. There's soil on the fresh produce. Actual soil. No cellophane, no unnecessary packaging, no nonsense - just tasty, local food. The shelves are clearly labelled and well stocked with interesting offerings. They have your staples - potatoes, all the usual veg, cereals, spices, fruits as well as some more unusual choices when/if it's in season. Prices are reasonable and when you pay you feel like you're contributing - something you never experience in a chain supermarket. There's a play area for kids and free apples to keep them occupied - with a little compost bin for the cores. A big green thumbs up.

Unicorn is quite simply the best place ever and the eco-jewel in the crown of the noble and good…read morekingdom of Chorlton, that land of the yoga bunny, the eco-warrior and community campaign group Keep Chorlton Interesting http://keepchorltoninteresting.org/ Walking around the unusually-wide aisles of this wholefoods supermarket, it is easy to feel inspired that the times are *not* a' changing. Because they've changed. And here we find ourselves in a land flowing with everlasting organic milk and honey, and we no longer have to constantly check the label because it's all good stuff! Unicorn is a fully-fledged supermarket with the small and large trolleys to prove it, but the relaxed atmosphere and experience of the five senses being bathed in everything that is good is tangible. Starting outside the door, the Big Issue vendor deftly helped me free a trolley that was jammed, and I could feel his genuine wish to help and for my Unicorn shopping experience to be a good one. Inside. Organic seeds. Garden tools made in Wigan by a company called Bulldog. (I bought a hand fork and a 3-pronged hand cultivator, which I think will prove useful for weeding close to plants without damaging their roots.) Organic fruit and veg which is all labelled and sourced as locally as possible (e.g. Broad Beans from Gielty of Ormskirk). And plenty of choice of fruit and veg - how come supermarkets never manage to have more than a few lines of organic produce? A lovely blackboard telling what's in season and how things have been going for the farmers out in the field. Sometimes, I've seen another small blackboard outside showing how Unicorn is cheaper than Sainsbury or Tesco for the same items. This doesn't surprise me, as a good co-op is a very strong business model, without the big salaries and pressure for huge shareholder dividends of all chain supermarkets. I've not tried much from the chilled display, so I'll leave that to others to review. The dried goods are handily displayed on tiered shelves with small, medium and large sizes of each item. In the back corner, there is a lovely little play area, including a compost bin for the little eco-warriors to put their apple cores in! Every time I've visited, the play area has been very much in use, with lots of fun being had. The kids are nice to each other! The bakery and hot food takeaway is all good stuff from the best organic bakeries in the area, supplemented by some goodies baked instore. I've had great soups from here, eaten with a buttered roll or pastie, very wholesome-tasting - sweet potato or roasted red pepper, mmm! On the shelves in the middle are a many speciality ingredients which are hard to find elsewhere. From my till receipt, for example - Toasted Sesame Oil (organic), Pomegranate Syrup, Puffed Wheat (organic), Puffed Millet (organic), Polenta (organic). Even if you're not an enthusiastic cook, I would personally much rather have a breakfast cereal of Puffed Wheat with a dash of maple syrup and whatever else I fancy rather than trust the Honey Monster! Waiting at the checkout, the lady in front offered me half a organic loaf in a brown paper bag - thank you very much, madam! I always find the checkout staff and all the others very pleasant and on-the-ball - there is a maturity about this place. Unicorn is not a side-show in Chorlton it's the dominant retail model (shh - you know what I mean!) with a turnover of millions of pounds. One last thing - at the checkout, those branded plastic things that supermarkets provide to separate your shopping on the belt from the customers in front and behind are replaced by...pieces of wood! Pass on the well-worn, wooden baton and the good word about Unicorn. :-)