The food at tesco is okay... could be better. The sushi's very bland but the coconuts there are…read moredelicious. The service is mid too with the workers being very moody, (fair enough, they're at work) and the cashiers sometimes being too fast and aggresive. The ambiance is pretty good to be fair with decent music playing and the whole thing kinda feels like a chill vibe.

It's super and it's a store. What's handy about this Tesco is actually, although the shop is huge,…read morethe food bit is comparatively small. So you can trolley round in a fairly efficiently short time. But what I like about it is the in-store optician. You can get a pair of prescription glasses for £10!!! Ok, you have to choose style from the seventies, but for a tenner who cares? There's also all the gubbins you'd expect, pharmacy, electronics, home goods, home bads, clothes.... But this Tesco is where all the student's go as the accomdation is very near here. So can be busy at beginnings of terms. It's also often pretty hectic at the weekend with queues coming in and out of the car park.

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!

Easy to pop into, with both self check and regular check out, with speed.read more

I'm probably a bit too keen with reviewing this store because when I was in there last week it…read morestill looked half like a building site! Recently a crop of supermarket mini stores have appeared on St Mary's Street. There was nothing and now there is Spar, Tesco and Sainsburys all no doubt trying to capture business from all the local workers. Well this branch seems a bit smaller than the one on Queens Street with less general items and more lunch/convenience stuff and one of their brilliant salad bars. I'm sure it'll do well, once it looks like a shop!

It's so handy this branch. I was catching a train the other day from here (not the shop but from…read morethe platform) and with only 5 minutes to spare and my 7 month old son in my arms I just had enough time to rush in and grab something as long a the queue wasn't too big. There was a bt of a queue but the staff got through it in no time and before you know it I was on my train munching my triple decker sandwich and cheddar cheese and fancy onion crisps. Ok there are cheaper sandwich shops but they simply not as nice.

Oh, I was so incredibly happy when this place opened. And I still am. M&S Simply Food is enough…read morehappiness for a lifetime. Marks & Sparks stock only their own brand of food and drink. This could be a bad thing in terms of choice, but it's not. There's too much choice in the M&S range as it is already. I spend ages every time just staring at the selections of sandwiches and salads. Then another age choosing juice. This store is in an incredibly handy location for anyone who commutes in and out of Cardiff Central, as it's right there in the station. It's also great as a place to stop into before going to Vue Cinemas; here you can get healthy and yummy snacks instead of salty cardboard hot dogs. In short; the food here is fantastic, if not cheap. Great for a healthy snack or treat, not so great for stocking up on basic before you head home (although, maybe if you're on a better wage then me, you'd be alright).

Good old Co-op have got a store right in the centre of town. It's not a very big one, but it stocks…read moreall of the essentials, and so it means that you can call in on your way home after indulging in a bit of high street therapy! This is excellent news! The last thing you want to do after squandering a fortune on some all too ephemeral fashion items is pay over the odds for your evening meal... all you need is something tasty and light, before you head for the bathroom to prepare for your night out, emerging in your glittering new outfit, ready to take on the town! Co-op fills the gap! It's also a great lunchtime destination if you work in town. They have above average quality sarnies and salad bowls, that are often cheaper than their nearest rivals. I love the idea of grabbing a sandwich for lunch, alongside picking up a few things to have for my evening meal when I get home. Co-op and M & S are brilliant for this!

There aren't many supermarkets I'd feel inclined to write reviews about but this one is a definite…read morefavorite for a few different reasons. 1. Its Cheap. It has cheap clothes, cheap DVD's and cheap food. There's not much I need that Asda doesn't sell really. 2. Its Quiet. I can't tell you that there won't be any queues at Christmas but pretty much everytime I go there I have a nice relaxing shopping experience which is mighty hard to come by these days. 3. It full of Singles!! I'm not one for trying to get a date over the fruit and veg aisle but I did appreciate going here back in my singleton days because I didn't feel like the only loner in the world and it made shopping that little bit more enjoyable.

I really do love this Asda, it's pretty much the only shop need. First of all everything is…read morecheap/reasonable and is of a good quality. This is also the best place to buy Blu Ray's from. Generally what supermarkets do is under sell their media products in order for you to spend more money on other things in the shop, great when you only go in there to buy the films then. And finally, it is the only place I've ever seen that sells this strawberry and lime cider, I'm not joking when I say I'm probably keeping that company afloat on my own with the amount I've bought.

The Fruit Man is easily spotted on Wood Street owing to the large green and white candy stripe…read moreumbrella covering his stall. There's also a permanent green trailer where he locks up all his gubbins overnight. If you like fruit this is where you need to go. The prices are ridiculously low! You'll hear him yelling about some of the best bargains at regular intervals, just like the old traders used to always do at markets in Old London Town. There's home-grown summer fruits like strawberries at £1.00 for two punnets, (the same sized box at the supermarket would rush you about two quid). And there's exotic fruits on offer too. A 300g of blueberries sells for a pound as well, (I've paid four pounds for a punnet this size in the supermarkets before now). This fruit stall has been in the same spot for Twenty years, so if you're familiar with the city centre, you'll doubtless know all about this little treasure already.

This guy is out on his stall rain or shine every single time I walk through Cardiff. You can find…read morehim right next to the Prince of Wales and WH Smith where Great Western Lane meets Wood Street. I can't think of a day when he hasn't been there and he's been there as long as I can remember coming to Cardiff. I've noticed that people have the tendency to simply pass this gentleman by and have often wondered if this is simply because he is selling on the street or if they actually prefer going and spending more in the supermarket. I really don't eat enough fruit but every now and then I will stop off and grab something from here as I pass this way so often and I'm impressed simply by the fact that he stands there yelling out the specials he has on offer. You never hear them shouting out deals on the fruit isle in Tesco and even if they did you can be sure that you'll be paying inflated prices. You might even take a moment to wonder how much of the sale price actually gets back to the people who grow this produce. This guy is old school, his prices are cheap, his produces tastes great and he gets much respect from me for standing in the midst of Cardiff practically every day and belting out his deals. If you've never taken the time to try something from his stall then give it a go, it certainly won't cost you and you'll be supporting the dying art of the original street traders.

In the run up to Christmas, I make an annual trip to Lidl for German gingerbread, as it's the best…read moreand cheapest place I know to buy it, and Christmas wouldn't seem right without it. Last year I even bought a couple of 'kit' boxes as presents containing everything you need (except perhaps eggs) to build a Lebkuchen gingerbread house - the ingredients, icing, and decorations. If you like Jaffa cakes, look out for the packets of cube-shaped 'Dominos'; if you can find them, they are delicious and worth stocking up on! other than that, I don't often visit Lidl. The choice is a bit too limited to do a full shop there, and I'd rather avoid trips to two separate supermarkets for one shop!

I was a bit wary of going to Lidl as my mum has always turned her nose up at it…read more But.... I went here recently and was pleasently surprised. It was actually ok! The fruit and veg is mostly if not all organic and the prices are very competitive! They also sell some of the most amazing own brand chocolate I have ever tasted. Believe me it gives Galaxy a run for its money! Another thing I like is that it is never overly busy. There are always spaces in the car park and even though the seem to have a couple of staff working they get you served in no time!