This is a large M&S located on 2 floors. It's mainly taken up by clothes, and only a small part of…read moreit is the supermarket. The supermarket can often be quite busy and you will have to queue at the checkout, but the food is so nice so you can't complain! The staff are helpful and always apologetic when they have to ask for ID because the silly 'you must look 25 to buy alcohol or have ID to say you're 18' rule, but I understand they have to do this. You have to pay for your carrier bags so take your own!

Marks and Sparks in Sunderland is a large branch, selling food and clothing. It is spread across…read moretwo floors (hopefully I'm not confusing it with the Newcastle branch.. it has been a while since I was last there!) It is a short walk from The Bridges shopping centre. To be honest I find a lot of Marks and Spencer's clothing dated - they no longer offer a very good range for their younger clientelle, and many of there prices are high unless you can bag a bargain in their sale. I do think their underwear offers good value though and they always have plenty of sizes in stock. The changing rooms are always clean and there's usually a shop assistant around should you need any help finding a suitable size/colour of item. Personally my favourite thing about M&S is their food court! They sell the best prawn pasta salad known to man. It's expensive but worth every penny so I always get one when I'm peckish whilst shopping in Sunderland!

Fenwick is a large department store, located in Newcastle city centre, it's spread over five floors…read moreand is one of the anchor stores at Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Fenwick as a brand has 8 locations across the country and was founded here in Newcastle Upon Tyne. This location is their flagship. The store has entrances on street level (Northumberland Street) as well as entrances from the mall. The store is open until 7 pm on most days, although opening hours can vary, this means they're generally open an hour later than John Lewis, which is the mall's other main department store. The store is fairly attractive, with modern and older parts and the selection again is reasonable. The renovation is starting to show which is ongoing to celebrate the store's 140th anniversary. The Food Hall area reminded me a little of a smaller version of Harrods, pricey for sure but they had a variety of items appearing to be high-quality, including some meats which looked of a fantastic quality. I much prefer the technology section at John Lewis nearby, however - although Fenwick for sure wins on the Food Hall side of things. 4*

Thank you again to two great sales ladies Lindsey and Helen in the electrical department…read moredownstairs. I bought a magimix food processor, it wasn't a straight forward sale as I had to take it abroad. Lindsey and Helen really bent over backwards to help me find the right size, the colour I wanted, to wrap it well to take it on a plane ..... They couldn't have been nicer. A real pleasure in doing business with sales staff like that and they definitely make you want to shop at the store again.

A great store, I walked in and got exactly what I needed immediately, beautiful serviettes for my…read moretea party. There were a lot of other things I did not need so kept my eyes dead ahead. Lovely to see stores like this still in business in a market town. Go treat yourself today to something, anything, everything!

Barkers Department Store, situated in the centre of the High Street, offers an incredible range of…read moremerchandise, including some of the worlds leading brands of fashion, lingerie, menswear, shoes, handbags, cosmetics, cards, luggage, gifts and homewares. On the first floor is a recently refurbished 200 seat restaurant with views over the Applegarth Park and an excellent menu specialising in home cooking. The store also has an online shopping facility.

A very clean and pleasant experience. The great snow dogs…read moreare currently a big plus on atmosphere! Always something to browse here... great place to kill time

The Bridges was opened in the Eighties, turning what was several open-air streets into one covered…read moremall. In 2000 it was extended and with that, Debenhams was opened. There are several eateries and coffee shops in the Bridges, such as Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Nudo, Caffé Nero, and because it's north east England, two Greggs outlets ;-) There's also two cafes in Debenhams and one on the top floor of Waterstones. There's a good-sized Tesco and an Iceland in the mall, as well as a M&S nearby, so you do not need to leave the city centre to buy groceries. Though not a part of the mall itself, three apartment blocks sit beside the Bridges. If you've got a small fortune going spare, there's worse places to live - the city's just downstairs! Despite recent regeneration, the outdoor shopping streets of Sunderland leave a lot to be desired. The mall is still the 'big city' part of Sunderland, however if you want more choice or more independent shops, it's worth taking the trip into Newcastle.

This is a department store on a small scale.It's rather quaint and old fashioned realy…read more They have the usual departments including beauty counters,clothing departments and household stuff and there is also a restaurant.The entrance is on the main shopping mall down from Hexham market. It's handy if you need something specific but there is'nt the choice that you would get in larger department stores.

Small shopping centre, plenty of space though, with a cafe in the centre, car park above, toilets…read moreon the upper mall and a decent collection of shops. Several of the smaller units on one of the strips have closed down and construction has just started to turn this space into one large unit taken by Next which will be great as the Next we currently have resembles a broom cupboard!! MK One has closed down and with Adams reportedly in trouble, new businesses could be filling these units. hopefully sooner than later. It has craft stalls around the upper mall during certain times of the year and has a good feeling to the place.

A small shopping centre with a few good shops like Debenhams, New Look and Topshop. There is a…read moresmall food court with one restaurant. There is a car park but I have never used it. Not much to say about it really.

A big store with 2 floors but still feels very cramped inside. Would be better if there was more…read moreroom to move about. An ok place if you're looking to buy something at a cheap price.

Boyes Store is part of a family chain and like all of them the Whitby one offers good value. I grew…read moreup going to Boyes,in fact we lived near one. I have allways particularly liked the sewing department. They have trimmings ,elastic etc.by the metre. They have loads of craft stuff, gardening ,clothes ,shoes. The DIY department is good . There are some very good special offers and famous names in clothes and electricals at fantastic prices.they have sweets and household items. There was one big disappointment---they stopped selling curtain fabrics which they had long been famous for. I couldn't believe it at first and assumed it was being moved.Then I tried stores in other towns and they had stopped too.

Poundland is super for a good browse around. they sell a huge ranges of products such as books,…read moredvds, cds, sweets, baby stuff, toiletries And guess what?? Everything is £1! You really can get some bargains in here if you have the time to look. For example, many of the books they sell have previously been on the best sellers lists, they also sell some good dvds.

I always go to Poundland for my envelopes for when I sell things on eBay, they are really cheap…read morecompared to buying them in other stationery shops! Poundland always have really good bargains ranging from toiletries to food, to stationery and kid's toys. The only thing I don't like about this shop is the queue's are always huge and they don't go down too quick. So you might want to 'pop' into Poundland for something but end up being stuck in a huge queue! The shop isn't too big either so you end up queueing down the aisles and it gets really crammed.