intu Derby has had various names over the years, it became intu Derby after the centre was bought…read moreout from Westfield in 2014, but before then it was known as The Eagle Centre. Located in Derby city centre, around half a mile from the train station it has 199 stores over two floors, with the upper level mainly being occupied by restaurants. The largest anchor stores over 3 levels are Marks and Spencer and Debenhams. The mall is modern in most areas, however, other parts could certainly be done with some improvement which seemed so poor, it looks like two different shopping centres in comparison. The mobile signal around the mall was terrible, It even got so bad I had to go into the Three store, who is my mobile operator who explained it is bad and they normally have a signal booster which wasn't working. Luckily the centre did have wi-fi but even that was pretty poor. The centre is the largest shopping centre in the East Midlands region in terms of area and is the 14th largest in the country (Just 227 meters squared larger than intu Milton Keynes & thecentre:mk) The security staff gave me a bad vibe, they seemed like they were wanting to cause trouble and didn't seem as friendly as elsewhere in the UK, which could be said about the mall staff as a whole, but it is still one of the better shopping centres in the area with some nice brands including the city's only Starbucks store, you can also find stores from Nando's, Carluccio's, Jack Jones, Hugo Boss, WHSmith and more, so it is one of the best places to shop in the city even if it does lack multiple brands which can be found at smaller malls in Nottingham and Leicester such as Currys PC World and Apple. 3*

Now, I'm not normally a fan of shopping centres, but I have to confess I was seriously impressed by…read morethe new (opened in October 2007) Westfield Centre. It's seriously large inside, with 175 stores anchored by a large M&S and Debenhams. But what I liked was the bright, light and seriously minimalist finish to everything, and apparently all to a very high standard. It was about as far from a crappy British shopping centre as I have ever seen. On the inside, it also steers clear of that horrible cheap and tacky atrium style of architecture. It looks as though someone has at least tried to put some thought into it all. The stores were - unsurprisingly - mostly the familiar set of High Street names, although there were also some clearly local outlets, too, although a few of these looked perilously close to discount stores. But, overall, I was impressed - and surprised, because Derby isn't that large a city. Only 4 stars? Well, for such a huge place, their signposting and mapping wasn't that great, even with the hi-tech touch-sensitive store and location finder. (Nice technology, shame about the map). They have the usual range of services (toilets, parking for 2,000 cars, etc) as well as a cinema. It's slap bang in the middle of the city, so it's hard to miss.

This is a smallish out of town shopping centre that is also the site for one of the Park and Ride…read moreservices into the centre of Derby. The D1 service runs every 15 minutes or so into the city Monday to Saturday. At one end of this centre is the Odeon (formerly UCI) cinema, Deep Pan Pizza and a pub called The Master Locksmith whilst at the opposite end is a large Morrison's Supermarket and a McDonald's. The stores in between include Focus DIY, MFI, Magnet, Staples, DFS Furniture, Topps Tiles, Mostyn's Factory Shop. PC World, Benson's Beds, Pets at Home and several others.

Nice place to shop, big names such as PC World and Morrisons supermarket…read more Odeon cinema showing all new releases

When I heard CostCo had opened a few branches in the UK, I nearly lost it ! It brought back…read morememories of the USA .. Sweet sweet memories ! CostCo is a large retail store selling items mostly in bulk from toothpaste, drinks, crisp, cereal to singular items such as perfumes/colognes, clothes, TV, jewellery etc. If you want to waste money, go to CostCo! I went to the one in Derby and although it had many items and it was a reasonably humongous store, it's nothing compared to the USA especially the free samples! There is also a Pizza Parlour where one can have freshly made pizza made by CostCo staff. I've heard they're good but never tried any so when you do , let me know! There are too many good things to say about CostCo but that'll fill a few pages. However, the negative is that it's members only and one has to be one of the following as far as I can remember : Occupation: Bank/Finance Education Local government / police force / fire and rescue service Civil service / armed forces Post office Medical health service such as the NHS Airline Insurance Qualified as : Certified or chartered Accountant Doctors / opticians / dentist / pharmacist Chartered architect Chartered engineer / civil etc Chartered surveyor Individual membership costs around £30 including VAT whilst Trade costs £24 a year. The CostCo Gold card would be double the prices at a slight discount. Note: * Be wary of the VAT as it's not included in the prices however, the total sum is always summarised near the product. * The owner and primary user of the membership card can take two people in with them when shopping at a time. If it's children, they have to be under 16 and can go in as two pairs.

Costco is great, and Costco Derby is probably my favourite. It's got everything you would except…read morefrom a Costco but because it seems to get less busy, it's a much less stressful experience than say, Costco Glasgow! Don't forget your hot dog when you leave!