When the Elmsleigh Centre in Staines was renovated, the Clarks shoe shop moved to another site…read morewithin the Centre and in the process lost a lot of it's ground space. This means that the selection of shoes is now really limited and moving around the shop to browse can be difficult. The staff aren't particularly interested in helping you. A good example of this is when I bought some sandals, got home and discovered they'd given me one Size 7 sandal and one Size 5 sandal. When I took them back the next day the manager wasn't very happy to sort this out and commented that I should take responsibility for it as I should have checked both shoes were the same size before leaving the shop. There isn't a great range of shoes to choose from due to the small size of the shop so you quite often see styles in magazines that you can't find in the Staines branch. Distinctly average.

If you like your footwear cheap and not so cheerful, this is the place to go. I feel disgusted with…read morethe smell every time I walk in here, so I try to avoid it as much as possible. The average price for a pair of shoes is about £10 and this is reflected in the poor quality of the shoes. The most expensive shoes I've seen in here were under £20, which says it all! The summer sandals are ok; for £3-5 you can get a pair of pretty flip flops to wear on holiday and then chuck away. The shop is never busy but the staff just don't seem to want to help the customers either. They never come over and offer help when people are obviously struggling to find something, the mentality seems to be: "If you want help, come over to the counter and then maybe, just maybe, I'll think about helping you but I won't be happy about it!" I don't care if people are earning minimum wage working here (go a few doors away to the mega cheap Card Factory and see what wonderful customer service they always provide), I expect some degree of politeness and at least a decent level of customer service if I'm spending money somewhere. The staff at Shoe Zone have an overly laid back attitude and when you ask them questions it's like it's a real strain for them to think of an answer. E.g. ask the if there's a different range available on the website or a size of a shoe that's not available in the store and they'll just shrug and say "I don't know!" They also don't seem to know the name of the ranges they actually do have in stock. The worst thing about this store is the really awful stench when you walk in of cheap plastic or something, it's not even food odour, it just seems to be the awful materials used to actually make the shoes!

I'm not a big fan of TK Maxx in general and am not keen on the Staines branch in particular. Like…read moreall branches of this chain it's like a jumble sale so you either need to really know what you've come in to look for, or have the patience to go through hundreds and hundreds of items till you find what you want. I also have to say that I always feel that the clothes and shoes are a bit grubby and unpleasant - I've never actually bought anything like this. I can't say that I've ever spotted any huge bargains in these departments either. I'm keener on the homeware ranges, though I've only ever bought one item - a leather-look storage box. I have bought cut-price perfume here (some Lulu Guinness perfume at a bargain price) - with perfumes you must check that the wrapping is still sealed to ensure that other customers haven't been using it as a tester. The worst thing about this branch is the endless queue to pay - you can stand there for a good 15 minutes before they take your money. The staff are generally grumpy and unhappy so it's really not a pleasure to shop in TK Maxx in Staines.

This is quite a small TK Maxx and it can be ( like most of them!) abit of a jumble sale at times…read more It is handy to get to as the parking is right outside in the retail park. However the goods are limited and occasionally there are good ski items - but you must come early in the ski season to be able to buy any of these!

Excellent items for sale good prices with brand names. People were friendly, but you have to go and…read moretake your chances.

TK Maxx has outlets in various places but my favourite is my local one on Hounslow High Street. As…read moretheir ads proclaim they really do have designer clothing at huge discounts. Okay so it might be last season's stuff but for people like me who shop for what suits them rather than what's in style, it's a great place to pick up good quality, well cut clothes for much less than high street prices. And it's not just clothes. They also have a home section where you can get beautiful home decoration items at a fraction of the price. Not to mention more basic items like sheets, kitchenware, duvets, serving plates etc. They also have a wide selection of toys and boxes of chocolates at discounts - very handy for gifts.

This is a wonderful department store with beautiful displays and very helpful salespeople. We…read moreneeded a bathing suit for a spa experience and they had quite a few still. Suzy was as lovely a sales person as you could ever expect. Sorry I didn't get the name of the lingerie fitting woman but she was equally helpful.

Great place to find a fancinator and shop for Radley London handbags on clearance. We were limited…read moreon time, wish I had more time to browse.

Ealing Broadway Centre is a shopping Centre which includes retail shops of every nature clothes,…read morefootwear, books, cards, electrical, beauty, food, gift shops and some independent (food confectionery, cafe's)shops. In the middle of the shopping Centre you have a few statues and seating to rest your tired feet, or for your loved one to wait while you shop. On the top floor you have Argos and Ealing Central Library. On the ground floor mostly chains and the odd cheap non chain shop basically everything I mentioned above, plus Tesco's. I really like their Primark, I would say its on the level of Oxford street but without the crazy crowds. Ealing Broadway Centre is on the Uxbridge road so its convenient to get to, because all the buses pass their plus you have the Ealing Broadway station which is a 10minutes away. They also have their own car park as well. The shopping Centre is good for the locals, but I would not go out of my way here, because you can get majority of the stuff where you live, (I lived in Harrow at the time). I wished i tried some of the independent shops more....its a good shopping Centre and does the job.

This is a pretty decent mall, and is a great option for those on the west end of town who can't…read morebrave Oxford Street (at least until the huge shopping development in Shepherd's Bush/White City finishes). Check out the website: it's quite useful, and lists all the shops. The usual necessities are there, including newly renovated Boots, M&S, Waterstones, and a relatively new Tesco Metro. Primark is currently building a new shop here and will finish early this summer, replacing a Beales that is now gone. The nice thing about this mall is that it's partly outside. Most hallways open directly to the outdoors rather than having closing doors. While this means its not quite a fully-heated refuge in winter, it makes it more an integrated part of the stroll through Ealing than a hermetically-sealed environment. The central courtyard is open to the sky which makes it nice when they have craft stalls or summer concerts there. Many of the shops face outwards from the building as well, or are in passages that lead out to the street. The bad thing about the open-air aspects of the mall is that people can still smoke in here. There's an Early Learning Centre (ELC) that makes great educational and interactive toys for kids. There also a Fat Face clothing store that appeals to my Canadian/comfortable/lumberjack side. The rear mall entrance does have glass doors, and these seem to get broken, cracked, or become non-functioning with disappointing frequency, and to be fixed with disappointingly slow speed. I feel that the choice of men's clothing on offer isn't great. And those who are used to hundreds of shops (a la Oxford Street) may find it limited. But if you're not looking for anything too unusual you'll probably find it here.