Albany Convenience Store is one of several in this immediate area. It sells all of the usual…read moreproducts from fresh, tinned, snack and frozen food through to newspapers and magazines, booze, soft drinks and tobacco. Ice creams and confection are also available. Services include being a 'payzone'. So nothing too exceptional there! It is somewhat extraordinary in one respect however. Instead of leading with discounted alcohol, with the accompanying posters pasted all over the windows, Albany Convenience Store has a blackboard by the door where the latest offers are displayed. During my most recent visit they were offering two loafs of bread for £1.40, and Kingsmill Value at £0.89. Bread is a long way away from Special Brew or Dr. Carlsberg as it also known, and I commend this store for its more family orientated focus! You could also get two pints of milk for £0.89 on the day that I called in recently, although this price is pretty standard for this shop, and so it's not likely to have changed in the meantime.

Albany Convenience Store is one of your standard mini-market establishments. You walk in and you've…read moregot the papers and the magazines, you have a bit of fruit and veg, plenty of biscuits (though the cracker selection could do with some work) and so on and so forth but make your way to the back of the store. Here you'll find the booze section, stocking all the usual suspects. So what I hear you cry? Delve deeper and you'll find something of pure evil. It comes in black and red striped can. It costs £1.20. It has the potential to destroy everything in Roath / Cathays. I'm talking about Oranjeboom Extra Strong. That's right the student standby is now going for the trampy jugular with a brew weighing at a mighty 8.5%. You have been warned. At least if you do partake in a bout of total liver destruction, you can pick up a box Sugar Puffs on the way out for a comforting final meal. Albany Convenience Store is handy like that.

I like the store very much and it's staff are always very polite and helpful.it's also got a wide…read moreselection of sandwiches and also wraps as well.they also sell newspapers and magazines as well.and a lot of sweets and chocolate.and they also sell alcohol as well.

The One Stop' is a convenience store situated on the Esplanade in Porthcawl underneath the bottle…read morebank appartments. The store is reasonably big, and offers the usual corner shop selection of magazines, booze, sweets and snacks. They also have a better selection of fruit and veg and ready meals then most corner shops. There is a machine where you can buy coffee (although you can get a far better takeaway coffee on the other side of the road) and some freshly baked goods. One stop is a Tesco brand, and personaly I would much prefer it if this was a Tesco metro/ extra. They don't stock any Tesco brands in store, as the one stop brand helps people to forget that Tesco is attempting World Domination! Service, staff and stock are fine - and it's handy if you can get a space outside. All in all nothing special though. There is a cashpoint outside which is handy.

Cyfartha Stores is everything you'd expect of your local corner shop, chilled four packs (including…read moreHolsten Pils which you only ever seem to find in places like this, man that beer fell from grace, it used to be on the Tottenham Hostpur shirt years ago, not that that's a particularly graceful place from which to fall I suppose), a small selection of frozen Birdseye Ready Meals, all of the mainstream papers, a bit of bongo and the kind of sweets so laced with sugar and e-numbers you have to wonder of their legality. Cyfartha Stores packs in a lot of stock in a relatively small space and it is nice to see a small selection of fruit and veg for sale, and positioned next to the aforementioned sweets, though I imagine the kids at the local primary bypass it. With friendly service and all the essentials, what more could you ask for from your local corner shop?

A bit of a Jack of all trades is Cyfarthfa, being a convenience shop and all. And convenience…read moregenerally means slightly higher prices which is a bit of a shame, but is a lot better than have to fight the population to buy what you want. It's past my way home from work generally and have popped in many a time in the mornings for my newspaper and a bit too eat, and then a bottle of wine for the evening when the lovely is round.

A handy store which has been extended. Just when you think you're at the back of the shop beside…read morethe post office counter, you notice there's a passageway through to another room! The main reason I like using this shop is because the staff are always friendly and polite. Useful for newspapers and magazines, and tinned and packet foods.

This is a small local convenience, recently renovated and now a Premier shop. It's right on the…read morecorner of Leonard Street and Gnoll Park Road, and there's plenty of roadside parking. It's got a good selection of food and drink - lots of alcohol for sale, so you can see where a large part of their business comes from. They also have some good offers. Occasionally they'll do a mail drop to local houses which lists these offers. The shop also contains a small sub-post office, which is reviewed elsewhere. It's a very convenient and friendly store to stop at on the way home to Tonna.

I want to draw customers attention to possible poor/illegal practices at this petrol station…read more Many times I go in to purchase items in the shop whether it's dog food or water I am charged a different price of one or more items to that advertised on the shelf. I am also frequently given the wrong change and strangely it's always in the favour of the guy behind the till! Funny that This evening I bought a water for £1.29 and dogfood for 75p I was charged respectively £1,40 and 85p when I complained I was told I would have to come back and see the manager the following morning as money could not be taken from the till to refund. There are some very dodgy practices going on at this garage - make sure you check your shelf prices and your change carefully! Whoever owns this garage should do a bit of mystery shopping sometime.

Now I don't usually review garages, but this is a deserved exception. The Total garage at the…read morebottom of Cathedral Road is run by a man for whom it is impossible to let an opportunity pass. He will try and sell his customers a whole range of stuff, even if they only want to buy a stamp or pay for their petrol. I've been asked if I want to also purchase a lottery ticket, 'Euromillions this weekend madam win big!' a set of plastic BBQ tongs, 'weather good this weekend, madam sit outside, eat some food!' a token for the carwash, 'discount today madam, Gold wash for the price of Bronze,' even though I was on foot. Meal deals, DVDs, marked down chocolates the list goes on and on. One poor girl I know can't go in there anymore. She has trouble with the word 'no' and often came away having spent £7 or £8 when she only popped in for a can of pop! If you're going in, steel your nerves and don't, for heaven's sake, show any fear.

When I'm out and about around the Whitchurch Road area and find myself needing to do a spot of…read moreshopping I always make a bee-line for Londis, as I really like Mr Patel who owns the shop, and he always stocks the things I want to buy... namely good wine! But on the odd occasion I have found myself eyeing the special deals in the window of Costcutter, and then have been carried by a force so subtle and sublime that I barely notice what is happening, and before I know it I'm cruising the aisles looking for the half price chocolate biscuits, whilst in the meantime seeing things that I quite fancy and placing them in my basket... don't you just love loss leaders...!?!? I'm a sucker for them every time! It has to be said that Costcutter is as equally well stocked as Londis, it's just that I like the personal service that I get when I go to see Mr Patel!

A small store which delivers the expected from a tesco, at low prices. It offers everything from…read morebread, milk and eggs, to ciggerettes, magazines and alcohol. The staff arnt too friendly really, and a security guard is sometimes present as people love to steal from tesco. It has an electronic payment system fitted, so you can even pay without having any staff interaction at all. They have good air conditioning, and are open for alot of the time. They accept all the normal credit and debit cards.

I wish they had corner shops like these for Yanks. I mean, I know there's a small selection of…read moregoodies at Wally's and House of Fraser, but a range of stores dedicated to all things USA would be a new business venture I could get behind. Just putting it out there... Until then, I'll visit Polski Sklep with my best good friend, whose fair country enamoured my American sensibilities back in December when I enjoyed a warm and welcoming extended Polish Christmas celebration (three days of partying? Yes, please). Offering everything from sauces and cold sliced meats to toiletries and magazines, Polski Sklep is the perfect haven for any member of the Polish émigré community who's feeling a bit homesick and craving the creature comforts of home. Bizarrely, they even have Cheetos crisps, a perennial favourite of both me and Britney Spears that I've only seen back on the shelves of grocery stores back home. Only this flavour was ketchup, so I didn't collect them with the fervour normally reserved for my favourite crunchy snack. Bummer.

Run by the same people who operate the Polski Sklep on Mackintosh Place on the other side of town,…read morethis Polski Sklep is a slightly smaller proposition. But as my favourite adage goes, good things come in small packages. It's crammed with everything you'd ever need to make the ultimate Polish banquet. For some reason, people often cringe when I tell them that I love Polish cuisine, but they are being philistines! And if you haven't tried borscht (beetroot soup, with little bits of pasta or dumplings in) or goulash (a kind of beef stew, but much better than the usual beef stews we get here) or perogi (boiled or fired dumplings usually filled with potato, cream cheese and onion) then make a beeline for this place and get your taste buds buzzing. And yes they have my beloved bacon flavoured pretzel sticks, the best thing you can buy in Cardiff for 35p. FACT.