Cartridge World is not an indie store by any far stretch of the imagination... but! If you are a…read morestudent, or an impoverished writer then you are definitely going to be tempted to pay these guys a visit. According to them they are "the world's No. 1 provider of great-value, top quality refilled printer cartridges". I don't know about the number one claim, but I do know they're cheap! Besidews, cartridge refills have to be the way forward...? They are eco friendly and cost effective, so why, for the sake of commerce would we buy a new disposable unit, that goes straight into landfill and takes a few millennia to decompose, when we can make a more ecological choice and save money at the same time??? It's not often that the eco-organic option comes it at less than the price of the normal product!!! They handle every major brand of printer cartridge for home, education or business use, and everything is backed by a '100% Moneyback guarantee'. They have 220 stores nationwide.

This is a smallish stationary store located in the Queen's Arcade. If you're looking for basic…read morestationary supplies, they have plenty there. They also have some travel items such as bags. We just happened to be searching for some sturdy storage containers we could pack in a suitcase and they had several different sizes.

Ryman is a bit of a disappointment in all honestly. Generally all I need can be had at the likes of…read moreWH Smith for cheaper and a lot better quality to be honest. The store is blessed with every bit of office equipment you can think of, and some more. Shredders, paper, art type stuff, folders etc etc. They also allow you to print products out at the store for a small price which can be very handy. Staff are very good here it must be said, very helpful and knowledgeable. Just a shame there products are very bland on the whole.

Well I know for one fact that IKEA do not allow photos to be taken in less you ask the Human…read moreResources department! Typical or what?! That's the first place that I have told not take pictures of within a long time. I know this because I was told off by the till area for not being able to take pictures without permission, but that was after I had been taking pictures already inside and plenty of staff where around who could have also told me off. Mind you the guy at the entrance did look a bit shifty towards me as I had my camera around my neck, but he did not say anything to me still. It is a very useful and massive shop, based around the Cardiff Bay and it is free to enter. They have several sections of products such as; lights, bed duvets, candles, pictures frames, cloth hangers, plenty of storage items, mirrors, a cafe, a car park, a low deals offer, large lifts, escalators, and a Swedish food market area. Entry is free; the staff do seem a little picky about certain things, but it is a very useful shop and our house and Caravan in Pembrokeshire are both full of IKEA items and products. I would still recommend it as a shop for everyone to attend and buy house items from.

We all know Ikea is a must for furniture hunters on a budget - not just in Cardiff but world wide -…read moredid you know that Ikea is the biggest furniture seller in the world? But this review isn't about the furniture - ohhhhh controversial!!!!! I hear you say. This review is about the food. All I want to say is consider Ikea not just as a furniture store but a quite good cheap restaurant too. Its great value for money. You can get a cooked breakfast for 99p! Where else in the developed world can you get that? Ok the meatballs and the fish and chips are not as cheap but they are as cheap as a chip shop and you have all the sauce you could wish for and a table and chair to sit down and eat it at too! One word of advice I wouldn't take a first date here - I did once and it didn't last long after we left the store - pity really she looked quite nice all dressed up.

The Refill Specialists operate under the banner of 'save money, save the planet', and whilst…read moreeco-considerations may induce you to use these services, I'm sure they weren't exactly the key motivating factors that inspired the owners to set up in business. That said, the reality that refilling cartridges does actually save a small amount of plastic from going into our over burdened landfill sites is a good thing! Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that the inks that printers use across the board are not exactly sourced from organic dyes! The 'save you money' aspect of the deal is pretty crucial to the equation however. With peripheral manufacturers competing on the retail costs of hardware, it's entirely possible to buy really sophisticated equipment for a fraction of the cost it used to be. For example, I went out and bought an Epsom printer with an integral scanner, fax and photocopier for less than £50.00 recently. That's a price war for you! So, the only way that these guys can make the money back that they have lost in selling you equipment at loss making prices is to sell you the consumables at grossly inflated prices. I think that the Epsom cartridge for my printer is about £25.00, but of course, I know where I can buy a comparable product for less than £2.00, (I rang them before buying this model to see if they had the supporting media)... The Refill Specialist also stock a range of office supplies, like paper and CD cases etc, as well as offering their refill service.

Unless you print currency for a living, replacing ink cartridges is a depressingly expensive…read morebusiness, particularly on more mercenary brands like Lexmark. Next time your printer grinds to a blank page-filled halt, however, don't head off to PC World and waste a fistful of cash. It's way better for your wallet to visit this handy little City Road shop - and, if you want to make the process of using reams of deforestation-facilitated paper a moral issue, rather kinder to the environment as well. The refills are sorted almost immediately as you wait, although as the staff disappear momentarily with your old ink cartridge it's not entirely obvious whether you're receiving a pre-filled corresponding model or the exact same one back that has been topped up there and then. Unless you hold a particularly odd attachment to your individual print cartridges that clearly isn't that important, though: the crucial bit is getting the ink flowing again for a few coins as opposed to several notes for a brand new equivalent.