This is a great place to pick up bargain dvds rather than bargain books, although there are plenty…read morein here. They tend to be biographies that noone wants. I suppose a shop like this should be the first port of call for any potentiaL publishers wishing to see how the market is behaving. Dare I say it, it's great at Christmas for cheap cards and wrapping paper, and you can always cleanse yourself after by buying some overpriced biscuits from marks and spencer and gorging on them by the river.

This is one of the better branches of WH Smith in this area. It's located in one of the large…read moreindoor shopping centres in Middlesbrough town centre, not too far from Boots. Now, I am one of these awkward people who love magazines - but not just ordinary magazines. No, I like the more obscure ones which sadly are simply not stocked by most newsagents, and are not stocked by a number of branches of WH Smith (for example the one in Stockton town centre and the one on Teesside Retail Park). However, this branch in Middlesbrough is brilliant! It has an excellent range of magazines - ok not quite as good as you will find in Borders on Teesside Park, but then Borders is unsurpassed! If you're in Middlesbrough town centre, this is definitely the best place for magazines. The branch is quite large and set out over two floors. They sell everything you would expect from WH Smiths, not just magazines, but also books, games, DVDs and CDs, even sweets! The only real downside with this place is the queues at the check outs. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but there always seems to be a queue, and it never seems to move very quickly!

This is your usual Smith's: they sell books, magazines, cards, stationery and some DVDs/CDs. They…read morealso sell a small range of drinks and snacks. It's always mega busy so there's often a queue at the till. There's now a post office downstairs which is also quite busy, especially at lunch times. I don't think the store is laid out very well as I always have trouble trying to find the book or magazine I want and there never seems to be a member of staff available to ask for help. It's not a very big store so their book selection is limited and they only tend to stock the most recent releases or those that are on special offer.

This is a small to medium sized branch of WH Smith, located on Teesside Retail Park, about half way…read moredown the left hand side of the run of shops. It stocks the usual things you would expect, magazines, books, games, DVDs, CDs etc. To be perfectly honest, I don't know why WHSmith bother with having this store. I used to love WHSmiths, I love books, magazines and general stationery items, so a trip to WHSmiths was like a visit to Aladdin's cave for me. However, I always leave this branch disappointed. I love magazines, particularly the more unusual ones, but this branch only seems to stock the more run of the mill ones, so I always end up leaving empty-handed. What I don't understand is why they would bother opening a store so close to Borders (who carry a fantastic range of magazines, books, games etc) if they aren't going to bother trying to compete. What's the point? Basically, my advice on this is don't waste your time walking round to this one - just go to Borders. That said, I do have to commend the staff in this branch. I was looking for a game just before Christmas, which was out of stock everywhere. OK, it was out of stock here, too, but I was impressed with the trouble the lady went to for me, going to the stock room to see if they had any.

Badger for books is located in such a small space in a converted old secondary school building, yet…read moreit consistently amazes me how much I can spend when I go in there on behalf of my school. I am based in the foundation stage and the stock of books on display by far exceed our needs. The business aims to provide schools with quality reading and research materials. The business has a very comprehensive web site to support its base in the Southlands centre. Staff are always very knowledgeable and are able to offer help with searching for that lost favourite book on their data base. Prices are as you expect when you are buying books but you do pay for quality. If you live in this area and are part of a school organisation I would highly recommend a visit to this school book specialist.