There are plenty of arguments for and against the social impact of segregated communities in…read moreManchester. One of the overwhelming advantages of such communities however, which I'm sure will gain universal approval is their complete immunity from being threatened by giant retail food chains. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones that've been driving out small independents outta business across across the country. I LOVE the fact that the communities remain militantly loyal to local foodstores like Madina. Upon close inspection, turns out the reason is a little more complex than just cultural affiliation. One of the main one reasons? This place is AWESOME!! There's literally a library of spices to buy (at BARGAIN prices) and experiment at home with. Any foodie/charlie out there who's sick of the monotonous nature of the shopping experience, will find this to be their culinary/chocolate factory. True, London probably bigger volume of such establishments, but they probably cant beat us for sheer quality. So next time you're stuck in traffic driving to town on Stockport road (through Levenshulme) have a break, and instead of having a kitkat, park up and have a cheeky gander.

Despite having a deceptively small storefront, once inside Madina Superstore turns out to be…read moreanother Desi supermarket easily on a par with branches of Worldwide Foods or Manchester Superstore. With the UK 'hungry gap' upon us, I bagged a box of lychees plus sundry Desi vegetable and fresh herbs. Freshness of the produce was very good, although a bit of banter with a Desi customer revealed that he was passing up on the tinda as being too big - although this is no doubt an out-of-season issue. For the mobile cosmopolitan foodie such as myself, the aim is to know where all the ethnic food stores are so that ethnic food shopping can be done with a minimum of detour from other city business and pleasure. Although there is nothing really oustanding about Madina Superstore to make you travel beyond your nearest Desi superstore, it is nice to have a proper Desi supermarket in Levenshulme to save Levy locals a trip up Stockport Road to Longsight. And visitors such as myself can combine a visit to Madina Superstore with a trip to the monthly Levy Market, or else the permanent Trove café bakery or POD deli.

I'm not a fan of ASDA Hulme…read more.. It's great in that it's huge, even had clothes and technology stuff upstairs... The downsides far outweigh the good! The veg section smells like sick... in the last two weeks I've been 3-4 times and each time the fresh produce section stinks... it's really off-putting and means I don't end up buying anything fresh. There's also a larger than normal amount of rude people shopping there. Pushing past you, generally irate customers... on top of this we always seem to get a member of staff on the checkouts that is stuck on slow... All in all I like having a good meander around to see what the retail giants have on offer but I find when I visit ASDA Hulme I just want to get out of there ASAP. Sorry ASDA Hulme you just don't cut mustard... and you stink...

Back in Liverpool myself and my better half would become truely excited at the prospect of visiting…read morethe local Asda. Why I hear you cry? Because as students in a time where most clubs/pubs did not have a 24hr license and shut at 1am/2am there was nothing more fum that a drunken wander around asda to see what rubbish we could buy. When we arrived in Manchester we had no idea that round the corner to our delight there was....a 24hr Asda. However gone are the days that we cannot stay in the clubs/pubs til 4am and now Asda has become to us what it is to every other grown up individual....a hassle on a Sunday, an obstacle course through crying children and down and outs. I am only consoled by the fact we do stay in the clubs/pubs till 4am and that our drunken trips to ASDA have not ceased to continue because we are getting old and boring. Asda we still love you, we love you for making us feel at home wherever we go.

When Chris M and I ducked in here on the way back to his in need of some milk, who'd have thought…read morewe'd be grabbing amazing bargains by the armful. Our first introduction to Lakeland Groceries involved giant bags of Barbecue Doritos for less than a quid, and huge quantities of eggs at criminally low prices (free range before you start finger-wagging!). Wow, where had this place been all our lives? Situated right near Castlefield Gallery, it seems to be operated by one or two friendly staff, and it's a lovely hotch-potch corner-shop-like offering with a surprising range of products. Anything from a stonkingly generous variety of cheeses to pretty much a whole deli counter, snacks and store cupboard essentials and bits and bobs. You can even buy a bit of booze here if you've had a hard day at the office. So, The Southern Gateway eh. Sarah-Anne M's right, this residential area doesn't have a single recognisable retail outlet less than a ten minute walk away. Well forget hopping all the way to Whitworth Street West's Sainsbury's and Oxford Road's Tesco for your essentials and forgottens, if you're in need of a bit of milk, juice or even some cold cuts and nibbles to lay out for guests, here's your spot!

This little grocery store is genuinely worth a visit. I went in today for primarily yelping…read morepurposes and for the first time I was delighted with a convenience store. Not only do they have a really impressive range of everything you could expect, from chocolate and crisps to newspapers to necessities such as ketchup and tobasco, but they also have a cold meat and cheese counter! It's a little mini version of the Cheese Hamlet in Didsbury, with a great selection of different cheeses and cold meats that are much much cheaper than your usual cheese shop prices. A really nice little surprise find. Check it out!

Marks and Spencer recently opened their Piccadilly Station location, it is a useful store if you…read moreare looking to pick up some essentials before your train, I do find it a little frustrating that this store seems to be hidden away, tucked in the corner of the upper level of the station, compared to Sainsbury's Local and WHSmith, two similar stores located right on the concourse. This is a small store, so it is pretty much only for essentials, if you are looking for a larger store, you may wish to head to Piccadilly Gardens or Market Street. The store had a good-to-go food and drink section, as well as stocking basic staples like milk/bread/meats. The staff seemed friendly enough and the store had a nice enough feel to it. There is a fridge that is broken so the overall stock in the store was reduced, which considering the stock is already reduced compared to other locations around the store anyway, is a little frustrating. 3*

What's a girl to do when she arrives in Manchester and has the munchies?…read moreHead to M&S of course and stock up on their divine chocolate covered brazil nuts and chocolate covered raisins. I would offer to share them but alas, they've already gone!

I've been on a mission to discover more of north Manchester recently. Cheetham Hill is one of the…read morereas which holds a lot of interest for me as a foodie with Cheetham hill road being a great example of multi-cultural Manchester. As well as being another central hub of Manchester's south Asian community it's also adjacent to Manchester's Jewish community. This Superstore sits inbetween the two communities and is buzzing with activity all week long. It's probably one of the biggest stores of its kind in the city. The summertime is a perfect time to visit, for me at least because it's mango season! Honey mangos are shipped in all the way from Pakistan and are priced very reasonably considering they are HEAVENLY! There's also a butchers in house and the store houses a library of herbs and spices. In short there are stores like this littered aross the city in smaller denominations. And in all honesty they probably cater for all the things that are available here. But if you want that remote spice from a youtube recipe or want a faluda flavour ice cream like I do, this is the only place to go.

Wow, no review for the largest branch of Manchester Superstore - says a lot about the current…read moredemographic of Yelp reviewers in Manchester! There are actually two large premises of Manchester Superstore directly opposite each other on either side of Cheetham Hill Road, and if you are into these kind of stores then you will need to check them both out! It may be the case that the one on the left as you travel out of town is more for a quick shop, but it also has a bunch of stuff upstairs - cookware, and kebab shop consumables! Across the road - on the right hand side of the road as you travel out of town - is a building of impressive architecture, which seems to be the wholesale premises, although it is open to the general public, no problem, and this is where I will be shopping from now on. I go for fresh produce, and freshness was above average plus I think Cheetham Hill prices are a bit lower. Just the usual routine for me - stocked up with okra, drumstick, karela, fresh chickpeas, plus fresh herbs which are the bargain of the century at 2 huge bunches for £1. Always good for a bit of ethnic atmosphere. Not quite as much of a feeling of a well-oiled machine as say Worldwide in Rusholme and not as busy at the tills, but the manager is a bit more friendly here on my visit, and opened up another till to get me through quickly. Really love my Desi supermarkets!

Sadly, I've never got the hype about Aldi, they might be associated with "bargains" and "low…read moreprices" however I don't really agree, I always find that in ALDI you are paying less for a decreased level of quality, service and in-store experience and this branch here in the Manchester Arndale sums up my scepticism completely. This branch is in quite an unusual condition, it is located on the upper floor of the Manchester Arndale, with enterences from street level from Market Street and from Shopping centre level, where the actual only floor of the store is. The store just didn't feel nice, and it felt like a Pound shop in certain areas, it just felt cheap with the poor level of shelving etc, it just wasn't very nice at all. ALDI and LIDL are very similar in this approach across most of their branches, which are two very similar "discount" brands however another problem with the brand that this branch is a prime example of is the queuing, the queuing system was really badly handled, there are no self service tills, customer service desks or anything like that here, there is just a very low number of tills which don't cope well with queues, I eventually decided to leave and buy my products from somewhere else because of this. I did notice the store manager too who basically stared at me at a comment I made about the poor quality feel of the store and the cheap shelving and layout, he basically rudely stared at me before walking off, he didn't even acknowledge me or try to speak about the problem. Sadly this ALDI branch at the Manchester Arndale is a prime example of all things wrong with the brand especially with the poor, cheap layout and the awful queuing which isn't handled very well at all, so sadly deserves a single one star. which is a shame to start off on a negative foot as this is my first review for an ALDI store.

I'm not prone to depression but spending five minutes in this Aldi definitely made me feel like I…read morewas sliding down a long and bleak hillside. For starters, this store is about ten times bigger than any Aldi I've seen before and looks and feels like a gigantic Iceland. There's no attempt at seducing customers or displaying goods in an attractive manner - everything is just stacked up as easily as possible with horrible signage. The lights look like interrogation strip-lights and there's no music or ambience. In short, the whole focus is on the products and what a mixed bunch they are! One minute you're walking past an aisle of cheap biscuits, crackers and crisps, the next cheap cheap DVD players, walkmans and sat navigation systems. At the back of the store there's an even cheaper fresh and frozen section with perfect looking fruit and veg, meat, fish, cheese, butter, pizzas, puddings and ready meals. Strangely, Aldi seem to sell odd bits and bobs of clothing too from cheap fishing gloves and hats to wool scarves. I'm sure you could pick up some good things if you looked hard enough but frankly, I can't imagine having the time or the inclination to return.

I have started shopping here for my "weekly" shop. I used to go to Sainsburys but the Nectars…read morepoints deal changed. They halved the number of points you would get for amount you spend. I was also thinking of changing as I think Tesco is overall cheaper. One other reason I now go to Tesco is this one has one of those Self scan things - called Scan as you Go. Basically you get your a scanner which you use as you go round the store, scanning barcodes. The idea is to make things quicker. I use it because its a gadget! But it is quicker as packing bag at same time and the Scan as you go queue tends to be much quieter. This store has a lot of the Tesco facilities like Click+Collect, Petrol, Pharmacy, Wifi and clothing.Its also got a wide range of food such as Polish, Halal, and Afro Caribbean. But at the end of the day, its a supermarket!

This Tesco store doesn't strike me as a Tesco at all, its' design and location actually does make…read moreit look pretty cool. This Tesco store is massive to say the least, with an impressive free from range compared to other branches in the local area. The car park here, as with the store is quite big with alot of spacing, even a click and collect bay where you can have your shopping brought to your car. It can be quite tricky going in and out of the car park, especially if you are not familiar with the area. I had an incident with three members of staff here. 2 of them (in a group) sent me to the wrong isle when I was looking for a free from range, only to have to go right back in another direction when another member of staff shown me the way to the CORRECT location - I do feel staff should know their store, or at least admit they are not adamant it is in a certain location. Another member of staff assisted me at the checkout for the mobile scanners, as I had a few things I wanted to cancel, I needed her to do something for me but she really confused me, she went through everything and made a few minor mistakes, hence confusing both myself and the server - when all I wanted was just to cancel a few items, which had been taken off the shelves by the time I wanted to knock them off my scanner. She seemed too eager to help, at the point she was treating me, as a child, when I know how to work these machines and probably did understand it more than her. They do have a rather nice cafe, which stands out as a different cafe compared to Tesco's usual standard - it did look nice and have a nice view of Stretford. A salon, pharmacy and opticians are also here. They is lifts to get you up to the shop level, as well as an escalator. Going alongside the store's large size, it means it isn't really a place you can just run in and get a pint of milk for example This is a great store with a great look, just some staffing and parking issues ruin that - so that is a reason why a store which would deserve 4 stars, is unfortunately only getting a 3. As this is one of my favourite Tesco stores, considering the look , location and products sold, I do want to come back here and give 4 stars, hopefully the staff can be helpful, rather than confusing and incorrect and if this happens - they will get 4 stars but for now, it can only be a three.

When I first started university this building was an empty shell. My student life involved long…read morewalks to Asda which seemed especially long on the way back after I decided it was a good idea to buy 12 cans of beer, 3 litres of orange squash, 4 cans of beans etc. Thank God for those Germans and their wonderful supermarkets. Lidl arrived. It seems to have inadvertently brought along its own accordionist who is always outside come rain or shine - she's actually pretty good. I disagree with Alfie about Lidl not being the best place for a weekly shop. I often did my weekly shop here, even if it was sometimes necessary to supplement it with items from Worldwide and Tesco. The best things to buy: fruit and veg (really good deals like 29p for an aubergine, 19p for a cucumber), pesto (half the price of Tesco pesto), gin, cloudy lemonade, German beer, frozen pizzas (often half price), mozzarella, frozen Indian snacks, tortellini, antipasti, ice cream... I challenge you to carry more than £15's worth of Lidl's goods home with you.

Omg Lidl is the best shopping place to ever go to, most of the time it has everything i need and…read morethe workers always are kind and ask politely, "Do u need anything Ma'am or Sir?" Best shopping place ever.. Cheap stuff aswell the quality of the stuff are amazing..

This brand of supermarket (Ancoats and the other one on Market street) has become my standard…read moreweekend-stock up establishment, on my way home from work....and it would appear that I'm not the only one, for the place is a hive of bustling activity on a Friday night, as every local apartment-dweller can be found here stocking up on the cheapest booze and pizza in town. Last night I decided to get a few 'bits' for the weekend, but I ended up purchasing most of the party food and drink I'll need for my flat warming next weekend (I've recently moved back to the area). There are just so many essentials at ridiculously low prices, that you need to be prepared for over-buying. A standard-sized frozen pizza (nice as well) for 89p..WTF! Garlic bread 30p. Cottage cheese is at least twice the price in Tesco and Morrison's. On that note, Aldi is great for cheese-lovers, in terms of prices. Not the the most varied selection but they are definitely the cheapest. Veg is cheap, bread is the cheapest in town, with a fresh bakery on site selling dirt-cheap homemade bread. I have to say I went in for booze primarily and I purchased some fine ales for little over a quid! Bought some wine for £3.15 and it's actually ok! Also managed to get some winter wamers which you don't see anywhere else but the Christmas markets for treble the price; mulled cider and gingered wine for around £3 a pop, amazing! The only gripe I have is having to purchase carrier bags, as I've a drawer full of them at home. Come prepared with your own plastic if you come here and bring at least three, as you will go ALDI supermarket-sweepin' in the aisles. :-)

One of my favourite Aldi's as its close to where I work in the city centre as well as being on the…read moresame site as Pure Gym at the Urban Exchange shopping centre. It gets uber-busy around midday at weekends to the point where it's not always possible to get on the car park. I like to get there about 9am after a workout at the gym and have the place almost to myself. It's no surprise that Aldi is getting more and more popular all the time at the expense of Tesco and Asda. They are spot on with their pricing and the food quality is as good as much dearer supermarkets if not better.

I reviewed this store back in 2016 but I reviewed the wrong branch - For anyone else who is…read moreconfused like me, this is the store on Whitworth Street West and is opposite Oxford Road Railway Station, in a pretty good location if you're in the Oxford Road / studenty part of town, while also being close enough to the Railway Station to get some essentials, perhaps a beverage or snack before getting on a train. It is probably the largest Sainsbury's Local within the city centre and perhaps the second-largest convenience style store after Tesco Metro on Market Street, the selection is pretty good and I was able to find protein water I had a coupon for which isn't stocked in the other Sainsbury's branches in town. The checkout area is a little messy, they have cameras on some sort of tablet in front of every checkout which makes me feel they have a history of shoplifters and fraud here, it made me feel like a criminal. The screen also had no anti-glare protection meaning I couldn't see the screen as I was scanning due to the reflection of the sun-light, and this was on a day in February where it wasn't even too sunny, I'd hate to imagine how bad it could get in the summer. The staff seemed to get in the way a little, there was one warehouse cage blocking part of the store and they didn't offer to move it which was frustrating. 3* - Pretty good selection despite flaws of the store, in a good location for the southern part of the city centre and the adjacent railway station.

Watching Paul Auster and Wayne Wang's magnificent Smoke and Blue In The Face last night made me…read morewake up wishing I could move to Brooklyn. Realising I didn't have the cash or a Green Card, I thought I'd settle for the next best thing and have Belgian Waffles for breakfast. The gods were obviously with me as Sainsburys Local not only had half a dozen packets of Belgian Waffles but they were on special offer. £2.30 for one packet or £3 for 2 packets. Suffice to say, I opted for the latter and a packet of Union Coffee and left with a big smile on my face. As for the waffles, they tasted pretty darn good. I'm sure they would have tasted even better however, piled with cherry compote and whipped cream and washed down with a cream soda at Junior's.* * Junior's is a legendary diner on the corner of DeKalb and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. It was opened in 1950 and is still run by the Rosen family. The belgian waffles aren't listed on the menu but they serve them everyday to regulars and customers who request them!