A traditional local newsagent, few and far between these days. Staff that know their customers and…read morea helpful service at all times. Handy for those bits and bobs of stationery you always forget to pick up, a good range of greetings cards, gift wrap and for stamps too. (Post box just outside the shop). Village News delivers newspapers, morning and evening and has a handy notice board in the window too.

A sleepy newsagent located in the middle of a small parade of shops in Little Neston. Opens early…read morein the morning at 7.30am - perfect if you like your paper early, or are on your way to work. Well stocked with sweets and chocolate for all ages including a traditional penny sweet stand and jars of sweets. You can buy two ounces or a quarter of these sweets including old favourites like Pontefract Cakes, Treacle Toffee, Murray Mints, Midget Gems, Eclairs and many, many more! Excellent selection of magazines and the staff are very helpful, they can order magazines on request and even save them for you if you want it regularly. They also deliver papers and magazines to you door (requires setting up an account) They sell stationery items pens, rulers, notebooks, pads of paper, envelopes (including large and padded). Also, at the reaar of the shop is an area dedicated to cards and gift wrap. Photocopies are black and white only, for A4 (8p per sheet) and A3 (16p per sheet). Easy parking right outside the shop. There is also a post box outside.

Waterstone's in Altrincham town centre is probably one of my favourite stores within the town…read morecentre especially after the closure of the Carphone Warehouse store which was virtually opposite this one. It is a fairly large and modern store and it does stand out more than most within the town centre's shopping street, especially with the dark nights drawing in through these cold winter months and it is one of the larger stores on George Street anyway. It does shut early but this is common in the town centre and I did find the store again to be a little understaffed considering I did visit at quite a busy time (Saturday, the run-up to Christmas). 3* - Nice book-store for a big town, obviously it is a chain and I feel a little uneasy about paying higher prices at a chain compared to online retailers unless it is at an independent book-store, again this store doesn't compare to larger branches in larger towns and shopping centres but still it isn't a bad alternative if you don't fancy heading into Manchester from Alty.

WHSmith is certainly a staple of the British high street, it seems there are very few towns and…read morecities in the country to lack a WHSmith store. It's a brand you pretty much expect to find wherever you go. This store fits that quota, it's nothing too exciting/different, it's your typical, average WHSmith. The store is a little dark, and while it isn't as modern as some of their newer stores, the store isn't as old-fashioned as some of their older ones which aren't very easy on the eye either. It is in a good location within Bolton town centre, it is a couple of minutes away from most shops in the town centre as well as Bolton Interchange. The prices are a little high, but they do have a satisfactory selection of books/drinks, nothing too impressive but if you're thirsty in town and looking for a quick beverage or to put on your lottery, without much of a queue and/or without having to go into a larger store such as one of the nearby supermarkets, this isn't too bad. The staff seemed friendly enough. 3*

Three floors! Three floors of... stuff! I don't know that I have ever been in a WHSmith that…read morespans three floors. Although three floors doesn't necessarily mean that it is bigger or contains more stock than the average WHSmith. Actually, it feels a bit cluttered... when we walked in it actually felt a bit like a location of The Works rather than a WHSmith. We didn't go upstairs, but the main floor has magazines, cards, stationary while the bottom floor has books. We were actually there looking for books and while they have a decent selection, it isn't as large as some of the other stores I have been to. Also if you have a large shopping bag or back pack, you may want to watch turning around and moving about as some of the spots in the store are quite narrow. It can be difficult to find a staff member, especially if you are on the bottom floor and the staff are on the other floors. I only saw stairs to access the other floors, so I'm not sure if it is accessible for all customers.

This little newsagents is great for a little village, it does newspaper deliveries. Sells…read moremagazines, sweets, basic stationary essentials for the kids etc you can even get a pint of milk from here. The staff are very friendly too

An interesting concept WHSmith store, The WHSmith Local brand is from WHSmith's Wholesale…read moredepartment and is described as " ideal for independent CTN/Newsagents & Post offices", so the store is different to your regular WHSmith store. Located in Canning Gate Shopping Centre, within Leigh town centre, it is opposite Ryman and close to the Bus Station. Cannings and WHSmith Local is the full name of this location. The store was small, but they had a decent selection of most items you'd expect to find from WHSmith, including a lottery desk at the back, meaning there were two separate tills to help ease queuing, they had a small selection of drinks too but sadly they didn't stock Lipton Ice Tea. 3* - This store is OK, one of the better newsagents within the town centre (especially if you don't fancy going into a supermarket), and a unique concept.

Despite it's famous locale, this is just a normal newsagents and you will find pretty much all the…read moresame newsagent items you'd expect to find anywhere else. I didn't really see anything particularly out of the ordinary here. Just one of those "carry on" situations. :)

WHSmith is one of the most famous bookshops in the world (they're mentioned in Monty Python's 'Book…read moreShop Sketch' for crying out loud!) so it's a bit disappointing when you find out just what tat is on the shelves here. Maybe tat is the wrong word. All the books here are of a very high quality. The covers are pristine, the photography is excellent and the general feel of each book is akin to lifting the Holy Grail. It's just a shame the actual content is terrible. It's a basic fact that 904% of all books published today have their origins in television. They're all either companion guides to the latest reality cack, cookery books from smarmy TV chefs or turgid autobiographies from washed-up soapstars. The stationery is still great though. I could buy it all day before realising nothing I do in life necessitates the purchasing of stationery, sadly.

Sure Smiths is good for books, but they only have a limited selection and a lot of these are either…read moreTV, cookery or chick lit based. With the occasional crime section spliced in! But what Smith's are really good at is stocking magazines on every subject available to humanity. 'Treasures of the Earth'. 'Surf UK', 'Gun Collector', 'True Crime', 'the Beano', 'TV Weekly'. These are just some of the titles that litter the shelves in most Smith's outlets. They also sell a range of confectionary, sometimes including 'Toblerone', which one would normally associate with airports or shit holidays! I'm surpised this shop is still going after Woolworths went down the Swanny! However, fair play to them as they seemed to have affiliated with the Post Office now, meaning you can get your 'True Crime' mag, your Toblerone and your travel insurance all under one roof!

NewsPoint is quite a nice newsagents in The Lowry Outlet Mall and is also a Post Office, which is…read morequite handy. It is located on the Upper Level near the so called foodcourt containing the likes of BB's, Burger King, Subway and Chicken Cottage. I came here to post a letter, there didnt seem to be a Post Box, it just was a hidden counter service, it didn't feel like a full post office but they did still sell a selection of envelopes. There was a large selection of drinks, however some of the pricing was a little expensive such as a Lipton Iced Tea costing £1.29 which normally retals at around £0.99. The overall vibe and feel of the store was average, not too great but one thing saved this store from getting a low two star rating and that was - Customer Service. Having been well and truly drowned in the Manchester rain, my envelope was ruined and wet too, but the man behind the counter went out of his way and gave me a free envelope and a pen to use to re-write the event and then of course he helped get it posted for me, which was really kind. Shop as a whole - 2 stars Customer Service - 4 stars Overall - 3 stars