Welcome to the glamorous, sexy, high-flying world of office supplies! If you love arguing over…read morewhether the 5 Star, 80gsm copier paper is crisper or more absorbent than its nearest competitor, or you're one of those people who prefers post-its instead of wallpaper for your office decor, and enjoys painting pages with highlighters, then you're going to love this place! Personally I find it all very boring - I want paper that will have stuff on it when I click 'print' and it comes out of the printer. That's about the extent of my interest in it. I also find it annoying to have to look through a catalogue of types of paper to order the stuff. Luckily enough, this place has a delivery service. It therefore has computer records of orders. A swift phone call that includes the sentence, "what did I order the last time", resolves all issues and avoids a conversation so boring that I almost want to watch those events in gymnastics where participants wave a ribbon around or contort while holding a ball (there's more merit in having "Watching TV" as an Olympic event). UBE seems to be a bit more expensive than going to a large discount store, but they deliver supplies, and have a good service. They also supply chairs, printers, photocopiers, etc.

I've used a good few printers in my time but know if them compare to Copycats. I find sometimes…read moreprinters can over complicate things and start spitting out gsm's and dpi's left right and centre. But this was not the case at Copycats! I walked in told the lovely lady behind the counter that I needed 40 A4 sheets on glossy paper and she let me have a look through their options. All very straight forward. The printers are at the bank of the post office. It can be tricky to locate. They also sell all sorts of stationery and paper types. I know for sure this will be my first stop for future printing. Great service!

It's hard to get excited about a place like Copy Cats to be honest, so I'm afraid I'll have to be…read moremostly functional here. They provide photocopying and other stationary related services at pretty decent prices. I used to have to go in quite a bit when I was still at school. It was close by and was easy on my cash-poor pockets. Emma P's right when she says the service leaves a lot to be desired, but since you're mostly in and out without too much delay, it's not really worth getting worked up over.

When I last went into Egg IT recently I was in search of a netbook case but they only had Hello…read moreKitty ones which weren't really my style. As ever the staff were helpful when I then asked about computer repairs and health checks which they also do, informing me that it could take about a week for them to look at a laptop should I decide to bring it in. The fact that they're busy is probably a positive sign of popularity. They also said that you don't need high spec expensive computer equipment which is the sort of sensible thing I like to hear. A few years ago I bought a printer from Egg IT which is still going strong. Egg IT would appear to be still going strong too which is encouraging because it's good to have a small, friendly local business nearby for computing needs and equipment.

Did you ever walk away from a shop with a good feeling because you were treated well and got a…read morelittle bit of a bargain - well I have from Ink World. I am making Order of Service booklets at the minute and it is using up a lot of ink and so I've been in and out of this place several times over the last few months. The man who works here is really friendly and helpful - he advised me to bring in my old cartridges and that it would be cheaper to refill than buy new. He also gave me a discount the first day I went in and so obviously I keep calling back. They stock all inks for all computers as well as other stationary items. The waiting time for a refill is about ten minutes so that is quick and they cost much less than if you buy new - the only draw back is that my computer doesn't recognise when the refilled cartridges are empty or running low which a brand new cartridge would. I'm really glad I found this convenient and friendly little shop.

Used a few times now , friendly helpful service even on phone enquiries . Keen prices too . small…read morelocal shops rock

I've only had one brief experience with this computer repair store and it was on the whole a smooth…read moreexperience. The store is the usual IT experience, items for sales such as desktops, leads, cards and a plethora of accessories. I needed the services of someone with a better knowledge of IT than myself. I had a problem. My laptop had decided it didn't want to work. Admittedly it was approached four years, and for a laptop that's equivalent to our 65 year retirement age. I brought it down and explained my quandary. The staff were pretty such it was a problem with the battery itself and said they would have a look. Two days later and behold, it is reborn. One new battery and £40 later I am free to roam the coffee shops again. The experience was all positive. Staff were helpful and friendly and charged a fair amount for the check-up and new battery.

I'm pretty much surgically attached to my laptop, so when the hard drive died on me a few months…read moreago, I may as well have died with it. Thankfully, I took it into Prestige, mostly because of their location - I could drop it in and pick it up really easily before or after work. They knew pretty quickly that the hard-drive was fried (literally, parts of the PC were cooked!), and took it in to intensive care. It took a few days for them to ring me back to give me the good news, but they had replaced the hard drive and fixed a few other little niggles in the thing, I don't honestly know if the price I was charged was fair, having never had to take a computer to the doctors, but they did a good job. The laptop now works better than ever and I'll definitely be back to give it a check up in six months.

For the first time ever I have found some where that can do photocopies to AO size and other large…read moredimensions. There may be other places doing this that I don't know about but as far as I am concerned McGraths is a useful find just for that. Otherwise it carries all the usual office supplies, including reams of coloured photocopy paper and coloured card and writing papers. It is a workman like shop, nothing fancy, but with a plentiful stock of a practical, every day nature in the stationery line. As a small business the prices are bound to be higher than you can get at the supermarket as I did notice, for instance, that the hard back note books were more expensive but still, the big chain multiples do not always provide the answer to everything I am glad to say.

After a lovely, stomach-stretching lunch on a Friday afternoon, you wouldn't expect two girls in…read moretheir early twenties to be checkin' out a stationery / office supplies shop, now would you? Ha, well that's where you're wrong. A regular pursuit of mine (just kidding, I'm not *that* sad, ahem), but an ever-growing pastime of my trainee teacher friend, we both decided to pay McGrath's a visit. I didn't take much persuading, and was instantly lost in the brightly coloured sticky-notes section, followed by the ever favourite pen section (see my review on Bradbury Graphics), as well as the notebook / diary section. Rows upon rows of folders, ring-binders and other organisational methods filled me full of euphoria, and the coloured paper section was just far too overwhelming. I know, my sadness rate has just risen to 'sky high'. The purpose of our visit was to find some photograph paper, but it was really very expensive in comparison to Tesco's finest (so I was informed...I wouldn't know the price of this sort of thing if it came up and biffed me on the nose). They did have a good variety - gloss, matt and other fancy papers, and all in different sizes too. Just nothing that tickled my friend's fancy. It was a difficult goodbye, but I offered to accompany my friend again if she should ever need a helping hand. Stuff the fact that she's away back to England for the foreseeable future...

Ignore all the photos on here form 2010. It doesn't look anything like that anymore - Maplin used…read moreto look like an electronics factory but now it's very much a consumer store stocking some pretty cool shizz! What's this cool shizz I hear you ask? Well for a start they had a mini kids electric BMW sitting outside - now that will set you back a cool £600 - but if you have you the dosh coming up to Christmas I'd get one, even if you don't have kids. I actually went in to Maplin tom get a Megaphone, yep I'm plotting world domination. It was all much more straight forward than I thought. The Maplin store is split in to sections: Sounds, Lighting, Computers etc you know the drill. The Megaphone wasn't expensive either, £25 which I considered a bargain. Great wee store and differently somewhere to go and get tech Christmas gifts. The staff seem knowledgeable and the service is good. Plus there's plenty of parking so you'll be able to load that mini BMW in to your real car.

Maplin's is an electrical retailer which all you technophiles out there will love. Whether you need…read morea laptop, a digital camera, a memory card or a sat nav, you'll get it in here. For those of you (like me) who know next to nothing about technology, go in here and tell them what your problem is and they'll be happy to help you with a solution.

Cue hyperventilation…read more I make no secret of the fact that I adore stationery shops. All those piles of paper, stacks of sharpeners and heaps of highlighters combined with a profusion of pens, a plethora of pencils and a redundance of rubbers fill me with such complete euphoria that I feel the need to immediately purchase one or more of the above. Unfortunately, as my education days are now over, and my uses for such stationery supplies are at an all time low, I no longer require surplus amounts of pens, paper and the like. Thankfully, however, my sister has seemingly followed in my footsteps. Having decided that she likes her school notes colour coordinated (a girl truly after my own heart), she was after a few highlighters to fulfil her need on this particular trip to The Office. And believe you me, it is a need. My upper sixth year was spent swapping from blue to orange to pink to green to yellow highlighter in an attempt to make life much more colourful and easier to understand. It worked. The Office (great name, don't you think?) was bursting at the seams with every stationery supply you could ever need - kiddies felt tips to whiteboard markers, exercise books to coloured ring binders. And a whole lot of highlighters. Ooh goody. We were in luck. Rather than purchasing single highlighters (despite the vast colour choice), I convinced my sister to go for a set of four high-quality ones for £3.15. She didn't need much convincing, mind you. I think she may even have been more excited than I was, if that's at all possible. With so much stock, and all at great prices, I could've spent a) an awful lot longer there and b) an awful lot more money, but I (wisely) decided against it. My wisdom was later acknowledged, as I actually won a stationery set at a treasure hunt later that night. What a great day.

The office is unique in Ballyclare in that I don't believe there is another similar shop like it…read more Ahh however there is a couple of things but I'll get to them in a moment....a "stationary/pen shop" is definitely needed in Ballyclare due to our 2 big grammar schools, but there's much more to this shop at the epicenter of the towns centre like a place you can print photos out from your smartphone with the aid of their VERY helpful staff. Pens, pencils, envelopes, erasers etc, all the norm in a stationary shop. The only 2 things I can pick up on in this much needed establishment are the former computer (PC, tablet, laptop etc) repairs folks. I went to get my laptop a "clearout" or whatever they call it, only to be told that their "specialist" had resigned and moved on to pastures anew. The salesman then I have to admit very kindly directed me to a new shop that had opened in the town where I could get my laptop seen to. The other point I feel I should add without mentioning any names is the owners of "The Office" and their other profitable business opposite it. I have on several occasions witnessed unduly unhelpful relations between very friendly staff and these owners. I wouldn't call it bullying by any means but as an employee myself in such an occupation, I found correspondence from the owners to the staff very unpleasant and unjust! In a nutshell a great wee shop that's owners just need to treat it's likeable employees with a little more respect.