You can still get Birch's pasties and pies , made fresh daily in Bolton , they have a shop on…read moreAinsworth Lane in Bolton, the bakery is off St Marks Street Great Lever, it is still owned by the owners from 1988 , for a fresh full tasty pasty and pie , go to Birch's ,definitely reccomend them , my family and friends have them regularly , also buffets catered for by arrangement, now trading as B B Bakery Bolton

Hard to escape from the nice smell of the freshly baked bread or cakes. This bakery is not in a big…read moreroad but has a lot of clients visiting it, as the prices are very competitive and the quality of the food is brilliant. This place can be a good stop to get lunch snacks or desserts. Service is good and the place is nice and clean.

Big fan of Tesco and Tesco Express. This location has all…read morethe things you'd expect a bodega to carry. Prices are average with other shops. Easy in and out. Friendly employees. Good location to grab things if you're in a hurry.

This Tesco Express (formerly Tesco Metro) location is over two floors on Market Street, on the…read morecorner going onto Brown Street, right opposite the Arndale. It is probably the largest convenience store in the city centre, stocking a range of essentials and a little bit more over two floors, you can get between the floors using an escalator, but there also is lift access (the lift is super slow though and has been for years!). There is a decent selection of to-go food and drinks, including a Costa Express coffee machine, you can also find the occasional item on the small yet useful hot food counter, but that does tend to go fast. The layout of the store is easy to follow, I personally dislike the two-floor format for a store like this, as it means having to spend more time going up/down escalators and searching around the store, this is the type of store you want to get in and out quickly, and being over two floors and a lack of supporting mobile payment similar to Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer nearby, there are drawbacks. Most of the staff seem friendly and helpful, but there are a couple of bad apples. There are plenty of self-service checkouts, and a couple of manned checkouts too, there always seems to be a handful of machines either not in use or broken down, so there's always a wait at the checkout for some reason. The prices are much higher now than they were under the Tesco Metro brand, so you are paying a good bit more than you would in a regular Tesco store, which is annoying! 4* - A good and large store in the city centre, yet could be far better.

Great store chain in England!! Had everything we needed, so many choices for dinners.prices are…read morecheaper than in some American markets.

Not a bad branch of Tescos and the new bargain range is really good in this store…read more It's big enough to have all the different departments although I think that the clothes range is quite small - mostly underwear and tights and some t shirts. nice Deli counter with roast chicken hot out of the grill. I have bought lots of little christmas presents from this branch - very cheap and cheerful and perfect for frugal christmas.

Situated at the foot of the Moho Building, Store! is the only convenience store in the area. For…read morethis reason it has to cater for all local needs, and it does do fairly well. Of course, if you need some gluten free organic almond seed shavings, its not going to serve your purpose, but for all your everyday needs, and a few extra treats, its perfect. It covers all the basics, including fresh groceries, eggs and milk, newspapers and confectionary. The crisps section is genuinely remarkable, as they seem to stock every type of crips you've had since you were a kid, and probably thought were not still in production (perhaps I should have checked the best before dates). Anything from Discos and Nik-Nacks to Space Invaders and Pringles, they've got it. They also have a wide range of alcohols, including some pretty rare European beers not available at supermarkets, such as the Warstiener, which is delicious, and reasonably priced at 4 for under a fiver. Its not your standard Best In/Happy Shopper as its pretty smart inside, but they've resisted the temptation affecting other such places (i.e Spar) to rise their prices horrendously as if the customer is happy to pay the extra for the privileged of shopping somewhere with a glass front and a clean floor. Its not as cheap as a large supermarket but its cheaper than most independent local stores. Some of its hidden gems include a £2 garlic bread with cheese, a loaf of bread with the thickest and stoggiest slices I've ever seen and some £1 washing powder.

If shops were friends, STORE would be your best mate. Always there, never let's you down and you…read morecome to rely on them. One thing I've discovered that all the things you assume it won't have, it will! I recently was delighted to grab some lemongrass half way through a cooking session! One thing though, milk goes off quicker than the label says. Belting local store.

So a night in the Liverpool Airport Hilton was followed by a Terravision trip which annoyingly went…read moreright past my flat and took me straight into the centre of Manchester. Oh, you can't get it to stop. Only two stops on the Terravision. It gets worse too, the driver seemed content with blasting some kind of compilation of Rock FM's happy hardcore Saturday playlist so loudly that I couldn't even hear my own iPod despite my silencing earphones. So. I was stuck at Shudehill, when I discovered they charge for the loo at that bus station. I needed the loo. It was not pleasant. And my money-saving budget-happy gene kicks in when I see loos you have to pay for. However when on my way to the Arndale to find somewhere to spend a penny, I went past the lovely shiny Co-op food supermarket where I could literally spend pennies. I couldn't resist going in, it looked so nice. This is due to a mixture of enthralling offers and the fact that they're so ethically sound. They do like to tell us about it on the adverts. A LOT. I really needed to get to the Arndale, emergencies and all that, but the fact that I spent a fair bit of time browsing in there proves how good it is. Locally sourced fresh stuff, delicious looking flavoured houmous and kettle chips and specials instructing you how to create a home meal for a pittance. I know a lot of supermarkets are doing this right now but there's just something about the Co-op's hippy demeanour that makes it all the nicer. I'm a Co-op fan, and so should you be. Quit lining the evil Tesco pockets and do your shopping here. Oh and a PS - recently I went to the Piccadilly branch and grabbed a couple of reduced items. My card had expired and I only had loose change, but I was around 18p short. The checkout lady let me off. So not only are they ethical, they're sympathetic too! Now if we could just get rid of those slightly smug adverts they keep bombarding us with, they'd be incapable of doing wrong...

When this Co-Op opened their doors last year, I felt like high fiving every single member of staff…read moreand joining them in a victory dance. Originally, this site was rumoured to become yet another soul-sucking, money crunching, Tesco Express. Luckily, the local community intervened with residents and MPs actively complaining to the landlord and local council. They obviously listened and decided to rent the space to the more ethical Co-op Group who promote fairtrade and organic farming. Open early til late, it's a great addition to the Northern Quarter and a wonderful reminder that sometimes the good guys get to kick the bad guys where it hurts!

This is my favourite supermarket by far! Lovely fresh produce, excellent quality. Lots of gift…read moreideas, delicious food and drink, condiments and speciality goods. Great range of toiletries and household items. Fantastic staff, so friendly and helpful, really great place, plus 2 hours free parking

This is one of the largest Booths stores I have visited, located on Stanley Road in Knutsford Town…read moreCentre, Booths is a premium northern supermarket chain, it reminds me a lot of a Northern Waitrose, this store is visually pleasing and has some good and high-quality products, especially from their Booths own brand. Prices are a little bit more expensive here, which is typical of the Booths brand. The store did have a good selection of products, but it still felt short compared to the size of the store, with many shelves and food counters left half-empty and poorly stocked, and they just looked like they had not been full for a while, which makes me wonder if the store is maybe too big for its own boots. There is a Cafe in the store, but it appears to be closed up and packed away in the early afternoon, which is a shame. I did find the store layout to be a little confusing, making it harder to find what I was looking for than it should be, with key grocery items including dairy (milk and cheese) tucked into the back corner of the store, I found items such as the cheese poorly packed onto the shelves, for some reason they put most of the cheese on a deep shelf right at the top, which would make it difficult for anyone who wasn't significantly tall to reach. The checkout service remained slow, down to not having a self-service option and the outdated system at the tills, compared to other major supermarkets, that being said the staff members at the checkout and on the food counters, were friendly. The car park was large, but again a strange one, the private parking company has a sign which states you can park for two hours up until 8 pm... but the store closes at 10 pm. This leaves room for misinterpretation and confusion on the car parking regulations during the final two hours of the day and needs to be rectified. 3* - Friendly staff and some nice products, but the store just seems too large for what they have, with the shelves and fresh-food counters seeming depleted, other issues such as the shelf placement and setup as well as the car parking means there are many areas for improvement.

Look...... I'm getting a bit bored of this..."oh its so expensive malarky". People need to get…read moretheir heads around the fact that in society there is always gonna be a disposable income gap. Now I understood that when I was a student for example. I never bothered going into Harvey Nichols or any other shop for that matter where I knew it was too expensive for me. There was no point!!!!! So DONT bother going in if its too expensive and whinging about the price!!!!!!! Harvey Nick's Second Floor Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie is actually great, especially with Head Chef Stuart Thomson's award-winning menu. I feel like a kid in a sweet shop everytime I am there, they stock stuff you just can't buy in most other places. Get some food fro the deli and sit and watch the exchange square world go by....ahhhh bliss!!! Right next door is a massive wine colleciton for you should you decide to sample some while you're there. Apparently it's one of the most extensive wine lists in Manchester. So if you do have a disposable income and don't mind spending a few extra pennies on some pistachios from brazil or something, check it....innit!!!

Can anyone spare a few pounds? I wouldn't usually ask but there's no way I can stretch to buying a…read moreloaf of sourdough, a block of Lancashire cheese, a handful of vine tomatoes and a bottle of champagne from Harvey Nichols otherwise! Located on the second floor of the posh department store, the Foodmarket is packed floor to ceiling with thousands of the company's own products packaged in their iconic silver tins and bottles with slick black and white photos. There's everything you could want from whole hampers to tea, coffee, shortbread, pickles and chutneys. At the back of the store, there's a small deli counter that stocks fresh cheese, parma ham, pasta and other delicacies, a luxury wine and champagne counter, a tiny bakery section with freshly baked bread and a wee grocery section selling organic fruit and veg. If they extended these sections I'd probably visit more but as it is, the Foodmarket is too limited and too damn eXpensive.

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.