It's simple. If you like weed a lot, you will like Dr Herman's a lot…read more If, like me, you don't really like weed, then the existence of Dr Herman's will be totally inconsequential to you. It is to me. In Dr Herman's there are loads and loads and loads of bongs, pipes, papers and other accessories to help you smoke the green stuff in all kind of ways. The whole shop is dedicated to the weed. Apparently there are enough people in Manchester that like weed that much to fund its existence. Fair enough, I guess.

Kratom Chacruna San…read morePedro Blue Lotus Jurema Yopo If you're already familiar with some of the above, chances are you already shop at Dr. Hermans! For those folks who draw a blank, Dr. Hermans specialises in a wide range of smoking paraphernalia from tobacco seeds to seed banks, grow bags, grinders, pollinators, vapourisers, roaches and blunts. The reason I've only given them three stars isn't because their shit isn't good - it's because the shop looks and feels like a hippy tardis. Everywhere you look, there's horrible flashing lights, crappy lava lamps and cheap looking bongs. I know most customers are probably too high to notice but the decor makes me think of migraines! Personally, I'd also be extremely reluctant to smoke something called Fly Agaric but hey, it's your lungs!

Great shop ,amazing service, great products great prices very good atmosphere at Christmas time…read moreregards Baroness von Kuchler Francis kray Winchester Mcgladdery Gallagher

I'm not massively too sure how much of a brisk trade this place does when smoking seems to be the…read moreultimate sin in 21st century life... But for the 5 mins I was in here it definitely seemed to be busy enough with fans of the old brown weed. Needing to pop in and buy some Havana cigars for our friends wedding, the staff were very helpful, knowledgable and friendly - helping me choose the 3 pack of Bolivar's (£48 for 3) that went down a treat once all the service and speeches were complete. Personally myself, I have no probs with people choosing what they do with their life and bodies as long as they're not blowing smoke in mine or my kids face and these sorts of places used to maybe be ten a penny back in the old days, but it's nice to see something so traditional as a classic, artisan tobacconist on the high street still. When the next big wedding is on, I'll now know where to go to get my zig-a-zig'ar on!

The gentleman who operates the shop is always welcoming and helpful when I send or collect parcels…read morewith Yodel or FedEx. The shop is well presented and very clean.

When I came into Mirage News I thought it was just a bog standard newsagents. Crisps, sweets,…read morecigarettes, bottles of fizzy pop and few newspapers. That kind of thing. That's certainly what it looks like from the outside. And it does sell all of those things. But what it also does is tobacco. So what I'm talking about is cigars. In fact a couple of cabinets full of the things, with a wide range of types. They also sell tobacco, in flavours such as apple, banana and toffee, all weighed out to the amount you would like. They also sell paraphernalia like pipes and lighters. The guy serving is nice enough too. What Mirage News is really great for is its tobacco though.

I don't know when it started but there seems to be a bit of an on-going turf war between Govind's…read moreNewsagents and their neighbour newsagent Metro Convenience Store. To the best of my knowledge there's been no fist fights or smashed windows involved, just a competition over which business can offer customers the lowest prices. So far, Govind's News seems to be winning with 2p for photocopies and Half Price on all the daily and weekends tabloids and broadsheets. Handily, they also sell beer, milk, bread, soup, crisps, baked beans, spaghetti hoops, toilet roll and chocolate bars - making it a bit of a one-stop shop for students and locals on a budget.

This place has recently changed its name from Govind's to Govin News Agents. Where did the 'd'…read moredisappear to? I really don't understand. Is it a typo? Absolutely similar to Metro Convenience Store next door, Govin seems to have slightly less stock, with a basic slection of bread, eggs, milk and the like. It gets a point for offering photocopying at an incredibly cheap 2p per page. If you're a student with a handing-in deadline and you fancy beating the library queues and saving a few pennies whilst you're at it, Govin is the place to go. Govin News Agents, just like Metro, also sells odd items. Coloured drinking straws? A football? People must be buying this stuff I guess...

AFTABS! What does that mean? Is it a name? Does it stand for something?…read more If I was commissioned to decide what it stood for, I'd say.... A Fine and Timely Auspiciously Beneficial Shop. Its Fine, not so much in the sense of selling finery and beautiful decorative products (for which it is not the place), but in the sense of there being nothing wrong with it. Its got all your basics, from bread and milk to a fine selection of confectionary and crisps. Its Timely, certainly, because there are no other shops in the area, and if you're walking from Deansgate or Trafford to Oxford Road, you'll find the journey bleak and woeful. As you battle through the barren wasteland that is Hulme, AFTABS will come to you as would an oasis in the Sahara, providing a much needed Boost (or Twix) to get you through the remainder of the journey. Auspicious, because auspicious implies success in the future while propitious means favourable conditions in the present; auspicious means promising or of good omen - not just special or memorable. Aftabs have a range of new deals on beers, ciders, wines and spirits, which I think will ensure future prosperity once the students from the surrounding area cotton on. Beneficial, because you will benefit from the products purchased there. The reason for this is that you have purchases the products that you want or need. Shop, because is it a shop. A place where money may be exchanged for goods approximately to the value of the money paid. This money is usually in paper form and until recently was backed up by gold reserves in national banks.

Euronews is a huge newsagents right on Piccadilly Gardens…read more It also doubles up as a mobile phone shop that is a convenient place to come and get your mobile phone unlocked if that's what you need. That's it basically. It's a newsagents. Crisps, magazines, papers, sweets, fags, gum and polo's are its thing (as well as phones, obviously).

Yeah Euronews! Nothing to do with Europe. I thought it was an absolute find, because I always come…read moreback from holiday with somewhere between 7 and 30 Euros knocking about in my wallet. You can imagine my joy when I saw this shop, and imagined myself redeeming my Euros against a large pile of newspapers, fizzy pop and sweets. It was terrible news then, when I discovered that you are expected to pay in British Sterling. Jokes aside, it's a good little newsagents. Especially worth a look at is all the Haribo style sweets, that are not Haribo branded, but taste the same, and are about half the price. The selection is great. Plus its got some strange random items that tourists might be interested in. This is just speculation though, as I don't know any tourists.

Lifestyle Express is a brand new convenience and grocery store on Booth Street West not far from…read moreboth The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. Its situated slap bang in between two Spar Supermarkets, and its miles better than both. Whereas Spar works by selling half its produce at twice its value and making out that its cheap by advertising the other half of its well priced produce like mad, Lifestyle Express has a good deal on literally everything. Whether it's a multipack of crisps for just over a pound, or a six pack of polish beers for a fiver, Lifestyle Express is the place to pick up a deal on everyday convenience goods. They also do milk, bread and bog roll and all that boring stuff, so though its only been open for a matter of weeks, its already become the locus for emergency purchases such as chocolate and paper to wipe your bum with for the locals.

24 hours of service, as mentioned below convenience is very much the faceless phantom in student's…read morelives. Open all hours you plunder and pillage for alcohol whenever you need. It does everything that a convenience store needs to do.

On a drunken mission to get the bus from Trof to the Roadhouse, Medic Friend and I realised that…read moreneither of us had a lighter. Or fags, for that matter. We stumbled across Premier and were DELIGHTED to find that as well as fags, they sold 'zippo' lighters with sexy-lady decals. That's right, kids, for just £1, you can own a fake zippo with a badly printed vinyl sticker of a woman in a pink bra and knicker set! Woo hoo! Medic Friend and I were suitably excited, and promptly bought the sexy lady lighter, and called her Sue. But then, tragedy struck! When we tried to light up, we discovered the lighter was EMPTY! That's right, it didn't work! Useless! We were upset. Upset because not only did we not have a lighter, but we had also been lied to, and our excitement turned to despair as I popped into Gaffs for matches. OK, so maybe buying a dodgy lighter for a quid isn't all that bad, but you weren't there, man. You weren't there! Premier sells an OK array of booze. The wines are standard corner shop fare; Paul Masson, Blossom Hill, that kind of thing. And the beer selection is good, with many of the beers refrigerated for instant party-readiness. The booze can be on the pricey side sometimes. I'm with Rob on its blandness. The only thing it has going for it atmosphere wise is a sense of being constantly watched by the man behind the counter. To be honest, there's nothing *wrong* with Premier, but it's not got the huge selection of Sainsbury's, or the weird (and annoying) features of Gaffs. It's just a bit nothingy. But useful if novelty lighters are your thing. As for Sue, I believe she still lives with Medic Friend, though I am of course too polite to ask.

This is a small, simple off licence that has a good selection of beers, wines and spirits…read more It's clean and tidy, with a small range of magazines and basic groceries. A perfect place to pop in and get some of those bare essentials on your way home.

This is one of very peculiar streets in Northern Quarter. A mile-long Tib Street runs from the…read morejunction of Oldham Road and Swan Street down to Market Street, where it is flanked by Debenhams and Starbucks. Affectionately known as "cats and dogs street", Tib Sr used to house a good number of pet shops. Sadly, the last pet shop was forced to close in 2002. Since then "pet" acquired a more intimate meaning, in the proper sense of the word: the number of adult shops in the street and on its corners is, well, astounding. It is still possible, I suppose, to call it "cats and dogs street" or "pet paradise", but with entirely differently meaning attached... Of course, there is more to Tib St than shop windows with X-rated videos and sexual paraphernalia. My main destination in Tib St between 2005 and 2006 was CSV Media Clubhouse, at the top of the street, close to Hydroponics shop on the corner. CSV Media Clubhouse provides training and courses for those who want to acquire various skills in Broadcast Media, from radio to TV and filming. Opposite the door there is a peculiar graffiti wall, commemorating Tib St as it was, with lots of pet shops. Other notable doors in Tib St include: Olivier Morosini hairdressing salon; Thornley Groves estate agency; Rags to Bitches famous vintage shop; Matt & Phred's jazz club; The Northern pub; the Army Shop; Centro bar; Simple bar; Hedonist hair salon; and Sacha's Hotel. Affleck's Palace occupies the corner of Church St and Tib St. Abakhan Fabrics, the Mancunian Mecca for all things sewing and knitting, is planted on the corner of Warwick St and Tib St, opposite The City pub. Warwick St also connects Tih St and Oldham St. And one more unique feature about Tib St. As you walk up and down, you will notice pavement blocks with lines tiled on them. Take a moment to read them: they are the lines by the renowned Lemn Sissay, a poet who marked Manchester by his talent before jetting off to London (due to family, not for fame, as he insists). He was a guest at 2009 Manchester International Festival, and there are several places in the city where you can read his poems, but Tib St must be the most daring one. The poem is called Flags.