Cartridge World is not an indie store by any far stretch of the imagination... but! If you are a…read morestudent, or an impoverished writer then you are definitely going to be tempted to pay these guys a visit. According to them they are "the world's No. 1 provider of great-value, top quality refilled printer cartridges". I don't know about the number one claim, but I do know they're cheap! Besidews, cartridge refills have to be the way forward...? They are eco friendly and cost effective, so why, for the sake of commerce would we buy a new disposable unit, that goes straight into landfill and takes a few millennia to decompose, when we can make a more ecological choice and save money at the same time??? It's not often that the eco-organic option comes it at less than the price of the normal product!!! They handle every major brand of printer cartridge for home, education or business use, and everything is backed by a '100% Moneyback guarantee'. They have 220 stores nationwide.

Well I know for one fact that IKEA do not allow photos to be taken in less you ask the Human…read moreResources department! Typical or what?! That's the first place that I have told not take pictures of within a long time. I know this because I was told off by the till area for not being able to take pictures without permission, but that was after I had been taking pictures already inside and plenty of staff where around who could have also told me off. Mind you the guy at the entrance did look a bit shifty towards me as I had my camera around my neck, but he did not say anything to me still. It is a very useful and massive shop, based around the Cardiff Bay and it is free to enter. They have several sections of products such as; lights, bed duvets, candles, pictures frames, cloth hangers, plenty of storage items, mirrors, a cafe, a car park, a low deals offer, large lifts, escalators, and a Swedish food market area. Entry is free; the staff do seem a little picky about certain things, but it is a very useful shop and our house and Caravan in Pembrokeshire are both full of IKEA items and products. I would still recommend it as a shop for everyone to attend and buy house items from.

We all know Ikea is a must for furniture hunters on a budget - not just in Cardiff but world wide -…read moredid you know that Ikea is the biggest furniture seller in the world? But this review isn't about the furniture - ohhhhh controversial!!!!! I hear you say. This review is about the food. All I want to say is consider Ikea not just as a furniture store but a quite good cheap restaurant too. Its great value for money. You can get a cooked breakfast for 99p! Where else in the developed world can you get that? Ok the meatballs and the fish and chips are not as cheap but they are as cheap as a chip shop and you have all the sauce you could wish for and a table and chair to sit down and eat it at too! One word of advice I wouldn't take a first date here - I did once and it didn't last long after we left the store - pity really she looked quite nice all dressed up.

This Cardiff Bay-based company sells a wide selection of office supplies, from board room furniture…read moreto printer cartridges, and offers same-day delivery for those urgent items. Browns provided all the stationery items for a business I used to work at in the Bay, and their customer service is what always stood out: the sales staff were really friendly, and even the delivery guys were always up for a quick chat or bit of banter. Their prices seemed reasonable for what we were ordering (although I don't have much to compare it with), but I think my boss mainly purchased through Browns because they were a local Welsh company within walking distance of our office. Browns offers a range of furniture, including Sven Christiansen Office Furniture, Orangebox Seating & Triumph Steel Storage. A free office supplies catalogue or furniture brochure can be ordered through their website or by calling 02920 491149.

Agfa is one of the largest print developer stores in cardiff. They open well in advance of any…read moreother print processing company and have the all important 24hours turn around time for film processing. The store has all manner of accessories and printing onto mugs, canvas and large blow up prints. They have slide processing, gift cards and quick printing from USB sticks or CD's. The staff is knowledgeable about print services and are helpful. Lab quality prints are always impressive but Agfa like most print shops are coming under competition from home printing, which can now easily beat lab quality prints with the right equipment. If you are looking to save on digital prints, excess printing can reduce the cost especially at the 6x4" size.

The Digital Photo Centre on City Road is also known as the Agfa Image Centre as well as Express…read moreImaging, depending on where you are looking for information! It's confusing! At least the services that they provide are a little bit more straightforward! They are essentially a full service digital and SLR photography specialist, offering a 30 minute photographic service, films converted into CD images for as little as £0.99 and a same day service for black and white images. They also carry a lot of photographic stock and peripherals. The staff are really knowledgeable, and can advise on a broad range of requirements. They assist amateurs and professional photographers alike, their prices are really reasonable, and they are open when you need them to be! This is a great little shop!

Easy Link Internet Café is more spacious than you would expect. It doesn't enjoy a particularly…read morelarge shop front, but the shop itself extends quite far back into a deceptively large building. Having said that, it's not easy to miss this very visible business, with its red and yellow signage that leaves you in no doubt about where they are and what they are doing there. As well as providing a good number of Internet dedicated desk top machines that are separated by partitions for privacy, they also provide a number of office services including faxing and copying. It is also possible to make cheap international calls, as well as having your laptop fixed and maintained. Mustafa Jassem is the Senior IT Technician and owner if this well run business, but the shop is managed by someone else. I wish I could remember his name, as he's a really lovely guy, ever helpful and pretty jolly with it. Specific IT services include virus and spyware removal, virus protection, data recovery and back-up, onsite laptop repairs, (no home visits), network and wireless installation, as well as the sale of accessories and components. Mustafa: 07501 88 03 03

I'm glad I don't inhabit Sim Tech World, and instead lead a rustic existence, but I have had reason…read moreof late to thank my lucky stars that shops like Sim Tech World exist. Like so many before me, I managed to drop my iPhone several times before the screen ultimately smashed. It was of course, only a matter of time before this was inevitably going to happen... but did I think to take out insurance to protect myself in this eventuality? Well, yes I did... But whether I got round to actually doing it is an entirely different matter! So, with the exorbitant cost of getting Apple to fix it for me, I began a quest that lasted well over a month to find a indie mobile phone shop like Sim Tech World that would do it cheaper. It ultimately cost a staggering £80.00 to get the screen replaced, but I had, in the meantime, damaged the LCD screen, making the job more expensive, (well, it was actually my neighbours cat jumping directly onto the broken screen in an attempt to catch a moth that put paid to the LCD screen in reality...) I didn't end up using Sim Tech World, but it certainly made me aware of their existence. They are seemingly a tight little business, that specialises in mobiles and home computing, including PC and Apple laptops, games consoles etc, as well as digital cameras; essentially all of your portable electronics that you can bring into the shop for attention, (thy don't do home visits). They also call themselves an 'entertainment exchange', which, as the name suggests, means that they sell second user kit as well.

Small independent electronic engineers like Sim Tek World thrive on the repair of electronic…read moreequipment that inevitably happens. There expertise can help fix mobile phone faults, problems with ipods, ipads, apple products, xbox 360s, playstations, PC's and laptops. A very useful technical fix is there mobile phone unlocking service. The Sim Tek people aim to fix the phone while you wait rather than the 28 day service most high street stores offer. If you're in a pinch and need something fixed quickly without the extra cost of sending it away to be looked at Sim Tek offer the best service around. The shop itself is very small and over cluttered, which is to be expected of a electronic repair shop the outside advertises all the different services they perform and that leaves little room to let light in, so it's a bit dingy inside.

Level 1 of the students union is home to the IT Shop (or the Siop TG for the Welsh-speaking amongst…read moreus). They offer an IT Clinic, to which you take your computer and they will hopefully fix it right then. If they can't, they'll take it from you and sort out the problem. They also sell a range of electronic equipment and accesories, such as earphones and webcams. There is also a fair amount of stationery. I went in looking for earphones and found the service to be adequate, though I did feel a little as though I was intruding on a private conversation. The prices aren't great but it's a fair service for students. All in all, it's just average but, if you've got a problem with your laptop, it's the closest place to Cathays to go for help.

The IT shop is situated on the first floor of Cardiff student union. This shop can even be found to…read morebe open outside of term times, making it very handy whether you need some supplies or you need your laptop repaired. They stock a vast supply of everything you could possibly need to function as a student. They sell stationary, technical items for computers and even laptops, with prices not being too extortionate. There is also a photocopier that you can pay to use. Repair prices aren't too heavy either, when I went to take my laptop in, they quoted a price of £15 to have a look at my laptop to see why my left mouse key wasn't working. The guys that work here are very friendly and there to help as many of them are fellow students. This store is a great asset to students and beneficial for anyone looking to get a good price on their IT needs.

Internet Land is not simply an internet café. They are also PC repair centre as well as a mobile…read morephone shop, stocking quite a lot of mobile phone accessories including SIM cards for all providers at £1.99. They also provide a limited range of office services including: faxing, printing, copying and laminating. As well as being able to use the internet to use Skype they also have phone booths for making international phone calls. In addition, they sell phone cards that make the cost of foreign calls a lot more affordable. This is quite a popular internet café, and is my favourite in this area. This is mainly due to the fact that they serve a decent cup of coffee, (Kenco), and their rates are competitive. They are also always open when I need them. Being a small hub of the community they also permit the use of part of their shop window for the advertising of local businesses. They charge as little as £0.50 for this service.

First of all, this place has a really good website as well as a good shop so if, for some reason,…read moreyou can't find what you are looking for, definitely do go home and try to find it online. The site is really easy to navigate. The staff in the shop, to get back into the thing that I am actually meant to be reviewing, are lovely. They all seem to be quite passionate about art and crafts, though I realise that that seems to be an odd statement. They all seem to enjoy art and crafts greatly is perhaps better? The prices are really good and the range is just fantastic so you're almost certain to find what you need. I did, as it happens but the staff are so good that I'm sure they wouldn't mind helping you out if you were missing something,

Now I'm not at all a crafty individual, however I can't deny that this shop even touches an…read moreartistic part of my soul. They have a massive selection of craft items such as ribbons, lace, stickers, stamps, and the most beautiful, delicate paper. The staff here are friendly, and even better are willing to offer advice on how to create specific items using these products. In particular I'd recommend this place for those of you who are clever (and frugal) enough to make your own cards.