Shopping in Northern Ireland

sorry if its already been asked but having got thru 70 odd pages and didnt see it

heading up north on sat planning on leaving early but not sure where to go
looking for toy shops esp and clothes and then food in that order????

any help would be great

thanks in advance

jean

Your choice frmo distance preference:
1)Newry Shopping (Quays & Buttercrane) All shops you could think of for shopping (Except Supervalu)
2)Sprucefield Shopping park (near Belfast) (sainsbury, Toysrus, Currys, Argos, B&Q, ) and a MacD too
3) enniskellin - all shops but Sainsbury

Choice from relax shopping:

1)Sprucefield -Sainsbury led shopping park
2)Westwood park (Just 10 minutes from Sprucefield)-ASDA, discount electrical and MacD too, just in front of shopping center exit a good "TOKYO ASIAN restaurant" and pizza shop too, ASDA is great

My advice: get away from NEWRY, sprucefield is great, in case you want to cover IKEA, There is IKEA, Sainsbury, TESCO, HARVEYNORMAN and NEXT all big shops,

heard this on the radio this morning what is the most wanted xmas present this year but its very hard to get a parking space in newry think there are plenty on here might agree

Bond-007 wrote: »

All this talk of limiting sales in Asda is rubbish.

couldn't agree more on my last visit I got 400 tissues and no one batted an eye!!!

Bond-007 wrote: »

WTF! :eek: 3 boxes is hardly trade purchasing.

Which was my point .Maybe they have given up trying to limit sales but they definitely where a couple of weeks ago

Hi,
Just back from Enniskillen. Dunnes empty, prices were okay for usual stuff. Asda was busy but nothing extreme and M&S was quite.
A bit of road construction which held up things but nothing to really bother about. Last visit was to Iceland and no problems, quite.

Drink in Asda was moving, best send in the wife and guard the trolley or vice versa real ankle cruncher near the booze.

Its worth a trip for food and booze, not just now, but at any time of the year.

However, if you're looking for bargains on clothing....forget it!! There are a few bargains to be had, but no more than are available to you here.

peanuthead wrote: »

However, if you're looking for bargains on clothing....forget it!! There are a few bargains to be had, but no more than are available to you here.

The missus bought a pair of jeans in M&S Enniskillen for £39/€45 the same pair in M&S Liffey Valley cost €69 thats a saving of €24 which I would consider a bargain, that purchase alone covered fuel and more. She spent a lot in River Island and save another bundle on same items compared to River Island down south.

I agree with you about the langers in our goverment and their incompetent ways.There surley has to be an easier way of saving cash other than spending most of the day in a traffic jam or risking a kicking over some poxy parking space.I for one would take the easier route and shop around locally.The deals are there.Check your local papers for sales and deals.I picked up 4 slabs of larger for 100 euro in tescos.I also picked up a 42 inch plasma and dvd recorder for 699 that was in savins in limerick.Stay south and we all might get out of this mess quicker.

andrew1977 wrote: »

If you are an average family with kids to feed ,clothe and get set for xmas on an average income, it is certainly worth bothering with all that ****e,
What i have saved up north this Xmas has well paid for Santas invoice and let me with a few quid still in my pocket
Needs must in this current economic climate, they encourage us to shop down South, but at the end of the day no f*cker in Dail Eireann will pay my ESB bill for me if i dont have the money to pay it.

This thread is an excellent resource. Thanks to all who have provided helpful information

I left Dublin yesterday (Wednesday) at 11am with not much traffic on the roads. There was rock blasting going on at the Newry bypass so there was a 30 minute delay getting through there. Otherwise it was fine all the way to Belfast.

I went to Ikea (at Holywood Exchange on the Belfast to Bangor road) at about 2pm and while there may have been about 200 cars in the car park, the place is so big that I felt like the only one there most of the time. Great store and great prices. It's all mostly veneered MDF wood products, but the prices generally reflect this. I spent hours wandering around the showroom floor

I then went to Sainsburys and did some shopping. Not great for alcohol. I think ASDA or Tesco is the place to go for that kind of thing. It was pretty empty when I was there at 6pm and the shelves were fully-stocked. Fantastic savings to be had when buying in bulk.

Next stop was Sprucefield. I got there at about 7:30pm, had a bite to eat and went into Currys. The Currys there is nice and big, plenty of stock and it was very quiet.

The sign-posting on the roads in the North is excellent, unfortunately the road markings are particularly poor. On the way home at about 9pm, I could barely make out the lane markings or any cat's eyes.

All in all, a great journey. Well worth the effort

Connrang wrote: »

Hi,
Just back from Enniskillen. Dunnes empty, prices were okay for usual stuff. Asda was busy but nothing extreme and M&S was quite.
A bit of road construction which held up things but nothing to really bother about. Last visit was to Iceland and no problems, quite.

Drink in Asda was moving, best send in the wife and guard the trolley or vice versa real ankle cruncher near the booze.

Went to Asda Enniskillen today myself. Saved a fortune, especially stocking up on multibuys.

Was busy like you said but not too bad, tills were busy though with most people going through with fully loaded trolleys:

Cicero wrote: »

Would agree with Don Jose,(a few pages back)

Bargains are getting better in the south - but I'm a bit cynical about this
-have travelled up and down from the North regularly over the last number of months - STG/Euro was good even back then - while I've spent a certain amount in NI and got my 'bargains', I would support any initiative to keep businesses going in the south, BUT, you've got to stop ripping us off...Celtic tiger is over,,,reduce reduce reduce NOW, and we'll buy down here.

Farmers Markets- stop charging EUR 2.75 for a scone/slice of sponge cake/ etc etc

Clothes shops- stop taking advantage of some apparent HUGE difference in STG/Euro exchange rates- it doesn't exist, and anyway, why are the outlet stores selling the same items 33% cheaper????

Electronics shops- the joke is over (and was, way before this recent phenomonen occured) - reduce your prices.

All businesses- remind yourself of who buys your goods- CUSTOMERS- bring back customer care- the bag packers, customer servce and tellers staff in Sainsburys Newry display customer care behaviours in bucketloads--

Rant over...If going to the North, try and get up to the Antrim Coast- absolutely brilliant drive and scenery

To me, its da thread of the day

JohnCleary wrote: »

Look, it's as simple as this - People are going to shop wherever costs less.

Yes, Tesco's beer bargain was great, and I shopped at my local Tesco for the beer and bought 50euro worth of beer from the, happy days. However, I went North to buy my wines/spirits

I don't believe in this 'shop locally to save our economy' bullsh1t, i'll shop wherever is cheaper. If the Irish Government put their money where their mouth is and reduced VAT (like the UK) we would be encouraged to shop South, but to PUT IT UP, while the UK brings it down? You'd be mad to shop in the South at the moment

Here Here my friend ,i completely agree with you

I bought my Baileys 1 litre bottle for 10 sterling in Sainsburys 2 weeks ago, i bought my Xmas Jumper in the Timberland Jumper (39 sterling..i have seen them down south for approx 90 euro ) in the outlet store in banbridge and saved myself a packet not to mention the savings i made on the household essentials

On discovering the Tesco beer alert this week, i bought my tray of Guinness and Budweiser down south and tomorrow i will pick up more trays in Supervalue locally

Saved a fair bit on all the above and as you say.. end of the day.. the money in my pocket at the end of the month makes all the difference.