Where I live we used to have a pound shop that sold things like out of date diaries, dodgy looking garden gnomes, old CD’s that no one would ever buy and rather ugly ornaments – my Mam used to call it the ‘tat shop’.
I think that put me off those types of shops a little bit as I very rarely go in my local 99p store and when I do, it’s usually for something specific that I want, like Christmas bags. Even then I generally go straight to what I want and am in and out in no time at all, without really looking round.
Then I was asked by the lovely people at 99p stores if they could try and change my mind by giving me £50 to spend in my local store. Although I wasn’t too convinced, I accepted their offer and enlisted the help of two friends to come and help me out – mainly because I wasn’t convinced that I’d be able to spend £50 in the store on my own!
The store itself was a lot bigger than I thought and I was amazed to see things that I buy in my weekly shopping for sale in there. I wasn’t expecting to see things like Capri Sun drinks, Heinz Ketchup and Cadbury’s biscuits in there – all priced at 99p (funnily enough) which is less than I pay for them usually. The food and drink section was brilliant and I’ll be back again before my weekly shop whenever I get the chance as I’ll stock up here on what I can!
Between the three of us we bought things like an iPad cover, a microphone that Miss Frugal loves to plug in to her CD player so she can sing along with Adele, water guns, plastic plates, thermal mugs, make up, hair stuff, stationery, along with loads of cleaning products – just look at the picture above to see it all!
The store itself was light and very well laid out and the staff were very helpful (for the cynics among us, they didn’t know we were using the vouchers to pay until we actually paid). We were all pleasantly surprised both by the wide range and the quality of the products in the shop and all three of us will be back again. I’ll be there next week actually to buy supplies for Miss Frugal’s upcoming birthday party as they had a great party section.
I’m a convert now and keep telling people about the shop and all of our bargains.
Disclosure: Thank you to the team at 99p stores for sending us the vouchers to spend.
