The cafe sells sausage rolls for 50p and pots of tea for a quid
The cafe inside the new Home Bargains in Leigh(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
I adore Home Bargains so when I heard about a new one opening with its own cafe and garden centre I couldn’t wait to take a trip there.
From what I’d been told, traffic was chaos around the Leigh site for last weekend’s grand opening, but I was hoping things would have calmed down somewhat for my Friday afternoon visit.
Getting into the site off Kirkhall Lane wasn’t too bad, but I only just managed to get a parking space and the car park isn’t small.
Once inside I could see why. The place was heaving with shoppers, clearly as eager as yours truly to take a look around.
Click here to prioritise Manchester news in Google from the MEN
The new store is off Kirkhall Lane in Leigh(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
And boy oh boy is there plenty to look at, with aisle upon aisle packed to the rafters with every kind of product you can imagine, from cleaning products and toys, to drinks, food, health and beauty, and more.
Shopping wasn’t my first priority however. Having already been over to the nearby Parsonage Retail Park, I needed the loo and was also rather peckish.
You have to walk through the full store to get to the cafe – I think the idea is that people will stop there to take a break from their retail therapy rather than make a beeline for it – but you don’t have to be shopping there to visit the place.
There were hardly any seats left in the cafe(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Thankfully there is a toilet, although I’m not quite sure just one unisex one and another disabled one is quite enough for the number of customers the cafe alone will attract.
Judging by the lack of free tables, I wasn’t sure whether to queue for food or not, but after spending 20 minutes waiting in line, one had become free by the time I’d ordered and sat down.
Looking at the prices and it’s easy to see why Home Bargains’ cafes are so popular. The only other one in Greater Manchester is at Breightmet, Bolton, with another just over the border at Warrington’s Junction 9 Retail Park.
There are few places you can visit these days where a sausage roll costs 50p and a small pot of tea a quid. My own lunch – a cheese and ham toastie, with a large cappuccino and a slice of cherry and almond cake – came to little more than a fiver.
My first bargain of the day and one of many. After grabbing a trolley from outside I then weaved my way around the place picking up all sorts of things I needed – like dishwasher tablets and shower gel – along with some I didn’t need but couldn’t help myself, like a pack of four donuts for just £1.09 and a giant caterpillar dog toy priced £4.99.
A toastie, a large cappuccino and a piece of cake came to £5.33(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
You could actually sense the excitement in the air among shoppers. I was stopped twice in my tracks during my trip – once by a woman declaring next time she’ll get a trolley, because she was ‘worn out’ carrying her basket around; the next on my way out by a cheery fellow asking me how the place compares the Home Bargains down the road, in Leigh town centre.
In truth this one’s worlds apart. And the scale of the place along with the number of product lines, puts the other previous store to shame too. The one over at Parsonage Retail Park closed ahead of the new opening so that site is now vacant.
The Hinch Farm range(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Having so much room in this new one means there is more space for the ranges that often get snapped up after going viral on social media, like the new Mrs Hinch ranges and the popular Alice in Wonderland themed products.
There’s fresh food available, with a fruit and veg section, and there’s a chilled and frozen section, as well as bakery products like those donuts that jumped into my trolley. And the outdoor garden centre is an extra bonus, with a wide range of plants, pots, fencing, soil and more.
It’s got its own garden centre(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
“You don’t expect it to sell as many things as it does” said the woman who wished she’d got a trolley, “you don’t have to go anywhere else; they’ve got everything here.”
As I left the place with just minutes left of my maximum two-hour stay, I couldn’t help but agree. When word gets out across Wigan and Leigh, I don’t think those queues will be shrinking anytime soon.
Comments are closed.