Shop 'til you drop! (Meadowhall)

Member Name: lora44

Product:	Meadowhall
Date:	25/06/05 (4603 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything under one roof

Disadvantages: Busy

Aaah the shopping centre - for some, heaven on earth. For others, HELL on earth - the stuff of their worst nightmares. Well everyone pinch yourself because this is very real - Meadowhall centre - and I think that even those with a complete aversion to shopping might wanna pay attention.

I'm a huge fan of the shopping centres - everything you want under one roof, no need to worry about the weather or having to trek from one side of a town to the other (though some of these places are the size of a small town, granted) everything is convenient and practical. That's the theory. In practice, some of these places are dismal - they don't have all the shops you want and you'd just much rather be out in the fresh air.

Personally, I really have to be in the mood to go shopping - if I'm not, Meadowhall is the stuff of my worst nightmares. Otherwise, it's probably my favourite place to go shopping.

-- First things first, where is Meadowhall? --
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Meadowhall is located to the north of Sheffield, a little way out from the city centre. It's located on some old steelworks site, surrounded by quite a lot of tired looking industrial type buildings, including a couple of cooling towers. The shopping centre itself stands out as a much more modern looking building amongst these, with its infamous glass dome.

CAR
It's been said that it's one of the easiest shopping centres to get to, no matter what your mode of transport. Meadowhall lies just off the M1, off junction 34, making it easily accessible by car. There are over 12000 parking spaces, so plenty of room for everybody, including plenty of disabled parking and parent and baby parking. The parking is colour and number coded which makes it easier to find your car - don't forget to make a note of where your car is otherwise you could be looking for a long while. There is upper level and lower level parking - the upper level seems to fill up quickly, not sure why but it does. At busier times, Christmas in particular they'll have people out 'directing' you to free parking spaces - I say 'directing' but they're pretty useless. We've always found that, even at Christmas, the far end of the lower level red car park often have a lot of free spaces.

COACH
Getting to Meadowhall by coach couldn't be easier according the informaton on its website - the National Express offer many coach trips from all over the country and there are 300 free coach parking spaces. I've been to Meadowhall on a coach before, it was part of an organised trip as part of an exchange.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Again, very easy to reach Meadowhall by using public transport - the Passenger Transport Interchange (PTI) makes this a very simple way of getting to the shopping centre. There's a glass fly-over corridor type thing which takes you to Meadowhall from the bus, rail and supertram facilities. With over 120 buses an hour, around 400 trains a day and supertrams to take you to the city centre or to some other suburbs, it really couldn't be easier to get here using public transport. Personally, on the one occasion I came here by public transport I got a train from Burton to Sheffield and then a train from Sheffield to Meadowhall. The ticket for the interchange was reasonably priced (though I dont' remember an exact price) but we had to be pretty quick to go and get it after getting off our first train.

CYCLE
Well...apparently Meadowhall caters for those of you wanting to cycle there...there are cycle stands located in the shopping centre, with a £1 refundable deposit and customer lockers for you to keep your helmet or other belongings, also witha £1 refundable deposit.


Sooo....let's get down to business. Shopping. Meadowhall houses over 270 shops..and no I didn't count. There are 6 'new units' where presumably new shops willopen soon. The centre is divided into two levels (Upper - UL and Lower - LL) 6 main shopping sections:
- Market Street (L)
- High Street (U + LL)
- The Arcade (U + LL)
- Park Lane (U + LL)
- The Lanes (LL)
- The Oasis (U + LL)

A lot of major stores can be found here and these form many of the entrances/exits to the centre. So, depending on where you park, you might find yourself getting in through Boots, Debenhams or House of Fraser. If you've come by coach you'll probably enter via Next, and coming through the PTI you'll find yourself outside Marks & Spencer. Again, perhaps a good idea to remember where you came in if you're new to the place, to make it easier to find your way out again.

I won't list the shops, instead direct you to the Meadowhall website and urge you to pick up a map when you arrive at the shopping centre. These can be found at various places throughout the centre, you'll see large maps and by these you can pick up a leaflet.

Market Street
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Covering part of just the lower level, you'll find shops such as Boots, H&M, BHS and Sainsburys. Market Street is actually in two sections which tail off from an open circular-shaped space with an escalator taking you to the upper level. Importantly, here is the 'Teeming Statue', marked on the map with an M in a red circle - this is the perfect meeting place if you split up or a member of your group gets lost. You'll find several speciality karts and kiosks dotted around the centre, many of these can be found in Market Street. There's also a Starbucks in Market Street, outside H&M, and you'll find two more dotted around too (one outside Marks and Spencers, lower level and one in the Oasis).

High Street
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This consitutes the largest part of the shopping centre, making up most of the width of the centre, and leading up to The Oasis. You'll find the odd kiosk and speciality stall, including a Millie's Cookies (there are a few of these dotted around, and a Millie's Cookie's shop mmmm) in the High Street.

The Arcade
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This is right in the centre of the shopping centre, where the huge glass dome is, here you'll find, on the lower level The Bear Factory. This is sooooo worth a mention - you can make your own bear! So cute. If that doesn't take your fancy, there's a hat and handbag kiosk located on the lower level here. On the upper level, there are four Go Shop Kiosks. More on these later...

Park Lane
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Especially the upper level of Park Lane feels very posh to me, but that probably says more about me than anything else. There are shops like Jaeger, Karen Miller, Jacques Vert, Coast and Jane Shilton as well as Crabtree & Evelyn. And it's at this end that you'll find Next and Debenhams, spanning both upper and lower levels. The lowel level is the end you don't wanna be taking the kids! Toy shops galore, and where you'll find the grotto at Christmas. I mentioned The Bear Factory earlier, you'll find Build-a-Bear Workshop down here in Park Lane lower level, which is pretty much the same concept.

The Lanes
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This is the section where you'll find a lot of specialist shops, selling goth style clothes and others, bags, make-up and beauty essentials at reasonable prices. There's lots of treasures to be found in the Lanes, including the Formula 1 Shop and the Watch Hospital, the Tool Shed and many others. Definitely worth a visit, even if it's just the once. The Lanes is located just off High Street, just before you enter The Oasis

The Oasis
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Well with all that exercise your (or his) credit card is going to be taking, you need to stop and refuel, and the place to head is the Oasis. This is a fairly large food court, with food to pretty much satisfy anyone, obviously there's a McDonalds (what place is without one these days) but you'll also find Potato Bakehouse, Harry Ramsden's, Pasty King and others, there are some nice cafés - all of this is on the lower level, with a huge seating area in the middle and a telewall for you to watch music videos, film previews and a reporter-type woman who goes round to the different shops in the centre letting you know of the bargains to be found. There used to be a fountain in the centre of this eating area, which was replaced with a huge Christmas tree at Christmas, but this has gone now and the whole seating area looks much more modern than the previous area, which was quite frankly slightly more grubby looking and a bit canteen-esque.
You can guarantee that when your stomach starts to rumble and you make your way here, the world and his wife will already be sitting down to eat, persevere though, and be a little ruthless (though I don't condone or encourage scrapping) and you will find a table eventually.

On the upper level you'll find sit down restaurants, some of which are licenced, as well Vue Cinemas, Le Grand Casino and Wonderpark.
The cinema was previously a Warner Village cinema with 11 screens but clicking on the Warner Village link takes you straight to the Vue cinema website. Though I've never been in, it does look quite nice - it can get quite busy, but you won't be queueing for hours. Much all the latest releases can be seen here, for rather reasonable prices.
Adults: No more than £5 (adult prices vary according to day and to time of day)
Children: £4
Students : £4
Senior Citizens: £4
Family ticked (2 adults, 2 children): £16

For further information try www.myvue.com and select the Sheffield cinema.

Le Grand Casino is probably self explanatory - although I have been to Meadowhall since turning 18 I can't say I've ever been tempted to go to the casino. There isn't much information on this, or Wonderpark on the website, and I'm quite intrigued to know what the Wonderpark is.

In terms of entertainment, events such as tea dances and fashion shows (such as the Dove Silk Fashion Show, showing costum-made designs by couture designer Gharani Strok, held from the 1st-6th June) are often put on in Meadowhall and the best place to look for information is the website. There are also promotions and you can pick up lots of freebies - again the website if your best source of information, though you'll find news of what's on for the the month when you pick up a map. When I went, on the 19th June, they had the Dove Hair History Experience outside House of Fraser. I got given a free sample and there was the opportunity to enter a competition. You'll find a lot of these promotions don't overlap, so you won't be being bothered by people all the time. They also have things like NHS Heart Week, which was on the 4th June, where you could learn more about how to keep your heart healthy.

Atmosphere
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Meadowhall is meant to have a very palatial feel to it, and I can kind of see this - my favourite has to be at Christmas time though, the glass dome especially looks stunning with all the lights.

The main thing that lets Meadowhall down is the crowds, though I guess that the boss people wouldnt' see it that way! Maybe it's just me, but sometimes I can get very frustrated walking behind slow people, especially when everyone but me seems to be able to dart their way through the crowds. I've been to the centre once or twice during the week early on in summer when I'm guessing school hadn't quite broken up for the holidays and it was very quiet, which was nice. Sundays are getting busier and busier but still you'll find yourself with a bit of elbow room. The worst has to be Christmas, as you'd expect. Especially Park Lane, where the Christmas Grotto is situated, a lot of the walking area is taken up by this and it can be a nightmare, if you end up on one side of the grotto you have to walk all the way round it to get to the shops you want to go to on the other side, and this is an area where you'll evitably find lots of parents with pushchairs, taking their children to the grotto.

Another downside is it can get very hot, especially in summer though I did faint once sort of February time (it was my own fault I was wearing a jumper) - VERY embarrassing. There's a bit of a tropical feel, especially in the Oasis. The crowds don't help the almost greenhouse feel that there is in the centre, but thankfully a lot (though not all) the shops are air conditioned and there are plenty of benches for you to stop and have a rest.

The shops are all fairly large, even Claire's Accessories has room to breathe (I haven't been in one of these shops for years, but a trademark to virtually every store is that they're notoriously cramped, you always find yourself in someone's way, knocking a load of earrings off the rack, or trying to get out when soemone is blocking your way!

Customer Services
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Throughout the centre, there are three customer services desks, all located on the lower level. Each desk deals with different things, this is clearly marked on the map though.

- All desks have first aid facilities.
- Pushchair hire is available at the customer service desk located in The Atrium, this is the area near where you'll come in from the PTI if you've come on public transport.
- Lost Property is dealt with at the desk located in the Lower Arcade
- Shopmobility is dealt with in the Atrium, at the same place as pushchair hire, or in Market Street.
- Gift cheques can be bought from the desk in the Lower Arcade, or at the Gift Wrap Desk (more on this later)
- An interpreter service is available from the desk at the Lower Arcade

Disabled visitors to the centre should not experience any problem - all toilets have disabled facilities, with toilets on upper and lower levels. The website claims that there are 30 lifts and esclators so getting around isn't a problem.
Hiring an electric scooter or wheelchair is free when you visit the centre and you can prebook by calling 0845 600 6800 - this is advised for electric scooters due to high demand but you can call in at the Shopmobility desks I already mentioned and check availability. At these desks there is also the opportunity to become a member of the Shopmobility scheme, though what this entails and what the benefits are, I don't know. Wheelchairs do not have to be prebooked as they are freely available.
**IMPORTANT** If you are intending on borrowing a wheelchair or an electric scooter, you must take two pieces of identification with you, at least one of these must contain details of your current home address.

Only assistance dogs are permitted in the centre.

There are also facilities for parents visiting the centre with their children - as I mentiond there is a pushchair hire desk, all toilets have baby changing facilities, and there is a play area and a creche. The creche is located at the back of the Lanes, in the Oasis. It caters for children between the ages of 2 and 7, though children under 3 can only stay a maximum of 2 hours. It also fully caters for children with special needs, but you need to ring up and pre-book, 2 year olds also have to be prebooked. The direct number is (0114) 256 9313. Check on the Meadowhall website, under the Customer Services section for opening hours. Several shops contain parent and baby rooms and bottle warming facilities, these are marked on the shop directory, found in the map leaflet.

There is a strict no-smoking policy throughout the centre now, but under the shop directory you'll find that Smoking Areas are shown. I've counted 10 restaurants with smoking areas.

Also, next to every place on the director you'll find either a blue • or a blue X. Places marked with a • are places that will accept gift cheques, those with an X do not. You'll find that there are considerably more • markings than there are X, so gift cheques make a very nice present for any shop-a-holic.

Services such as a post box, photocoyping facilities, shoe repair, key cutting, passport photographs, opticians, hairdressers and more can also be found in the centre. I've already mentioned that customer lockers are available for a £1 returnable deposit.

I notice the map states that there are 5 ATMs located throughout the centre - four in the Lower Atrium (one NatWest, one Barclays, one Lloyds TSB and one Alliance & Leicester), there is also one NatWest located in the Upper Level of Boots. However, I have seen an ATM in Debenhams before, in fact I have used it myself. I was not charged for the pleasure, though this may have changed.

There's also Sainsburys petrol station, which might prove useful if you had a long drive home after your long and hard day of retail therapy.

Go Shop™
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I won't mention too much about this, mainly because I don't know that much about it. I think it's a reward scheme. You need to register to receive a card, I know this is a quick and simple process because a friend at school did it in her free period at school. I believe registering online is the quickest and easiest way. Then you receive discounts and you can print off coupons to use in selected stores. There's a wide range of shops available, so everyone is bound to make some kind of saving.

I've just clicked, out of the shops with coupons available, on Dorothy Perkins and for Go Shop members, a 10% discount is available when you spend £30 or more.
In GAME, 10% off any full-price piece of Software is available.

You can print the coupons off from the website, or at the Go Shop kiosks located round the centre. I think (though I'm not sure) you can then also use your card to gain further discounts. That's something worth looking into.

The website also gives you the facility to shop online, but where's the fun in that? I guess if you saw something but for whatever reason didn't buy it there and then you could buy it online when you got home. Or, alternatively you could look online before you go, and keep an eye out for anything that you spotted on the website (useful if you want to try it on).

Conclusion
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Well, what can I say? A shopper's paradise. According to one website's reviews (www.chavtown.co.uk) it's also a chav's paradise, but don't let this put you off. I didn't notice an overwhelming number of chavs. I think the layout isn't that great for if you're wanting to find your way logically round all of the centre, but the more times you go, you'll figure out where everything is and just go to the shops that you want to, maybe getting lured into a couple of extra ones along the way...

It is a pleasant day out if it's not too busy and not too hot, but knowing the right time to go and beating the crowds is mangeable for most people (obviously for those with children going during the holidays or at weekends it is a little busier) For this reason I'd recommend going on the website, looking at the shop directory, and the map which is available online, and perhaps having a rough idea of where you want to go.

The website is www.meadowhall.co.uk - definitely worth a look before you - you'll find information on things like children's birthday parties, and more up-to-date information on up-coming events and discounts for you Go Shop card.

Happy Shopping!!

lora44

Summary: Great place to shop, providing you're willing to brave the crowds!