Marathon spending opportunities (Meadowhall)

Member Name: Happyjaw

Product:	Meadowhall
Date:	09/09/08 (187 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's easy to find most things you are likely to want

Disadvantages: You feet hurt, the toilets stink the parking can be poor, your bank account might not cope

Though somewhat soon after Mythdata wrote her excellent review I felt I wanted to add my own thoughts.

I won't patronise by reiterating all the information, Mythdata clearly did her research. Though Meadowhall was once marketed as the largest shopping centre in Europe. I'm not certain it still holds that title but it gives you an impression of just how big it is.

I will mention my favourite stores:
Boots, the biggest Boots in Sheffield. Great stuff.
The Disney Store, supercute and great for gifts.
The Nut Bar, some curt staff but some great healthy snacks.
Holland & Barratt, chocolate covered cherries all dressed up as healthy, wins my vote.
Whittards, free drinks samples and the best teas, coffees and all other related accoutrements I've ever found.
The Fairy Store, all Fairy related items for my little fairies.
Waterstones, carpeted book bliss.
Cleopatras, a great range of clothing out of the ordinary.
Ortak, the most beautiful jewellery anywhere and the most amazing sales.
Monsoon, adult and children, the most gorgeous clothing available on the high street.

I like Meadowhall, I spent a lot of time there after my twins were born, just being out, having a suitable meeting place, buying all the things we needed and very gently exercising after a c-section.
As a result I know more about the place than I ever needed to. I also used to work there a number of years ago.

The baby changing rooms were a major priority for me so I found my favourites and stuck with them.
The ones provided by Meadowhall are a tight squeeze in most cases, either by the door or in terms of trying to pass someone else inside. 2 pushchairs and 3 adults with corresponding kids means no one can move, it's also a shuffle to get anyone inside the one and only cubicle toilet. A double pushchair doesn't fit so us twin mums have to wee with the door open and hope no one comes in, that can mean a substantial delay to find a time with no one else in.
Worst of all, they stink. They really stink to high heaven. Although the cleaning staff do go in and on what appears to be a strict rota, they cannot keep up and more than one has admitted they cannot get rid of the smell. Revolting.
So, I prefer the facilities provided by Mothercare upstairs, there's a baby change/feeding room which is still not ideal but far superior, cleaner and sweeter smelling than Meadowhall's own. They also have bottle warming, a large and spacious loo with a potty too and facilities for disabled parents. The breast feeding room is lovely and comfortable, if no one is about so you aren't discomfiting a breast feeding parent, I'd recommend taking a bottle fed baby in there and enjoying it.

The lifts to the two seperete levels are rather more infrequent than I'd like. There's one at the end of each 'arm' of the mall and another in the Oasis ( a food and entertainment area) and one more right in the centre.
They fit around 4 pushchairs in, or 4 wheelchairs or a combination, but only when the lazy teens and kids aren't having pointless rides up and down and filling the lift unnecessarily extending parent and disability waiting times. I usually give them the sharp side of my tongue, there are plenty of escalators in close proximity.
The lifts break down with irritating frequency and it seems to take them eons to fix. It's worth knowing that Marks & Spencer have their own internal lift as do Debenhams.

The parking spaces would be fantastic except they are ill thought out. The recent revamp means each type of space now has a colour code, the normal spaces are normal black tarmac, disability spaces have blue surface paint and parent and child spaces have pink surface paint.
Now Meadowhall claim to have thoroughly thought through the space allocation but I sincerely doubt that. Anyone with half a brain could calculate the amount of parents with small children in pushchairs far exceeds the allocated spaces. Even taking public transport into account. Worse still, there are far more utterly ignorant and arrogant people who will cheerfully use a P&C space because they can, there is no law governing it. Those who have pricey cars they want to protect from potential scrapes, those with hyped up heaps of junk they imagine are great and don't want scraping. And those who are ignorant for no reason.
It drives me crazy. I'll see at least 4 people per trip on average who return to their cars, or depart, with no children, no car seats and no consideration for people like me with small people pouring out of all doors.
Meadowhall don't care. I've been in touch and they have no plans to do anything about it.
It is colossally difficult to park around Christmas time and overflow car parks are used, which can be dreadful in the bad weather and are far less secure.

McDonalds in the Oasis was flooded along with all the other stores in there, undoubtedly refitted to an exacting standard and yet still has a stink which lingers around it and has done ever since the flood in 2007 which brought up the contents of all drains and sewers as well as flooding the River Don which runs parallel to Meadowhall. The stink puts me right off.

There's a cinema, which is really handy. I really like to go and eat in a nice (clean) restaurant then go to the cinema. The tapas bar is great just pre cinema but there are a huge range of choices, Italian, English, Chinese, Indian and so much more, from serious sit down meals to takeaway casual food.

Also in The Oasis is The Lanes, the unsung hero of shopping. A hoad of tiny little shops with some really interesting and unusual items in stock, not all are like that but some are fabulous, like The Fairy Shop which only sells items relating to fairies. Lovely! You can also find bags, diecast vehicles and 'boys toys', media related merchandise, tools, alternative clothing, specialist clothing and cultural art.

Those are the major points in my opinion. It's worth looking at a map or picking one up from the helpdesk.
You might like to know for example:
There is Superdrug and Boots so you are not limited to one or the other.
The Disney store currently has a temporary store whilst the usual one is fully refitted.
There's a huge new area of Meadowhall, a whole new arm with a selection of more specialist stores like Rieker and Tamaris side by side.
There are two Body Shops, for reasons unknown.

There are few things you cannot do, there are banks, hairdressers, jewellers, the cinema, beauty salons, book shops, no end of clothing stores, make up, furnishings, shoes, chocolates electricals, food, groceries, media, gifts, homewares, toys and so much more.

Meadowhall overall can be summed up in one experience I had. I won a sum of money on a local radio station and had to spend it in Meadowhall in one day with the amount of hours limited to the thousands I won. So, at an spending rate of £1,000 per hour I planned carefully and I had spent £4,800 in 58 minutes. It really isn't hard to do either.

I could easily do that once a month!

Summary: It's so big you can get lost, pick up a map on the way in to keep it stress free.