Save wasting your time and jump on a bus to London! (Shopping Areas in Oxford)

Member Name: kirlykird

Product:	Shopping Areas in Oxford
Date:	09/01/09 (322 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: local

Disadvantages: not much choice

I have lived in Oxford now for two and a half years. I love Oxford and I love Oxfordshire but the shopping is a bit of a dissapointment.
Around Oxford we have:
Oxford City centre
Botley road retail park
Cowley centre
Cowley retail park

In Oxford city, we have a decent selection of shops and most of the main brands, however, the down side is that they are mostly on a small scale and not decently sized shops as you would expect to find in a UK city.
There are a number of individual shops or boutiques if you head away from Cornmarket street although these can be either difficult to find or quite over priced.
My personal favourite part of Oxford city for shopping by far is the covered market. this is not your typical bargain finding market but (excuse the pun) an upmarket indoor area with mini style shops full of posh flower shops, small boutiques and retailers but is famous for its fresh fruit and veg stalls, abundance of choice for high quality butchers, a very good fishmongers and a county famous cake shop where you can watch cakes being made and iced through the browsing windows.
*Oxford City shopping summary*
Do not be surprised if you travel to visit Oxford for a shopping trip and you head home dissapointed. Oxford is a wonderful city to visit for its beauty, history and culture not for haut couture shopping.
Myself and my husband have had many discussions on why Oxford have never strived to improve their shopping scene and we conclude that maybe it is just too close to ondon to compete with the big shopping culture. After all, we can catch a bus to MArble Arch every 10 mins and for decent shopping, that is what we tend to do!

*Botley road retail park*

The biggest retail park around Oxford is how I would describe this area. There is nothing here that excites me in general. PC world, an average size currys, Maplin (my husbands heaven, my hell), sofa show rooms, Argos, Tous R Us, Wickes, Halfords.
This is the place to come if you need specific things in one area. the basic boring shops in my opinion but at least they are in one area!

*Headington retail park area*

Here we have a rubbish currys & a rubbish Home base.
Nothing more really to be said, average and under stocked!

* Cowley retail park*

This one is in my opinion, the best of a bad bunch. We have a few shops here that can interest me for a while. Here there is sports worls, Next, Boots, M&S simply food, Mothercare & Tesco.


*Cowley shopping area*

This is one of the best shopping areas as far as Oxford is concerned. This is where the cheaper shops are located such as WIlkinsons, Peacocks, Superdrug, CArd factory, Matalan, TK Maxx, brantano, B&Q etc..

If you're on a budget, head here.

*Summary of Oxford shopping*
Oxford shopping is acceptable if you need something specific quickly and from one of the above shops.
My main tip though is if you want a browsing shopping day, get yourself on a bus to Oxford st or on the M40 up to the Bullring in Birmingham.

Sorry Oxford, as much as I love living here, I'm not too keen on our shopping facilities!

Summary: avoid and head somewhere else if a good shopping trip is needed!