Spar

Spar is another convenience store in a area that is so jam packed with every type of shopping experience it’s hard to get any reaction to the usefulness of a shop.
Spar creates a clean shopping experience that is a mini supermarket feel with a selection of all the standard produce.
It’s main attraction are the hot food rissoles and the convenience of a standard shopping experience devoid of any human interaction. The food items are not cheap but they are kept low by the ever vigilance of the chains owners.
Spar takes over where others fail and it’s interesting that most people want to shop in a Spar where you don’t interact with the staff than a local shop where you may actually speak to the shop owner.

Of all the supermarket chains in the city, Spar seems to play the role of the Lennie Small in comparison to the other stores; it’s there, happy to help but is also kind of backwards and gets sneered at a lot by people with a large income.
Unfortunately, this sneering can sometimes be deserved; Spar is seen as the low rent little brother to Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury’s, when it’s actually a spruced up Happy Shopper. It’s effectively a branded newsagents, which means whilst people think it should look like a supermarket, they’re often disappointed when they find it has the stock and cleanliness of a corner shop run by a League of Gentlemen character.
But if you ignore this and just take it for what it is, Spar provides a welcome service; a store that has a consistent level of quality (even if it’s not especially high). It’s a place where you know you can go to get what you need, and this one in particular has 24 hour opening times, a café and deli section and fresh produce all at reasonable Spar prices.

There are a huge amount of Spar shops in Cardiff… too many to count in fact! And, whilst I prefer to shop at independent convenience stores wherever possible, it is sometimes easier and cheaper to use Spar. The fresh produce is always in good condition, with a reasonable selection on offer. The fresh meat section is again always well stocked, and they sometimes do great seasoned selection boxes of mixed meats that are great for the BBQ, and really cheap by comparison to buying the same cuts individually. £6.00 will buy you about eight pieces of meat including lamb, pork and chicken.
I really like the takeaway coffee service that Spar offer that works out a lot cheaper than going to a café. I paid £2.50 for a dreadful takeaway latte recently on City Road, and would have saved myself a quid if I’d made the effort to walk another two minutes up the road to Spar, where the standards are consistently maintained.
One of the best things about this branch is that its open twenty four seven. There’s something really decadent about buying all of your ingredients for Sunday lunch after a night out on the town… I derive some kind of perverse pleasure out of doing it.
This branch also has an ATM.