Valu

First impression I had was that its a nifty shop, well organised. You are greeted with soda cans and quick meals near the entrance which is convenient if you just want to pop in for some quick cheap foods. There’s a place at the corner where they stick the Manager’s Special on it where you have discounted items which goes for £1 (most of them).
Grocery shopping isn’t really ideal here so its best to head down to Lidl, Tesco or Sainsbury. Snackwise they do have some offers on their chocolates but most of them are slightly higher priced than their counterparts.
Its conveniently located near Oxford Road and it is near the University so I’ll expect plenty of students to drop by on their way back home.

The credit crunch hit hard, right? Well indeedy, so much so that BBC Breakfast did specials on business-​type folk who own A-​Class Mercs or whatever the devil these poshos are driving nowadays shopping in pound shops. Suddenly Home Bargain’s aisles were getting narrower with crowd. Poundstretcher was being stretched to its very limits. And now we have more and more value shops spawning, including the aptly-​named… Valu.
Look, it’s scrimping so much it’s decided not to include the ‘e’ on its sign. How thrifty! Anyways, Valu can’t quite decide what it wants to be. If it’s a discount store, a la Home Bargain, don’t have your Special K clusters on sale for £3. We all know discount cereal is no more than £2, that’s a given. If you’re a city centre mini supermarket, a la Nisa, sure we can cope with the prices, but don’t have those unsettling bargain bins full of granular Bovril drink for 99p. Maybe it just wants the best of both worlds… who are we to deny it?
It’s bound to become a favourite amongst students due to its off-​Oxford Road location, and it does indeed have everything one might need. The prices are erratic, sure, but the service is friendly and despite a few tatty edges the place is generally spic and span. Just don’t ever drink Schweppes soda water as a cheap replacement for your usual 500ml bottle of San Pellegrino. Seriously. I made that mistake, and I was not a happy bunny.