Waterstones

On a raining Saturday afternoon I met a friend on Deansgate to do a spot of book shopping and to grab a coffee. By going together we can then get double the amount of books and swap — saving some pennies. Anyway we decided to stop for a coffee on the to floor in the Costa. We bagged a little corner sofa, however, it wasn’t the cleanest up here with sticky tables and crumbs everywhere!
I wasn’t going to be put off and ordered a caramel latte and we shared a piece of carrot cake too. The cake was good — nice amount of icing and the cake itself was moist but didn’t fall apart when using a fork to eat. Coffee was standard I like costa as it isn’t too bitter –all in all it hit the spot!

This was a total flying visit while I was in Manchester but I guess if you’ve been to one Waterstone’s, you’ve been to them all, right?
I’d actually kind of stuffed up — I needed a book, and ordered to collect it at the other Waterstone’s in Manchester city centre, but then went to this one to get it instead. I was peeved though because the book was a fair whack more expensive at this branch which I thought was ridiculous — isn’t that meant to be the joy of shopping at chains?
Anyway, I was able to get in and get out with my purchase in about 3 minutes, staff were friendly and helpful and overall, this looked like a very nice store for a bit of book shopping if you’re in the area.

I love this book store, they really have every book you can think of, They also have a nice coffee shop on the top floor. Perfect for any book fans. They also have celebrity signings and many staff to help out if you can’t find what your looking for.

Calm & Classy
This is clearly a flagship store in the heart of Manchester uniquely different to most of the other Waterstones. The several stories make for a lovely library feel that makes you want to explore its vast tombs of books. The selection is incredibly vast and you’ll often leave wishing you had more money to spend.
The staff are kind and calm as would be expected from people who have such a chilled out job. I also love the recommendations you often see pepper about that can lead to amazing discoveries of books you might not of heard of. You will also find a specialist café atop the shop that is a refreshingly classy addition to an otherwise franchise crazy world. Its very pricey maybe even pretentious but you wont care when your in and enjoying the pleasant atmosphere.
Where I have concern with the place and Waterstones in general is there poor adaption to the digital market and its competitive nature towards Amazon and the like. Theres a very real somber notion that Waterstones and a store as grand as this could very well be gone, especially considering the notable lack of innovation apparent. There store card is garbage and there promotion of digital books and mordern services is severely poor.
Overall this is a lovely book store but for how much longer???

About the only items they do not carry are periodicals. There are several floors of books galore. And it’s spacious with seating areas so that one may browse books or take a good rest. It’s one of the best locations I’ve been to. Their Arndale Centre location is also good but much smaller.

I’ve always been a fan of this Waterstones branch and can easily agree that this one of the best. Not of its three floors of books but more importantly it’s systematic arrangements of books. It is quite and I forgot how proper bookstores felt like after online shopping was introduced.

A good place to chill, rather than goin for coffee at a café, sometimes it is quite nice to pop in to the second floor and read one of their books in their own café! It is quiet and I forgot how proper bookstores felt like after the rise of online shopping.

I think everyone can easily agree that this is one of the best Manchester library: very we’ll located In Deansgate, you’ll not only find a huge variety of Books well indexed: there is a nice notebook and accessories selection. Event if you don’t need a book, take 10 minutes of your time to go through the library and flip through all those colours and words !

If there is paradise on earth, this comes pretty close to being it, unless I win the lottery sometime soon and finally invest in an oak lined personal library of my own stuffed with too much literature to feast upon in one lifetime. There are three enormous floors (In this Waterstones, not in my imaginary library) of books, large enough to make me feel slightly weak kneed and also horrifcally jealous that somebody else is possibly reading more of these books than myself (you insufferable know it all, speed reading freak).

I’ve always loved this branch of waterstones. Not only for it’s few floors of books, but more importantly, it’s systematic arrangement of the genres. No funny corridors. And there are comfortable couches to just take a book and merely… sit. More frequently, I love the café upstairs. Taking a book to read and have a coffee? Or do some work there with the nice bright windows allowing the sun in (if there was sunshine in Manchester that is).

Nothing reminds me of my childhood visits to Manchester more than the delightful Deansgate branch of Waterstones. This branch wees all over the Arndale Centre’s offering.
I love this Waterstones. I love the old building in which it resides, I love the numerous floors, and I love that you can browse the pages of books and not get hassled by staff. I love the niche sections. This branch, appropriately for Manchester’s thriving LGBT community, has a whole aisle dedicated to gay and lesbian fiction for example. There are just oh so many genres you can choose from.
Many noteworthy writers also do book signings in this branch, so keep your eyes peeled. It was because of this Waterstone’s that I met my beloved Bret Easton Ellis. Okay, it’s not an experience I’d like to remember much, I did make a complete stupid fangirl idiot of myself, but still, I got to meet him. This is definitely the place for a good browse, and you can guarantee that one of the first things my father always does upon returning to this country is check into this branch. That proves just how ace it is.

One of my favorite things to do is to browse around a good bookshop. And in this day of constant bookstore closures, I for one am very happy this superstore is still around.
Not only are there three levels of goodness to browse through, they have a terrific (separate) children’s area with a terrific choice of books– much to the delight of my nieces who get things that they can’t (easily) find in the U.S. I also love that there’s a Paper Chase offshoot so you can pick up a great card and wrapping paper without having to go to the larger main store up the street.
I love that the staff is super laid back and doesn’t make you feel like you can’t stay and hang out. I also love that it’s open late so I can hang out there and read or wander around while I wait for my husband after work. I also love their new logo– what can I say? I’m a sucker for typography.
Still more expensive than buying on Amazon, but nothing beats browsing through the aisles of a great bookstore and discovering a literary delight you hadn’t intended to buy.

When I first came to Manchester, this place was amazing. It had every book I needed for my course, you could search on their computers and order other books and the range of titles here is huge. They even gave me ten percent off with my NUS card for my textbooks and signed me up to a loyalty card for free points.
Over several floors, this place is still a great place to buy books if you want them there and then. I mainly use it now to scan books on an iPhone app and order them later online for huge discounts on the full price being charged here.
The discount for students off full priced items I later found out was during freshers week only (and not available at their Trafford Centre store). I stopped buying from here a long time ago unless I actually needed it there and then, instead using it to check out books before I order them online.
The range of books here, in economics and economic history in particular, seems to be far more limited than would be expected. Only one text book was available this year for me to buy in store. the rest I had to order online.
Finding the economics and business section has not been easy either. They began refurbishment I believe last year, and are constantly moving things around. The new Costa coffee is far nicer and the layout seems to be more logical, with local interest and best sellers on the ground floor now. This would be fine, if they updated their signs around the store to say where the books are. Some still directed to the old locations, though on my last visit, they seem to have been blacked out and you now have to guess where they have moved it to, or bother the staff to find out, as they haven’t bothered to put the new location on to some of them.
The books are sometimes in random orders, and seem to rarely be sorted or tidied during the day. I quite often find the book I’m look for in the wrong section. Maybe this was deliberate (Microecomomic book in Business and not Economics?).
Unfortunately, there are no real alternatives to this place in Manchester. Blackwell’s on Oxford road is better for some things, though does not offer the opening times or range on some things that Waterstone’s does. I hope this place finishes it’s upgrade soon and sorts out its signage and sticks to a layout.
+Biggest range in Manchester
+Huge shop and central
+Coffee shop inside
+Helpful and knowledgeable staff
–Currently really annoying and misleading signs
–No student discount (except freshers week or month)
–Pretty much everything is full RRP
–Unsorted shelves at times

I love books! Not in a phsyical sense you understand? (Well maybe a little). And I love Waterstones, especially this branch… I could easily spend days/​weeks or even years in here (maybe i should just get a job there!). I like the place so much that i even find myself perusing books that i have no interest in what-​so-​ever, Teenage Vampire fiction anyone? Thought not :). It is always my first port of call whenever the need for a spree in Mani is required, and when I’ve been everywhere else my last port too.
Waterstones also has a canny knack of getting in some quality imports that I have to buy. I’ve lost count of the ammount of different editions of the work of H. P Lovecraft I have bought there even though I already own all the stories, if Waterstones gets it in in a different format then I have to buy it! Perhaps they just see me coming? :) The only downside for me was when Coffee Republic went belly up ’cause i always enjoyed popping in at about half eight to watch the world go by over a Latte whilst gearing myself up for an attack an the book shelves… stop press I’ve just read that a rich Russian has just bought Waterstones, mess with it and I will hunt you down Tavarishch!!! :)

In an age of digital, everything’s about the internet and the online and the invention of e-​books, it’s great people still cherish the paper and the printed word. It’s great to see Waterstones rising above and thriving. Long live the books.
I like Waterstones on Deansgate for the regular events they hold. You often get evening readings, guest authors coming to write or speak about their works. Workshops for children, the family. It’s just so fitting to to educate in a house full of the educating word.
With a book for everyone, once you enter, be prepared to come out a lot heavier.

This Waterstones becomes every student’s mecca when it comes to figuring out the university lists. It can quite often become daunting, no a nightmare, when the huge list is placed in front of you, and you think you have no hope in hell of getting any of the books in your bag in time and in budget. Well budget, pfft… Long before the days of your final year when you get complacent, the first year when you get that book list it’s super important you get your books nailed. Fond memories of this Waterstones come to mind, me and the mother sent a couple of assistants up the wall, well we didn’t, as that would imply we were being unreasonable harridans, but, doing an English course at uni my ruddy book list went on forever, and after the first route of the shop floor (s), reinforcements were called in who were absolutely lovely.
Staff aside, being in the fantastically large and old building just screams «I should be where the books live» it’s a fabulous place to wander around and peruse your choices for literary indulgences. Don’t get me wrong I love a bargain, and sometimes I am a slave to the cheaper options that Amazon do offer me, but other times, being a literary buff, you can’t beat getting advice on a good book from another literary boffin, and then there’s the beautiful combination of books and coffee, and unlike ordering online, you can actually feel your books in your hand, scan over the first few pages and whet your appetite a little bit.
Regular 3 for 2 offers, fabulous guest authors, coffee, staff who actually know their stuff, great location, fabulous building, it’s a winner.

I think it’s great that in the face of the massive book behemoth that is Amazon, Watersone’s still exists.
People still like to go and browse books, maybe sit down and have a read of a potential purchase. I’m glad that culture still exists, and as long as it does, we’ll all need a Waterstone’s in our lives.
Manchester’s Waterstone’s is great. Peaceful, calm and quiet. Everything a Waterstone’s should be. There’s a good little café in here as well.

As a self-​confessed fiction addict, Waterstones have been feeding my book habit for a long time.
Housed in a magnificent building on Deansgate, this particular store is spread over three floors and has a couple of chairs and comfy leather sofas dotted around to encourage you to browse and buy even more books. The art, photography, travel and cookbook sections are all fantastic and feature a breath-​taking amount of stock but the floor I always head for is the fiction one.
Admittedly, the stock isn’t as jaw-​dropping as it used to be five years ago when they had a different manager, more creative control and a bigger budget. But still, the fact Waterstones is still thriving when so many people buy their books cheap online is credit to them. There’s no longer an American fiction section — god damn! — but there’s still tables of Cult Fiction and New Titles and lots of Recommended Books which always draw me in. They get a bonus star for selling lots of Walter Mosley, Richard Price, Raymond Carver and Jeanette Winterson too.
In short, this bookshop is a place where stories magically unfold…

I love all waterstones because:
a) I can sit there and waste hours in virtual silence in my own world reading geeky books on psychology/​philosophy etc.
everyone around me is sitting there and wasting hours in virtual silence reading geeky (or not so geeky) books.
c) The staff always no in which direction to point me to find my geeky books to read in virtual silence around other like minded individuals.
I believe (and its slightly ironic that I say this I know) that we tend to rely to much on the Internet these days and don’t enjoy sourcing information from book shops and library’s. If you are around visit Waterstones in Deansgate. Kick back and enjoy a break from the white light of your computer screen.

I don’t want to make myself sound like I’ve got problems but Waterstones is a fantastic place to escape your day. The respite from the big bad world offered by three floors of books is really something.
The building itself is light, airy and spacious which has an instantly soothing and uplifting effect each time you enter.
Book filled black shelves split the large rooms into cubby holes and cosy corners helping you to get lost in this magical land of knowledge and celebrity confessions. Leather setees are strewn around the building like bus stops in the countryside and of course there is the obligitory Costa Coffee which appears in all decent Waterstones (but never with a toilet just to make sure you don’t read too much for free).
In the words of the great Simon Cowel– «Lahv, Lahv, Lahv it.».