My love for Poundland

When I was a young child my mother would take me around this horrid shop in town and along to the markets. Neither the shop nor the markets exist any more, instead car parks and Iceland have taken their place.

The horrid shop was managed by a ghastly and rude man who obviously thought that we were going to steal his precious trashy products. My mother took me as she must have inherited the bargain gene which I also have. She would look for cheap scourers and kitchen goods, biscuits and beans. I would follow behind in the hope that maybe I would get a nice ribbon or sweet.

Now today, that shop and market have morphed into Poundland for me. My secret pleasure. The town I live in is fairly nice with barber jackets and old people riding bikes, it feels very dare I say it, twee, so I was astonished to find Poundland. I have bumped into other parents from school in there and there have been nervous giggles, but who cares…why spend over twice as much if you don’t have to?

Poundland is not full of cheap trash, unlike some pound shops. There are lots of branded goods in there and I remember buying the bow and arrow set as gifts for each of the boys who came to my son’s birthday party last year and they went down a storm…I was especially proud of this purchase, so much better than the party bag contents or books that cost much more and are half the fun.

I must admit that a trip into town isn’t complete without a visit to Poundland. Now what is the store good for? Batteries, standard health and beauty items and branded cleaning products – I love the Finish dishwasher tablets that they sell in boxes of 10 for £1. In Sainsburys, the cheapest deal I could find was 17p a tablet…so I filled my shopping bag and bought £10 worth of tablets from Poundland…a fantastic saving of £7. They are great for uniball type pens in packs of five, Weightwatchers products, bags of sweets and I found some fab nail art products there too.

They also have some great seasonal gear, especially around Halloween – get in there early though.

They have some okay gardening gear, i.e. netting and wind chimes, but I would never buy plants or flowers again from the shop. Even though my fingers aren’t overly green, I have only ever managed to grow one flower from two packs of bulbs and two rose plants.

I also wouldn’t recommend the toys unless you only want them for two to three days.

Even though my plant and toy experience hasn’t been great, I do love Poundland and have many times come out with over £10 worth of products ;-).