 Just one of the shops available here 
A Retail Park Fit For A Princess!
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Recommendation added: 18/01/2007 10:58
By: dewberry (YSUK rating +783)dewberry has been thanked 21 times for this contribution
"A small shopping area which I'm lucky enough to live near is the Princess Alice Retail Park in New Oscott, Sutton Coldfield. It's not one of your massive retail parks, just a couple of rows of decent sized shops with good parking facilities. The reason I like it is because the shops available here are those you'd normally find in Town centres, and this saves me a bus ride into Birmingham or Sutton Coldfield City Centre.
So, if you decide to visit the Princess Alice Retail Park what can you expect to find? There's a good selection, although not as wide ranging as a standard High Street, of good quality shops which were purpose built meaning they're easily accessible to visitors with mobility problems and families with pushchairs. More about that later.
The first shop I tend to drift towards while shopping here is a massive branch of Au Naturale. I adore this shop, simply adore it. Here you can buy soft furnishings, nick nacks, ornaments, dried flower arrangements… well, put it like this; whenever I'm looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary I'll head over to Au Naturale and I've never yet come away empty handed. Everything is very competitively priced and surprisingly much cheaper that our next local branch of the same store; for example yesterday I bought a large Buddah ornament which was marked up at £12 but reduced to just £4 when I got to the till, and I bought my mum a set of Parisian style café paintings for Christmas which cost £15 although in another branch of Au Naturale I'd seen the same set selling for over forty quid! There are definitely some bargains to be had, although you'll need to set aside some time to go through all the shelves as the layout is slightly mixed up! Definitely look out for their range of African design ornaments which are amazingly pretty and authentic looking while retaining a very reasonable price tag.
My next favourite has got to be the large branch of Boots. This is a light and airy store which stocks everything you could possibly need; everything is neatly laid out and easy to locate during your shopping trip. They stock a fantastic selection of baby clothes as well as having a perfume counter, make-up display counter and pharmacy. Everything is priced accordingly to other branches in the area and the shop has such a large floor area that you will be able to literally see every section of the store from the doorway! The 'reduced' shelves towards the back right hand corner of the shop are my favourite area of this branch of Boots as here you can buy big named stock for a fraction of the original cost, my most recent bargain being some Charles Worthington shampoo (rrp. £4.99) which cost me only 99p a bottle – needless to say I stocked up!
The Marks & Spencer Simply Food store is fantastic. The only reason I visit any branch of M&S is for their fabulous food hall, and this store sells (as the name suggests) nothing but food. Well, when I say nothing but food I mean this M&S sells nothing but food *related* items. It's all wonderful quality with prices on a par to other M&S stores I've visited; the store is simple to navigate and well laid out so that shoppers can easily work their way around to the section they're particularly interested in. As well as their wonderful food, here you can also purchase anything you might need to prepare and cook it – reasonably priced pans, cooking utensils and even small microwaves are available as well as some excellent quality wines and champagnes.
Pets at Home is another nice shop in the Retail Park. Selling anything you could possibly need for your pet and at much more reasonable prices than I'd have imagined before my first visit to the shop. When I bought my puppy back in May 2006 I went into Pets at Home and spent around £80 which covered everything we'd need for the first month or so; this included a bed, toys, food and worming tablets which I think was excellent value when compared to our local non-chain pet shop. They also stock fish tanks and aquatic items, cat stuff and a range for pet birds and 'small' pets such as rabbits and hamsters. In fact, I'll be willing to bet that practically anything you want for your pet can be purchased here as the stock range is enormous. The store is brilliantly laid out with specific sections for you to visit depending on what type of animal you're buying for. Staff in Pets at Home are amazingly knowledgeable and have a genuine passion for animals meaning they'll never try and fob you off with an inferior item, be prepared for lots of questions about your pet as they're simply trying to pair you with the correct purchase.
Currys is another store in the Park where I spend a bit of time mooching each time I visit. This is typical of any other Currys shop with the emphasis being placed on TV's and 'white goods' for the home. The staff in this particular branch are brilliant, quite young in age but are competent in their recommendations and are happy to spend upwards of an hour going through the different products with you. The selection of TV's is superb and range from standard portables right up to 50” LCD screens and Hi-Def plasmas, prices are pretty good and they generally have slightly cheaper prices than our next most convenient branch – you can also talk them into a free delivery if your purchase costs more than a couple of hundred quid. The lay out of this store is great; all items are grouped together and then there's a small section of the store which is dedicated to a mix of smaller items such as digital radios, hair straighteners, kettles etc.
There's a huge branch of First Choice Holiday Supermarket in the far corner of the Park, which has some truly fantastic prices on last minute get-aways. I booked last years trip to New York here and was pleasantly surprised at both the bargain price and the helpfulness of the guy who arranged my holiday – it seemed that nothing was too much trouble and I left armed with (what seemed like) a thousand New York brochures so I could plan my short break at home.
So, that's the Princess Alice Retail Park. As you can see it's not a huge great place, but what shops *are* there are without a doubt absolutely brilliant. There's also a large Multiyork store, which I've never been into, which specialises in interior design – a wee bit out of my price range although I've heard the quality and availability of the furniture is second to none. A decent sized Pizza Hut is available on the outskirts of the Retail Park so you can fill your face at the lunchtime buffet after shopping until you drop!
Parking is excellent within the Park and won't cost you a penny. There are plenty of disabled and mother-and-child parking spaces which are conveniently located right in front of the various shops, and also extra parking is sometimes made available at the back of the Park on particularly busy days. Disabled access is on a whole brilliant, all stores have wide entrances and plenty of room between shelving so even those large motorised mobility scooters can access the shops. Wheelchairs, prams and pushchairs are easily manoeuvred around and should you get into any difficulty I'm certain that staff in the different shops would help you out.
The only thing I think the Princess Alice Retail Park is lacking is a café as Pizza Hut is the only place to get any refreshments; a place where you can pick up a hot drink and sandwich would be welcomed, although there is a branch of Subway and also a Tesco café within a short walking distance from the shops. All in all though I think this shopping area is fantastic and I visit once or twice every week, the location makes it easily accessible from North Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield and the range of shops makes it easily the best shopping area this side of the City Centre in my opinion.
The Retail Park is easy to find, located just behind New Oscotts main Tesco store. Simply get yourself onto the main Chester Road (which connects Castle Vale and a range of other locations) and follow this long road until you reach the Beggars Bush pub. Carry straight on at the traffic lights outside the pub for a couple of hundred yards and then turn right onto Princess Alice Drive which is easily visible opposite a large BP garage. If you're visiting by bus the obvious choice is the 107 which will drop you directly outside and can be caught in Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham City Centre. A Ring-and-Ride service also operates which will bring you to the Park, details of this service can be obtained by ringing 0121 333 3107.
Useful numbers and opening times for stores within the Park:
Au Naturale – 0121 355 6819 (9am – 6pm)
Boots – 0121 354 4852 (9am – 7pm)
M&S Simply Food – 0121 355 4311 (8.30am – erratic closing times)
Pets At Home – 0121 355 8464 (9am – 8pm)
Currys – 0870 6097221 (9am – 8pm)
First Choice Holiday Supermarket – 0870 2423792 (9am – 8pm)
Multiyork – 0121 321 2518 (9.30am – 5.30pm)
Pizza Hut – 0121 354 7725 (11am – 10pm)"
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