I have never been a very loyal shopper, or a very happy one come to think of it, flicking awkwardly between the main five Supermarkets to buy my Groceries, depending on which one has annoyed me the least over the previous few weeks. There are however a few Shops that I do visit fairly regularly and one of these is Wilkinsons.

With over 250 different Stores scattered throughout the UK there is a pretty good chance that there is a Wilkinsons Store somewhere near you. In Sheffield, where I live there are four different Stores. The largest of these is located in the City Centre, as you might expect with the three other Stores taking up positions in large suburban, out of town Shopping Centres.

The main distribution centre for Wilkinsons is only a few miles from where I live and for many years I mistakenly thought that the Company had its origins in this part of Northern England. In fact the first Wilkinson's Store opened in Leicester some seventy miles to the South.

Wilkinson's very first Store opened in Leicester in 1930. This was a very small community Shop that was run by its founder J K Wilkinson and other members of his Family. Today things may seem to be a far cry from these early days but on a closer inspection of these Stores there are still many similarities with today's modern Stores to those that existed over seven decades ago.

To begin with Wilkinson's are still a Family run business. More importantly however they still play a very active roll within the local Communities where they are based, supporting local Schools and Charities in over 200 different Towns and Cities in England and Wales. The Philosophy of the Company has never changed, which is basically to provide the best range of good quality products at the lowest possible price.

All of the Wilkinson Stores that I am familiar with are set out fairly similarly. They are large and spacious and the larger Stores like the one in my City Centre are on two different floors.

The range of Goods that they sell could be grouped loosely into a single group called Household Goods. However on closer inspection the range of Goods that they sell would probably be sub-divided as: DIY, Decorating, Toiletries, Cleaning Products, Kitchenware, Garden, Home Living, Pet Products, Stationary, Confectionary and Seasonal Goods.

The range of Goods does vary slightly from Store to Store but generally the range of DIY Goods sold are limited in the smaller Stores. My City Centre Store does sell a small range of Power Tools including Drills, Electric Screwdrivers, Grinders etc plus hand held equipment like Saws and Planers, but these are not available in the smaller outlets. These Goods are branded including well known names like Bosch and Black & Decker but the best value products are the ones that are Wilkinson's own brand name, called Wilko.

The Decorating section is usually quite an extensive one. These include Wallpaper, Paint, plus all their related items like Paint Brushers and Rollers. I have found that these Goods always represent excellent value for money although I am not too keen on the Wilko range of Paints as these have a very strong smell that catches the back of the throat.

Toiletries and Cleaning Products are another couple of large sections and these are the areas that I tend to head towards most frequently to stock up on everyday things like Bleach, Washing up Liquid and Toilet Rolls. Again these are usually good value for money and the Wilko own brand products within this range are of a good quality.

The Kitchenware section tends to vary in size and standard depending on the size of the Store but the larger ones have a good selection of things like Pans, Cutlery and Crockery.

Garden, Home Living and Pet Products again vary with the size of the Store but my City Centre Store has a good range of Pet Food available. Cat Food is currently on offer for both Whiskas and Felix. This is a buy two get one can free offer and makes them cheaper than anywhere else around. Needless to say since I have two greedy Cats I am currently taking advantage of this offer and stocking up.

The Garden and Home Living section has the whole of the upper floor dedicated to it in my City Centre Store. The Garden section does not only just sell Plants but also things like Lawn Mowers and Hedge Trimmers. Again these goods are branded but they also have their own Wilko range that represents the best value for money for these Goods.

Confectionary is somewhat limited and usually consists of just a few Sweets positioned strategically around the Check-outs.

Seasonal Goods often take up a large amount of the floor space. At the moment my local Stores are bulging with Christmas Goods and Gifts and at Easter time there are plenty of Easter Eggs.

So to summarise Wilkinson's Stores sell a wide range of Goods and they also have a large range of Goods available within their own Wilko brand. They have a number of different offers throughout the year and also seem to get quite a lot of end of the line stock that they sell off cheap in Bargain Bins.

With good value products and lots of bargains it is hardly surprising that the queues at the checkout can sometimes be quite long. There are ten checkouts available in the Store that I use most frequently but even with all of these the queues can sometimes be halfway to the back wall. Probably in response to this they are now installing self scanning machines in many of their Stores but my experiencing of using this was not very good.

If you have not come across these self scan systems before then basically they work by placing your items under a scanner yourself. When you have finished the machine totals up the value of the Goods in your basket and trolley and you pay at the same machine with a Visa or Debit Card. Unfortunately I found that almost every item failed to scan resulting in an alarm going off which meant that I had to wait for a member of staff and then when I was finally finished I had to join a queue to have various security tags removed from my Goods. In the end I would have been better joining the check-out queues, but then to be fair I suppose that this kind of thing is still in its early days, and therefore this is not a criticism that is unique to Wilkinson's.

If I were allowed to have a little bit of a moan then I would say that the constantly changing layout of the Stores is something that annoys me. I know that it is a ploy adopted by many different Stores these days in an attempt to get you lost on aisles that you wouldn't normally dream of visiting. In the hope that whilst there you will suddenly develop the urge to impulse buy, but please stop it, because I for one very it very annoying.

Overall however I do think that Wilkinson's is one of the better High Street Stores around and a lot of the Goods that they sell are definitely good value for money. I have also found that their Staff are always very helpful and they are also very smartly dressed in a red and yellow uniform. Then again with constantly changing around the position of their Goods it is essential that someone does know where to find things.

I have never had to return anything back to Wilkinson's so I cannot really comment on this aspect other than to say that all of their products do come with a money back guarantee.

The opening hours for the Stores does vary from Store to Store but many are open late and also on a Sunday.

Thank you for reading.