Holland & Barrett

Why is it that the smallest places always have exactly what you want? I found this out a couple of weeks ago when I woke up demanding croissants and ham. A simple, if not a little divaish, request. Well, until I announced I wanted it as soon as possible. I didn’t want to go all the way into town for ingredients and — oh — I’m a vegetarian.
With best mate in tow, I hit Albany Road’s Tesco certain that Britain’s most prolific supermarket would be able to provide me with the ingredients needed for my craving. Croissants in hand, we headed over to the ham section. We were confident. Apart from the odd bending of definition and oxymoronic qualities, ‘vegetarian ham’ wasn’t too much to ask for, was it? Unfortunately, Tesco seemed to disagree.
So it was onto Iceland (no luck) and Home Bargains (fail). I was getting increasingly stroppy, a feeling heightened by the fact my friend had bought some of that funny kind of ham which contains pork. Something told me that now wouldn’t be the time to convert back into carnivorism, tempting as it was. And then, in this desperate time of need, Holland and Barrett revealed itself.
They didn’t just have veggie ham, but a whole assortment of different ‘meats’. My Mariah Carey streak and my long-​suffering best friend drew a collective sigh of relief.
URBAN CHALLENGE: Let loose the inner vegetarian and see what treats you can find here

Holland & Barrett run offers continuously on health food supplements, which is a great time to stock up but watch you don’t end up shopping there for all your needs as it’s fairly pricey.
If your a fan of whey protein you’ll find Holland & Barrett reasonably priced. There supplement range has regular price reductions to draw you in and spend money on other items.
I personally only use multivitamins so most of the time I restock.
I consider Holland & Barrett to be the only alternative to local health food shops but If i’m in the market for some saffron I’d go to a local health store.

I have to admit to shopping at Holland & Barrett on a reasonably regular basis. I prefer to patronise the independents, and I regularly do, but it would be madness to avoid keeping a watchful eye on the Holland & Barrett window display to see what offers they are carrying each month, as doing so ultimately saves me a phenomenal amount of money! It’s a clever ploy to display heavily discounted products in a regularly rotated window display… it clearly works!
I tend to watch out for the really expensive items like Co Q 10 and Glucosamine, which thankfully Holland & Barrett slash in price quite often. I tend to be rigorously disciplined when I enter their store however, and will only allow myself to buy the heavily discounted items that I would struggle to afford buying from elsewhere. Everything else I will buy from an independent health food shop, and am happy to pay the premium for the knowledge that the owners will generally impart without too much prompting. They also stock things that are less mainstream which Holland & Barrett haven’t cottoned onto yet… However, I have to admit that Holland & Barrett
Are pretty good at staying in pace with developments and always carry a good range of products. Also in their defence, they usually have someone who is pretty knowledgeable about the products and general health working on their shop floor at any given time.