Holland & Barrett

Another of the many health food stores in Edinburgh. Located at a nice convenient location at the west end of Princes St this is usually my go to place for vitamins and other health food stuff. Always have nice friendly staff willing to help you if need be. Have a good stock of goods to including Burts Bees and other nifty stuff. Prices are manageable as well and they usually have specials. Otherwise a good little place for your everyday health needs !

Oh hello Holland & Barret on Shandwick Place! Aren’t you more than first meets the eye.
I seem to be going through a phase of reviewing chains, but if you’ll forgive me my sins, sometimes the things you need are hard to find and the chains can provide. Holland & Barret is a chain, and there are several of them in the city. Edinburgh only has one big Boots on the Princes Street, 100 Starbucks, and 3 Holland & Barrets all within 20 — 25 minutes of each other (the other two are on Rose Street and Nicholson Street).
I do stop in here to buy several items regularly, mainly their healthy energy bars and food stuffs. The Nicholson Street branch is my local and so the only one I’ve been into. I think I gave it a fairly middle-​of-​road review. It supplies most of the products I need.
Or so I thought until I came to this branch. It wasn’t planned. I was going to the optician next door and needed to get some things so thought I may as well whilst close by. The outside looks exactly the same as the outside of the Nicholson Street branch and appears to occupy the same space. But open the doors and suddenly it expands inwards like a tardis. And the first thing I noticed was a fridge unit! What the what?!
I was in a rush and needed particular items so didn’t have a chance to explore, but I will go back to do just that. The items I needed (protein supplements /​bars /​shakes and the like) were much more expansive in range than in the Nicholson store too. So much so that I actually took a lot longer than planned and had to run for my bus. There’s a fantastic range of different bars, flapjacks, ready-​made shakes. I was looking to get the ‘cleanest’ type of protein supplements I could that weren’t choc-​full of sweetners, nuts and caramel (why are most of them fake mars bars?!) The ones I found did still have sweetners but there was a much bigger range that allowd me to pick the best looking ones. Again, really great range.
The shop assistant was also really top chat and banter. He laughed at how many protein shakes a wee waif of a girl was packing into her basket (I’m going away for 2 weeks and needed to stock pile) and we got chatting. Really down to earth, friendly and genuine. I love that sort of thing about customer service, and I’m proud to say it seems to be a Scottish trait.
Anyway, this store is much bigger than some others I’ve been into. Whilst it’s a chain, and can probably charge more than some smaller independents, it usually has great offers on (everything the store was buy one get one half price when I was in) and they are pretty much guaranteed to have the health supplement you need. I’ll be returning to get more of those protein-​infused berry flapjacks. Ooft.

Healthy, organic, and likely to cleanse out your innards, Holland and Barret’s products are readily available and mainly centre around the concept of extending your lifespan, or at least making your bowel movements less of an agonising trauma.
Useful, but a roll and sausage tastes better.