The Range

I first visited The Range at 9 months pregnant and I felt extremely claustrophobic. I’m not the «jumble sale» shopper at the best of times. I like space, time and an idea of a layout when I go somewhere. The Range is the exact opposite of this so naturally I about turned and went back to the car, cursing my husband for taking me to such a place in my condition!
Fast forward to present day and now that I’m aware of what The Range has to offer I’m a bit more keen on the idea of a visit. A bit.
The Range boasts a «bit of everything» approach to shopping. Candles, home décor, lighting, curtains, cushions, bed spreads, kitchenware, pets, furniture, children’s clothing and toys, luggage, wallpaper and paint, arts and crafts, mirrors, snacks, seasonal goods and even an outdoor garden centre. It should be heaven but it’s not.
It still has no clear layout. I asked the staff where their tealights were to get the answer «oh, everything is just shoved in according to its colour in these aisles.» Comforting. The aisles are about head height and are indeed colour coordinated but there were about four full aisles of white so it took me some time to locate what I was looking for and my feeling of claustrophobia was still niggling.
It’s quite busy most times of the day (aim for early morning or late evening for your visit if you can) and staff seem to be constantly blocking off some of the tiny aisles with crates and cages so the feeling of having to rush in and out of the cramped aisles still overwhelmed me. Surely this isn’t the safest way of operating? But I was on a mission so in and out I went.
The Range does boast a quite impressive arts and crafts section that doesn’t seem to suffer from the same level of customers as the rest of the store. I could comfortably browse through adult colouring, crafts and children’s art sets at my leisure here and that is the main reason I still give The Range a ³⁄₅. I could easily spend ages pouring through everything they have on offer here and could probably spend a fortune.
Whilst they have a massive range of products and lots of pretty trinkets for around the home I have to force myself to visit here due to the actual layout of the store. Their prices are fairly reasonable. Think a little higher than B&M prices. Some of the products can be naff and the turnover is pretty frequent so it can be a bit of a pot luck if you’re in for just a nosey. However, I can’t help but feel if The Range adopted the «less is more» approach to their store and were a bit more picky with stock it would be a store I’d be much more willing to visit on a regular basis.

I can’t believe I only discovered this place on Christmas Eve 2015, but it will certainly be a Christmas Eve I don’t forget quickly…
Parking up, it doesn’t look that impressive, but when you pass through the doors (of what I assume used to be a gigantic Homebase) you are blown away by the sheer awesome scale of the place. You can literally buy everything here, from greetings cards and stationary, to salted nuts and crisps, white goods and domestic electronics, and a huge selection of pet supplies.
Top tip if you are visiting for the first time, either set yourself a budget or come with some specific things you want to purchase otherwise you might find yourself with a trolley, a huge bill and a very random selection of well-​priced but potentially non-​essential goods!

First visit here. Massive dept store with just about everything you could imagine under 1 roof. Also a wee coffee shop for when you need a wee seat! Large xmas stock in at the moment. Lots of great homeware accessories too. Worth a visit, but beware… It will take you forever to get round everything!