Hello out there in Sheffield my name is Merlin and I was wondering if you had any comments to make on the shopping centre namely ""Meadowhall good or bad please have your say I want to know the true thoughts of sheffield folk on the UK’s 3rd largest shopping centre.

What shopping centres are bigger than Meadowhall?

I'm one of Meadowhall's fans, but I know quite a lot of people round here don't like it. Admittedly, it does get very busy at this time of year, and shopping there can get very tedious. The rest of the year it's great though, IMO.

Out of interest how is the size of these shopping centres measured?

Is it by size of selling floor in square feet?
Number of shops?
Overall acres of land?

I think the only ones bigger are Bluewater and another down south whose name eludes me!

I personally think meadowhall is great :) not only does it give you a wider choice of goods (as you can go shopping in both town and meadowhall and get different stuff) but it produces a hell of a lot of jobs for the local area

Could the one your thinking of be Lakeside in Essex?

I used to shop at Lakeside and Bluewater before I moved here.

Not a big fan of Lakeside myself, Blue water is good but doesn't have a Debenhams. Personally I prefer Meadowhall but then maybe I'm biased. For what it's worth my sister prefers it too...

I thought I read somewhere the Trafford Centre is bigger than Meadowhall ?

Originally posted by Siân
I thought I read somewhere the Trafford Centre is bigger than Meadowhall ?

I believe they have more shops, but its not as big in terms of max capacity. Trafford has quite a few small shops and a larger area dedicated to "The Lanes" type shops.

Originally posted by Lickszz
Could the one your thinking of be Lakeside in Essex?

That would be it yes! :D :thumbsup:

In that case personally I prefer Meadowhall to Lakeside :-)

I've read conflicting reports about which is the biggest. I've even seen it stated that Metro Centre could be the bigger than Meadowhall. Which is why I would like confirmation on how this is measured.

The Trafford Centre is supposedly bigger because it has 280ish shops as opposed to Meadowhalls 270. However, the Trafford Centre has fewer big shops and department stores and definitely seems to take less time to walk from one end to the other. It is also a blatent clone of Meadowhall in many respects. The Italian restaurant in the food area of the Trafford Centre however is a lot better than Mama Amalfis at Meadowhall. Can't remember the name of it now, but its pretty big and the food was nice.

If you've ever been to west edmonton mall in Canada you'd not be as impressed with Meadowhell... Makes the place look like a childrens ballpool in comparison..

All told though, it's big enough to be manageable IMHO. :)

Martin_s you stole my comment.

Merlin, there's loadsa great responses on here but nearly everyone I know calls it Meadowhell.

I've found that everywhere in Sheffield is quiet in the morning - you know when most people are still in hangoverland on a saturday or even sunday.

I only normally go to Meadowhell when people visit and I get dragged round. However saying that it is convenient - and much easier than traipsing from one end of The Moor right to castle Market! So I do go when I have to.

I agree with the comment about choice - often stores which have town and Meadowhall stores have different items in stock and different sale offers and stuff - which is good EXCEPT it means I sometimes have to go shopping TWICE. (and shopping's not my favourite thing at the best of times)

:o

I much prefer shopping at meadowhall compared to the city centre.

Mind you - I do 99% of my shopping online :)

Meadow HELL. Chlostrophobic, horrible air, caged in people.........

Originally posted by Classic Rock
Meadow HELL. Chlostrophobic, horrible air, caged in people.........

I concur. I hate it. I really really hate it. I hate every square inch of it with every part of my being. I get a headache within 10 minutes of stepping through the doors. In my opinion, unless clothes shopping is your bag, the town center is a much better bet.

Originally posted by chill
I concur. I hate it. I really really hate it. I hate every square inch of it with every part of my being. I get a headache within 10 minutes of stepping through the doors. In my opinion, unless clothes shopping is your bag, the town center is a much better bet.
Then why complain? If you hate it so much just don't go there!

Meadowhall is Hell at Christmas time when it's packed with shoppers, and it takes 30 minutes to find a parking space.

However, aside from this brief period which runs from September to February ;) it's not too bad.

I do prefer shopping in the city centre though; as it's 'raison d etre' (sp?) is not to suck money out of consumers pockets, and you've got fresh(er) air.

One of the problems with the city centre is that the two ends are very far apart (Castle Square and The Moor) so it's a pain trying to drag young childern around with us. Oh yes, and the cold and rain of Sheffield :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Sidla
Then why complain?

Because Merlin asked for people's opinions, good or bad. And I do rarely go there (once a year maybe) for the reasons I mentioned, but if I need to go to House of Fraser I have to as there isn't one it town any more.

Originally posted by chill
...if I need to go to House of Fraser I have to as there isn't one it town any more.

Oh yes, that became TJ Hughes, didn't it :D

I'm not a big fan of Meadowhall, but it is far better than the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, which is dark, cramped and generally unpleasant.
Meadowhall is also pretty good for people in wheelchairs, though some of the shops have aisles which are too narrow.

A few points about meadowhell..
a) I like it
b) The floors slope - I never noticed it until I took my Dad who was in a wheelchair at the time
c) The best day to do your Christmas Shopping is Christmas Eve, it's empty!

well only living like 5 mins away from meadowhall im likely to be somewhat biased but hey! meadowhall is in my opinion very good for the following A) you're very safe unlike going into sheffield etc B) theres not a lot of things you can't get from meadowhall C) its very accesible via train tram bus and car D) it tends to be very clean constantly E) i work there! lol

Originally posted by damo4real
well only living like 5 mins away from meadowhall im likely to be somewhat biased but hey! meadowhall is in my opinion very good for the following A) you're very safe unlike going into sheffield etc B) theres not a lot of things you can't get from meadowhall C) its very accesible via train tram bus and car D) it tends to be very clean constantly E) i work there! lol


f) its always packed. (g) the air conditioning can't hack the volume of people and size of building so its always stuffy and hot. (h) it takes me a while to get there - about 30 mins or so by car. (i) there aren't enough parking places (around this time of year anyway).

west edmonton mall is ridiculously big so i hear, lakeside and bluewater are too close to each other; either side of the dartford tunnel if i remeber correctly. Two things stand out about B/W though 1. it looks really nice when you drive to it at night. Think descending down on Meadowhall lights like you are landing in a plane but driving around a cliffy slope to the entrance. 2. that is where posh becks took a shop to court for selling fake beckham signed photos and lost! :D oh I forgot, where is manchester then?

Originally posted by Sidla
What shopping centres are bigger than Meadowhall?

I'm one of Meadowhall's fans, but I know quite a lot of people round here don't like it. Admittedly, it does get very busy at this time of year, and shopping there can get very tedious. The rest of the year it's great though, IMO.

The Metro at Gateshead is bigger.... there's another one somewhere in Europe that's even bigger though, the only other UK shopping centre that's even anywhere near as big is probably the Lakeside in Thurrock, Essex.

i love murderhell sometimes for its convienence and because its warm, dry and i can sit down without getting a cold bum. but i find that everything is the same sometimes, and at this time of year it is hell!

i read some peoples posts on the size of shooping centres and meadowhall being the 3rd bigest. well my brother did GCSE Geography (he did them this summer) and i would tape the GCSE Bite size on the BBC for him and according to that Meadowhall is the second bigest, bluewater (which i love) being the 1st and the metro centre the 3rd. they didnt tell you how they work out which is bigger (by floor space or cappacity etc)

Mostly shopping centres are great, arent they?

what isnt great is
a. the other shoppers
b. the shop assistants
c. and the temperature created by both of the above

Shopping would be fine if they would open up just for me and not let anyone else in until I had finished - didnt they do that for Maggie when she was the PM?

I thinks its a great place merlin but it gets very busy on satudays.

I enjoy going, to a degree. Alot of the stuff sold there is more expensive than anywhere else.

I generally go as a treat for the kids and for speciality shopping. I HATE it at christmas.

Moon

Originally posted by Siân
I used to shop at Lakeside and Bluewater before I moved here.


Same here! I used to live in Gravesend, BTW.

I find Meadowhall itself quite pleasant it's just the people that are a pain.

My pet hates in no particular order are:

a) People who stop at the top of escaltors because they don't know where they are going whilst everybody piles in to the back of them.

b) Family groups who walk five abreast holding hands sweeping up everybody in their path.

c) People who seem completely oblivious to the general pedestrian flow.

d) People who cup their cigarettes in their hand presuming no-one will notice with a big trail of smoke following them.

BTW Last time I went to The Metro Centre it had an indoor fair ground with a roller coaster and everything. That was good.

The Trafford Centre is far better looking especially from the outside. I like the dawn/ dusk thing in the eating area. I believe they were going to have this at Meadowhall but they ran out of money :(

My pet hate at Meadowhall is Poundland!

What an awful shop! If you dare venture in, you're stuck in there for ever - it's impossible to move around or get out.

And will anyone own up to buying floor tiles from Poundland? (£1 for a pack of 10 no less!) :loopy:

I work in a much cheaper shop than Poundland.....its in town and a pack of 4 sony AA batteries.....only 39p!

o yeah and people do buy some rubbish items like a pack of 15 condoms for 99p.....come on i wanna know if they work. Anyone used them??

Do you still get shoplifters, nicking the condoms and batteries?

Meadowhall is quite an impressive collection of shopping outlets but I have one gripe about it and it seems to extend to all shops these days ,it is the so called background music .I find the word background misleading as it is definitely foreground music ,I suspect the shop assistants fingers on the volume control could contribute to that but the all out assault on the would be shoppers eardrums is certainly a big put off to purchasing articles in these shops from not just myself but many people I have spoken with.But don't tell the shop owners about this potential loss of sales because they just say the average shopper wants

LOUD MUSIC !!!!!!!!!!!

Well do you?????

Blimey, Meadowhall can provoke some strong reactions from people!

I like it. You don't get wet if it rains. It's non smoking. There's no smelly, fumey buses driving round. I live closer to Meadowhall than the city centre. And best of all: FREE PARKING.

Having said that I avoid it like the plague at this time of the year cos I can't stand it when it gets hideously busy. You then get the problems of it becoming too hot and people who thoughtfully stand at the top (or bottom) of the escalators without moving on, as pointed out by Vanbast. Hello? Move!

I generally avoid the busiest times by going early at a weekend. Or going when I've got a day off work. I'm going to have to brave it soon since I've still got Xmas pressies to buy...

Originally posted by Lou
Blimey, Meadowhall can provoke some strong reactions from people!

I like it. You don't get wet if it rains. It's non smoking. There's no smelly, fumey buses driving round. I live closer to Meadowhall than the city centre. And best of all: FREE PARKING.


I fully agree! Meadowhall is 10 times better than town whichever way you look at it. Yeah it's gets annoying as hell at busy times (worst thing is people in front of you walking at slugs pace deciding where they want to go) but it's just the same as any other major shopping centre.

To have another dig at this forum, most of the people that have posted on this thread have loved highlighting the downsides of meadowhall.. Quit your whining! The good things about it outnumber the bad by far!

Originally posted by GazB
I fully agree! Meadowhall is 10 times better than town whichever way you look at it. Yeah it's gets annoying as hell at busy times (worst thing is people in front of you walking at slugs pace deciding where they want to go) but it's just the same as any other major shopping centre.

To have another dig at this forum, most of the people that have posted on this thread have loved highlighting the downsides of meadowhall.. Quit your whining! The good things about it outnumber the bad by far!

meadowhall does my head in, it's full of people who seem to be put there to ***** me off!

Originally posted by bassman-x
meadowhall does my head in, it's full of people who seem to be put there to ***** me off!

But when compared to town? In meadowhall the only thing you have to watch out for is dizzy old women thinking where they wanna go next and blocking off the people that wanna get shopping done fast! In town it's just as rammed on the streets, then when you top it off with 194 big issue guys per square mile and an army of 'mission: **** on the humans' pigeons, meadowhall starts to sound pretty good ;)

Plus the stench of frying onions and the blasting music from that shop opposite W H Smiths. No, give me M'hall anytime, or twice a year which is all I can put up with, shopping not being my favourite pastime.

I prefer town, more specialist shops and much cheaper than meadowhell. Plus meadowhall is full of Rotherham folk acting as though they're on a day out at the seaside!:D

Why are Sheffield people so horrible about Rotherham people? Are Rotherham people equally as bitchy towards Sheffield people or do they gaze upwards in awe at their bigger, better neighbours and try to be just like us?

They are equally as bitchy, if not more so.

Originally posted by Classic Rock
Meadow HELL. Chlostrophobic, horrible air, caged in people.........

Totally agree Meadowhell (doesnt care)
The Wickerwork dolphins on the escalators are interesting in the Xmas sense of things!

Prefer to potter about on Devvy Green and getting stuff off the net cos Im a lazy so an so!

:thumbsup:

They arent dolphins, they are salmon!

but why they are salmon i really really dont know.

Originally posted by RPG
They arent dolphins, they are salmon!

but why they are salmon i really really dont know.

neither are exactly festive tho!

Mind u some people eat salmon at Xmas dont they?
In them sort of vol au vent nibbly things that are pointless!
:loopy:
Thought the animatronic snowmen were better and strangely sinister!

Why are all animatronic singing santas and trees demonic! :twisted:

nice to see the good old stereotype lives on dont you think stealblade? i am myself from rotherham and may i add theres far more people from sheffield taken aback by sight of a shop other than the local spar than there are people from rotherham your view of people from rotherham is in my view very stereotypical

Originally posted by steelblade
I prefer town, more specialist shops and much cheaper than meadowhell. Plus meadowhall is full of Rotherham folk acting as though they're on a day out at the seaside!:D

:lol: :lol:

damo4real, it was something known as a JOKE.

Originally posted by GazB
In town it's just as rammed on the streets, then when you top it off with 194 big issue guys per square mile and an army of 'mission: **** on the humans' pigeons
And also negotiating the "Fargate Run" of market researchers... :mad: