Shopping

A luxury Christmas shopping event is taking over The Royal Exchange this weekend

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 2nd December 2021

The Royal Exchange will be throwing a luxury Christmas shopping event this week – with free cupcakes to fuel your browsing.

The historic landmark in Manchester, which is home to shops, cafes and restaurants, will dial up the festivities this weekend.

Its luxury Christmas shopping event will run on Saturday, with special offers and lots of surprises in store.

Shoppers will be serenaded by the amazing Victorian Carol Singers, who will walk around the building treating passers-by to Christmas carols.

The Northern String Quartet will also be performing festive tunes inside the Christmas Tree-lined arcade.

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For the early birds, The Royal Exchange will be handing out free cupcakes inside the arcade while stocks last.

Visitors to French Connection will be welcomed by an in-store Christmas event, with its own music, competitions, goody bags (for the first 20 purchasing customers), festive drinks and mince pies.

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You can ease all those pre-Christmas stresses at Amaranth Health & Beauty, which will offer a free 10-minute taster massage, Pukka herbal tea tasting, and Raw vegan chocolate tasting.

It’s also throwing in a free goody bag when you spend £30 or more, and has special offers on NEOM Organics.

The freebies continue at L’Occitane, where anyone who spends more than £45 will be able to select a free beauty bauble of their choice.

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It’s 15% off at the Yards Store for anyone who signs up to their newsletter in store on Saturday, and there’s 10% off all purchases in store at Diamond Heaven, as well as free jewellery engraving for items bought on the day.

The Royal Exchange’s Luxury Christmas Shopping Event will take place on Saturday December 4, between 1pm and 4pm.

Featured image: Supplied

Shopping

Morrisons is introducing ‘sensory support boxes’ in stores for autistic and neurodiverse customers

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Sensory Support Boxes

Morrisons is introducing ‘sensory support boxes’ for autistic and neurodiverse customers shopping in its stores across the UK.

Supermarket shopping isn’t always the most pleasant or manageable of experiences for everyone, especially for those who are autistic or neurodivergent – with bright lights, loud sounds, strong smells, and crowds of people making it a rather overwhelming and overstimulating atmosphere.

This is why Morrisons has decided to collaborate with the National Autistic Society to introduce dedicated ‘Sensory Support Boxes’ at its stores nationwide, as a way to both mark World Autism Acceptance Month, and help autistic and neurodivergent customers have the positive shopping experience they deserve.

These boxes have been carefully-developed in consultation with the National Autistic Society to ensure they include the most helpful items.

A range of toys like fidget balls, spinners, and squish mats can all be found inside the boxes – which will be eventually be available in all 500 Morrisons supermarkets by May – to help encourage calmness and focus.

All that customers wishing to access the items need to do is simply speak to a colleague at the customer service kiosk of their local Morrisons store.

More than one in 100 people are autistic, and there are 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK.

Sensory Support Boxes
Sensory Support Boxes
Morrisons is introducing ‘sensory support boxes’ in stores for autistic and neurodiverse customers / Credit: Morrisons

Speaking on the decision to introduce the Sensory Support Boxes into UK stores, Joseph Clark-Bland, who is the Community Manager at Morrisons, said: “It’s a priority for us to ensure all Morrisons customers feel welcomed and understood.

“We’re proud to be leading the way in creating a more inclusive shopping environment for autistic people, their families and all neurodivergent people across the UK.

“World Autism Acceptance Month has been a key moment for Morrisons for many years, and we look forward to supporting even more customers via our new Sensory Boxes.”

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The introduction of the Sensory Support Boxes comes after Morrisons first trialled a ‘Quieter Hour’ in some of its stores back in 2018, before rolling it out nationwide in 2024 due to its success and positive feedback.

Featured Image – Morrisons

Shopping

You can now get a Pot Noodle as part of your Tesco meal deal

Danny Jones Danny Jones Pot Noodle on Tesco meal deal snack

If you ask us, a big key to a happy life is all about celebrating the little wins as much as possible and in this case, when we heard that you can now get a Pot Noodle as part of your Tesco meal deal, we nearly did a cartwheel.

Are we exaggerating? Only a little bit, to be fair. Is this still kind of a big deal (pardon the pun) for the millions of Brits whose lunchtime meal regularly consists of a Tesco butty, beverage and perhaps some crisps? We think so.

We only heard the joyous news through word of mouth, but it looks as though the rumours are true after being not-so-quietly confirmed via the official Pot Noodle social media channels last week, revealing that you can indeed get your flavour of choice as part of your meal deal.

And no, we don’t mean as your main…

That really is the headline here, let’s be honest; the fact that you can now get a Pot Noodle – something many people have for their tea or a more than satisfying late-night snack – as the bonus side along with your main item at Tesco it an absolute result.

With meal deal prices having steadily crept up across the nation over recent years, no matter which supermarket, Tesco Extra, Asda Express, Sainsbury’s Local, convenience store and so on you seem to look in, getting an extra bit of value for money like is a big win for those on a quick dinner dash.

This is just like when we figured out you could get a proper Ginsters sausage roll, Cornish pasty or steak/chicken slice as your snack too. Just as buzzing then as we are now.

The brand also recently revealed what the UK’s most popular meal choices were last year, and some of the selections might surprise you.

Once again, it’s all about enjoying the little things, and put it this way, if we’re overreacting, then so are plenty of others.

The only slight downside is that right now, as you might have spotted in the Instagram post above, this offer has only been rolled out at select Tescos.

As for those in Greater Manchester, there are just two local shops: the Tesco Extra in Walkden in Salford, as well as the Extra on Huddersfield Road in Bolton; the next closest after that is Warrington.

Nevertheless, you would expect that if the popularity of this new deal takes off – Tesco’s lunchtime package being one of the most popular in Britain – it’s likely that they will expand their plans up and down the country at large.

Speaking on the launch in an official press release, Pot Noodle’s senior brand Madeleine Boulton said: “We know our fans are always looking to get the most bang for their buck, so our move into the Tesco Meal Deal as a side is our way of giving customers the ultimate ‘snackisfaction’ and for some, the perfect hack that will ensure their meal deal sees them through the day.”

Can’t lie, we do rather fancy a Bombay Bad Boy now.

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Featured Images — The Manc Group

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