Holland & Barrett

As I said in another review, I will always have a bit of a thing for Holland and Barret as there was one close to a shop that I used to work in in Bangor and I really fancied the girl who worked in there so I was always in flirting with her, to no avail unfortunately but that is not to take away from what is an excellent chain.
You can get everything in here for a healthy lifestyle. There are pills and oils and supplements of every size, shape and ilk. This is not the type of intimidating muscle dungeon that those oversized men with big necks go into. This is a much more friendly and accesible experience.
The only problem is that this place is so good that it is taking away from independent and local health shops, which isn’t great but you can’t have your cake and eat it.

Holland and Barrett is good in one respect but a little bit annoying and confusing at the same time.
The good points? Well, it’s always been a cheap and dependable place to buy whey protein supplements, creatine and other super-​ultra-​mega-​energy bars which have at least 500 calories inside and taste like you’re eating a boost and a house brick at the same time.
The bad? The silly range of silly things. £15 for a little container of a plant which may, in small and or large or in fact no doses, lower or increase or none of the two, your chance or getting cancer or living longer.
There is much to be said for herbal and holistic therapy. A few vitamins here and there is fine, a big of cod liver oil perhaps but when people are spending a fortune buy extracts of this and that it just becomes hilarious.

There are a lot of health shops in Belfast that have their own little personalities, because they are independent and run by the owners who love what they do. Sadly Holland and Barrett can’t make this brag. Every shop is the shop as the last one. They are coming up behind McDonalds with their dedication to uniformity.
But they can do something the independent ones can’t. Have sales. Yeh, I do brag about the little independent store but sometimes I’m skint and need a half price offer, so I walk into here, with my tail between my legs and make use of their vast economies of scale! They do have some incredible sales on and these shouldn’t be ignored.

Holland and Barrett is just a bit too functional and generic to be a nice health food shop. If I feel the need for a vitamin supplement it will be here, but they are all own brand Holland and Barrett which puts me off.
All I ever tend to get in here is bags of dried fruit, for some reason and Dead Sea Magik face masks on an occasional whim.
Otherwise, the stock of health food is basic. You will find nuts, muesli, soya milk etc but the mark of an above average health food supplier is whether they have barley flakes or other more obscure grains. In fact, the more obscure and alternative items there are to peruse the better. There’s no tofu either, which is frustrating. I’ll always come to this shop periodically but more because it’s there, as it is a little dull.

I myself have never got the allure that stores like this have over people, as I feel that they appeal mainly to the hypochondriacs nationwide who at the first sign of a sneeze will head out to get all the vitamins and supplements they can.
Holland and Barrett dispenses a large range of dieting supplements, body building powders, vitamins and joint care products. The store does have a wide range of herbal products and vitamins, but for me, therein lies the problem. Stores like this are useful if you have a specific thing you have deficiency in like zinc or iron or something similar.
However, as professed by scientific opinion and that of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory, the multi vitamins that places like this like to sell by the wheelbarrow load are unable to be properly processed by the body and are nothing more than the ingredients for expensive urine!
Focusing on the positives however the sore does a good range of herbs and spices for cooking, which is a far better use of your finances!