Falmouth Shopping

Falmouth is a town in south-west England.  Although it is relatively small with a population of only 20,000 there are a surprisingly large number of shops, probably due to the lack of major towns nearby, and the fact that it is a major tourist town.  This article will give an overview of the shops in Falmouth, along with detail of some of the major shops of Falmouth.  The majority of shops are located along a central highstreet, although there are also shops based throughout Falmouth such as ASDA and Lidl and these will also be detailed, along with the opening times of them.  

The vast majority of shops are located in central Falmouth, along Killigrew Street, Market Street, Church Street and Arwenack Street.  However, as this map shows, Market Street, Church Street and Arwenack Street are in line with one another, so that where Market Street ends Chruch Street begins and where Church Street ends Arwenack Street begins.  As such, it is felt that the best way to explain the layout of the town is through the use of a walk through along the street, starting at Berkeley Vale just off Killigrew Street and ending in Discovery Quay which is down the opposite end of the Arwenack Street.  For the larger stores there will be a link to further information on this store, which will hopefully include information such as phone numbers, email addresses and opening times.

The first major store which is found on Berkeley Vale is an Argos.  The shopfloor area of this particular Argos is very small, but it can be assumed that the warehouse part of this shop is larger since it stocks the full range of Argos goods (but not those found in Argos Extra's).  Opposite Argos is Falmouth's new multiplex cinema, Phoenix Falmouth, which opened in early 2009.  Relatively adjacent to this is a Wetherspoon's.  Whilst technically not a place to do shopping, it is a useful place for stopping when out on a shopping trip.  Either side of this there are a few shops - a flower shop, a bookmakers, a discount shop and a couple of restaurants.

On Killigrew Street there are a large number of independent shops.  For food there are a couple of pasty shops, a Dominos pizza takeaway, a Prezzo, a couple of pubs and a sandwich shop.  There are many shops catering for outdoor pursuits, in particular surfing and watersports.  Further down the street there is a Tesco Metro, as well as a number of banks including Barclays and Lloyds.  Next to Tesco there is what is probably Falmouth's biggest club, Remedies.

Running alongside Killigrew Street is the main bus station for Falmouth, and a large open area.  Both the bus station and the open area is known as the Falmouth Moor and it is here where markets, such as the farmers market on Tuesday's are held.  Facing Falmouth Moor is the Post Office and the main library.

Killigrew Street leads onto Market Street.  This street is where the majority of the large national chains have their stores.  This includes Marks and Spencers, Boots, Superdrug and WH Smith.  There are a number of other fashion retailers, such as New Look, Dorothy Perkins, Peacocks and Henri Lloyd.  There are several phone shops, including Phones 4 U, Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone.  The remainder of the retail space on Market Street is taken up by food shops, such as Stokes the greengrocers, and various charity shops.  There are also several branches of major banks on this street, including HSBC, Natwest and Abbey/Santander.  

Church Street follows directly on from Market Street.  There are no major national retailers on Church Street, and instead there are a large number of regional and independent retailers.  This street contains a large number of independent surf based shops, such as Big Wednesday.  There are also a number of independent other shops and food outlets.  Possibly the largest such food outlet is Mango Tango.  Church Street is also the location for the local council offices, and the Falmouth Poly, which is a large Arts Space.  The Poly has many art exhibitions, films and performances,so for the latest information check out their website.

The road kinks around Falmouth Parish Church, and changes from Church Street to Arwenack Street.  Arwenack Street has a few shops on it, particularly along the end nearest Church Street.  Up this end of the street there is the Cornish store, and an old fashioned sweet shop. However further along the street the shops are increasingly replaced by restaurants, for example 5 Degrees West, Clarks and the award winning fish and chip shop Harbour Lights (check out the harbour lights website for a live webcam stream of one of the harbours).  Connected to Harbour Lights is the west country department store chain Trago Mills, which is reviewed in more detail below.

Slightly further along Arwenack Street is a new development which includes some shops.  Known as Discovery Quay, the main attraction of this area is the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.  Located around a central square there are a number of shops and restaurants.  This is the location for the second Tesco in Falmouth, as well as Pizza Express, The Shed and Harvey's Wharf restaurants.

There are two Tesco stores in Falmouth.  The first is located on Killigrew Street and is a Tesco Metro which is Tesco's city centre brand.  This is the larger of the two Tescos in Falmouth, and sells a relatively wide variety of goods.  In addition to chilled and frozen food and groceries, this store has a small selection of fresh bakery products, a relatively large area selling fresh fruit and vegetables and an area selling a few entertainment products such as chart CDs and DVDs.  This store is open from early in the morning until 9pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and is open from 10am - 4pm on Sunday.  The second Tesco store is the Tesco Express type and is smaller than the Tesco Metro.  The store stocks a much smaller range of goods, but yet still has all of the basics foodstuffs.  It is also more of a convenience store, and so a considerable portion of the store is used for the selling of ready meals, alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, and sweets; with a corresponding reduction in floor area dedicated for fresh fruit and veg, bakery products and frozen foods.  This store is however open for longer hours than the other Tesco opening from 6am to 11pm Monday to Saturday.  Also, as this store is smaller than 3000 square feet it is exempt from the Sunday Trading Act and so opens from 7am until 11pm every Sunday.  

Trago Mills is a department store chain with three stores in Devon and Cornwall. The three story Falmouth store is much smaller than the other two stores, however is still a fair size, with 37 departments and over 40,000 products in stock. These include clothing, home furnishing, DIY, toys and garden departments. Trago Mills is famous for the cheap prices of goods which are often cheaper than those offered anywhere else, even for recognised brands. Many people make a special effort to do some shopping in this store when they visit Falmouth, because they considered it to be unlike anything in their own town. The opening hours of this store are 9.00-17.30 Monday - Saturday. On Sunday the opening times are from 10am - 4pm, with the doors opening 30 minutes early for browsing only, and with half an hour 'shopping up' time for those already in the store when the doors are closed.

ASDA Walmart is located in Penryn, which is a separate town to Falmouth, but due to the growth of the two towns they are now joined.  However, many people from Falmouth do their shopping in this branch of ASDA, since it is less than 5 minutes away from Falmouth, and this is why it has been included in this article.  In fact ASDA themselves call this store ASDA Falmouth.  Perhaps if I ever write a page on Penryn shopping I will migrate this section to there!  This ASDA is the largest supermarket in not only Falmouth but this area of Cornwall, however it is not as large as some ASDAs elsewhere in the country.  The shop has all the normal food departments which would be found in an English supermarket, such as bakery and delicatesant.  The non-food range is largely limited to clothing, although there are a few other non-food products such as electrical goods, but the selection is very minimal.  At the time of writing this ASDA opens at 8am on a Monday morning, and stays open all the way through until 10pm on a Saturday.  On Sunday the store opening hours are 10.30-16.30.  For more information on this store, including the latest opening times, click here.

The branch of Sainsburys in Falmouth used to be a branch of the The Co-operative, often shortened to just Co-op.  It is probably the second largest supermarket in Falmouth after ASDA.  It has an instore bakery, fresh fruit and veg section and a delicatessen as well as sections selling groceries, chilled and frozen food.  It is located in Ponsharden which is halfway between Falmouth and Penryn.  The opening hours are 7am-10pm Monday to Saturday and 10am-4pm Sundays. 

The Lidl in Falmouth is located in Ponsharden.  This is an area alongside the waters edge approximately hald way between Falmouth and Penryn.  This is a relatively new supermarket, having been constucted in early 2009.  It is the same sort of size as most Lidl's and has the same sort of layout lots of food being on pallets etc.  The opening times of this Lidl are 8am-9pm Monday to Saturday and 10.30am-4.30pm on Sunday's.