This small retail park is located on the outskirts of Bolton town centre, just a few hundred yards from Bolton Train Station.
Businesses here at the time of writing (June 2020) are Iceland, Pets at Home, B&M Home Store, Salvation Army, and Xercise4Less.
Pets at Home is the largest pet shop chain in the UK. Their store at the Central Retail Park offers pet food, accessories, bedding, grooming products, and more. Small pets (guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils etc.), reptiles, and tropical and coldwater fish can also be purchased here. Dog grooming and microchipping services are also available. Pets at Home also have a store at Middlebrook.
B&M Home Store sells a wide range of household products at bargain prices. Products stocked include paint and wallpaper, storage boxes, furniture, cutlery, lighting, picture frames and mirrors, dried flowers, cushions and throws, curtains and blinds, plus beds and mattresses. There’s also a small garden centre offering sheds, fence panels, paving, gravel, logs and coal, compost, gas, and pots.
Xercise4Less is a budget gym with over 400 pieces of equipment. Rates are extremely competitive and membership terms flexible.
Central Retail Park offers ample free car parking.
Stores previously here but now closed include Brantano, Floors-2-Go, Maplin, Carpetright, Rivington Taylor, and Poundworld.
Do not be misled by the “ample free parking” especially if you use the gym and may, therefore, more easily exceed the 3hr time limit. Exercise4less, the ‘private parking company’ nor the Managing Agent could care less if you really are a genuine customer. They are equally hard-faced and this is a money-making operation (£60 in the first instance) and certainly not in the interest of avoiding abuse of the facility. If you decide to join the gym be aware that they advertise ‘free parking’ and will, at no time tell you that there are conditions attached to this. They also refuse to put any form of signage to warn you at the gym reception to tell you there are conditions to the ‘free parking.’ The attitude if the Managing Agent is that it is nothing to do with them as it is how the gym chooses to communicate, or not, with its members.
Hats off to the guys at Maplin. Unlike most shop assistants, the staff here really know their stuff. My wife bought a Nintendo in the US, hoping to save money. Unfortunately she forgot that the plug and power system were different. The guy here suggested a transformer and even did a quick calculation to work out what power settings were needed to change the voltage from US to UK.