EUROSPAR in Belfast: the Donegall Road store

By nine o'clock most evenings, the shops along this part of south Belfast have their shutters down. This one keeps trading for another two hours.

Liam McMahon's EUROSPAR at 250 Donegall Road is open until 11pm, seven nights a week. Doors open at six on weekday mornings and seven at the weekend, which makes a seventeen hour day Monday to Friday. Late off a shift, finished at the pitch, or only realising at half ten that there is nothing in for the morning: that is the gap this store fills.

Shopping on the Donegall Road

The Donegall Road runs through south and west Belfast, close to the Westlink and out towards the Boucher Road commercial area, with Windsor Park and the Village close by. It is a working road rather than a retail park. Houses, small businesses, traffic heading somewhere else, and people on foot doing the day's messages.

That mix shows up in what the shop does across a day. Early on it is coffee, something hot and a tank of fuel for people on their way to work. Through the afternoon it is the fresh counters, the Post Office and the top-up shop for households who would rather walk round the corner than drive out to a superstore. After tea it turns into hot food, the cashpoint and whatever has run out.

What earns the walk is how much sits under one roof. A deli counter and a bakery working in the building, fresh fruit and veg, fresh meat, a Post Office counter, PayPoint, an ATM with cash back, a barista bar, hot food, and fuel on the forecourt outside.

• In-store bakery and deli counter
• Post Office counter and PayPoint
• Fresh fruit and veg, and fresh meat
• Barista bar and hot food
• ATM, cash back, Apple Pay and contactless
• Petrol station on site

Three or four separate errands become a single trip, which is the whole point of a shop like this. One caution: Post Office counters keep their own hours, shorter than the store's, so ring 028 9023 4434 before a late run if that is the reason you are coming.

Finding the store and parking

The address is 250 Donegall Road, Belfast, BT12 5NE, and that postcode will bring a satnav to the forecourt entrance. There is parking on site alongside the petrol station, so you can fill up and do the shop in the same visit instead of hunting for a space on the road. The store sits on the Donegall Road itself, whether you are coming in past the Westlink or down from the Boucher Road side, and it is lit and serving well after most of the road has closed for the night. If you want to check that a particular counter is still open, phone 028 9023 4434 and someone in the shop will tell you.