Unicorn Grocery

I have been shopping at the store for approximately 20 years. The Unicorn always: listen to their customers, their aim is to source and provide the highest quality vegetables and products, they support locally grown organic vegetables, and in so doing support other coops, famers and jobs. Where products are imported they source and support community coops in other countries again giving people abroad the opportunity to sell their produce at a fair price to enable them to have incomes that enable producers to support their families educate their children and basically alleviate poverty. The Unicorn provides educational materials to educate their customers about their produce, products, Recipes and the Principles which guide them in all their activities as a coop.

The Unicorn is the kind of place i never thought I would shop. Eating a predominantly meat based diet for many years and having an aversion (with no real basis or foundation) to vegan living being the main reasons. Nonetheless, in the last 10 months or so since I moved to Manchester, I’ve found myself here a number of times (mostly thanks to my other half).
Everyone seems to know of the Unicorn, even if they’ve never been, such is its apparent reputation. Upon walking in you can kind of see why, this is unlike most grocery stores in Manchester. There is a decent selection of organic, fresh produce, plenty of free from foods, a deli counter, plenty of various sized bags of seeds, oats, cereals and nuts along with breads and various fresh fresh groceries.
I find the unicorn has a few things I really like, such as the brand of avocado hummus they have, their bags of giant oats and the various options on the deli counter. Last time we went we had a veg curry which was very good.
I think what the above tells us though, at least for someone without a wholly vegan lifestyle, is that the Unicorn is a nice. reasonably priced place to do your ‘stocking up’ shop, rather than your full shop. The only other criticism i would have is that the car park simply isn’t big enough to meet demand on the weekend, with queuing or parking around the corner the standard if not getting their at opening time.

Best grocery in Manchester. Hands down. Full range of organic and fair trade produce. Highly recommended

If you are looking for excellent quality produce you must visit Unicorn. As you walk through the entrance you are greeted by a wonderful array of fresh fruit and veg — all of which is organic (as far as I know!). You can also get some things which you rarely see in your average supermarkets — blood oranges spring to mind and are delicious from here! All of the produce is in good nick and some even still has the soil on which adds to the experience in my opinion. Everything here is vegetarian meaning I could not do a full shop here as I am a meat eater but I enjoy coming here to have a browse and try things which I wouldn’t usually try out. Things also seem to last a lot longer than the stuff you buy from the supermarkets which is good as you save on waste. Prices maybe slightly higher than the supermarkets but the quality is worth the extra. It is well worth the trip if you fancy a change from your boring supermarket and be opened up to the world of vegetarian food. My only critiscism of the place is there isnt enough parking at busy times — you may have to use the steets nearby.

This was the first time I have been here or any vegan grocery shop. But I loved the experience, I liked the fact you could pick what you wanted and how much not like normal supermarkets were you have to get everything in packs. It reminded me of an old fashioned grocers were you put your fruit and veg in brown bags. The fruit and veg stayed a lot fresher than the supermarket fruit and veg. Some of the items were a bit more expensive than the supermarket but everything is organic

Amazed by this place.
I haven’t seen anywhere like it since my travels to Portland. It has a real community atmosphere. Everyone involved, from the growers to the staff to the people shopping, care and it really shows. It’s honest. It’s exactly where you want to buy your vegetables.
There’s soil on the fresh produce. Actual soil. No cellophane, no unnecessary packaging, no nonsense — just tasty, local food.
The shelves are clearly labelled and well stocked with interesting offerings. They have your staples — potatoes, all the usual veg, cereals, spices, fruits as well as some more unusual choices when/​if it’s in season. Prices are reasonable and when you pay you feel like you’re contributing — something you never experience in a chain supermarket.
There’s a play area for kids and free apples to keep them occupied — with a little compost bin for the cores.
A big green thumbs up.

The Unicorn is one of those places that you might know of as a concept, even if you’ve never been in. It sums up everything that is virtuous and ethical about Chorlton. I was pleasantly surprised the first time I went in, to find that it’s actually a reasonably priced place with a lot to offer even to those who don’t follow a strict vegan diet.
Lots of fresh, clearly marked fruit and veg, at great prices (e.g. an avocado for 29p). People may scoff at it but it’s also nice to see where your veg is coming from and good to know that’s something they care about.
The deli counter looks wonderful, and the selection of bagged savoury snacks is excellent. Organic bombay mix for about 50p and bags of roasted, flavoured cashew nuts for just over £1 (be warned — the garlic ones are delicious and moreish but very strong, you will stink for the rest of the day).
It’s great to have the option to do your shopping at little places like this rather than always going for big supermarkets. As someone who tries to eat a largely vegetarian and sometimes vegan diet during the week, it’s going to be handy living so close.

Yes indeed it is a great place. They stock a wide range of gluten free flours and baking products great for making your own bread, pizza and (more importantly!) Yorkshire pud and cakes if like me you have discovered that you are gluten intolerant :(but have a love of Yorkshire pud! They are closed on a Monday but are open Tuesday — Sunday. I would recommend avoiding Sunday if you can as its a bit blooming busy with the virtuous of chorlton and the surrounding areas stocking up on stuff for Sunday dinner and no one should have to have cross word over the last remaining organic sweet potato now should they?!!
Staff are very helpful and can help you track down most things. As veg is fresh and organic it needs a bit more of a wash than your usual supermarket produce but is so worth it and does keep really well — think it must be the paper bags as opposed to plastic that you use to pack your veg for its travel home. Some items are cheaper than health food shops and of some of the bigger supermarkets who stock health foods, so its worthwhile checking out if you have something you buy regularly (mine is Meridian organic no palm oil peanut butter :))

What an interesting place this is.
If you’re trying to find it, the road that runs down the side of Morrisons just keep going down it Unicorn is right at the end so you can’t drive past it.
One of my friends is big on his organic, unprocessed, chemicaless, none touched by the hand of any capitalist pig. Happy food that chose this life to be picked, cut, put into big wooden crates.
What I refer to as Hippy food :) now don’t presume I mean this in a bad way. I think it’s great, locally produced, unprocessed, exactly what it says food. I’m just one of those joe bloggs whose work lifestyle doesn’t always lend itself to the joy of cooking from scratch (even if it is one of my favourite pass times) and in the past haven’t had the greatest of experiences with small scale businesses proclaiming the healthy organic way to sell food. Clearly my own fault as my view has always been, it’s expensive, minimal choice filled with strange minded people in Dreadlocks trying to tell me how recycled toilet paper makes the trees smile (this was many years ago, and I’ve just never found myself in one again).
Simply put I’m an outdated dinosaur. Walking in with my Dreadlocked friend, his face lit up with a grin of the small child walking into a sweet shop. A sweet shop of feel good, karma balancing produce.
Unicorn is not in anyway what I remember of this ilk of shop, this place isn’t a small cramped shop, it’s size is on par with one of the small Chain supermarkets, which means (to me) surprisingly large variety of stock.
You’re greeted by wooden pallets brimming with Happy Veg still covered in the soil it grew up surrounded by, all loose, no plastic packaging just brown paper bags dotted at intervals ready to be plucked and filled with the spoils around them.
The rest of the shop is split into it’s various sections of organic goodness, with the only things it doesn’t appear to cover being Meat, and apparently cheese (unless I utterly missed the cheese)
But what does this mean, you can pretty much do you’re entire shop in this place, indeed if you’re a veggie you probably don’t need to go anywhere else.
The price tag, basically the same as the Chains you’ll find down the road, indeed depending on what you’re buying it’s cheaper.
If you’re not a veggie, lets face it are you really going to struggle to find you’re carnivore needs elsewhere in Chorlton on your trip home from this place brown bags and cardboard pallets a brim, I think not.

It was an experience and I will return
I needed some dried aduki beans not widely available where I live and once in side the large shop found all sorts of items I wanted. The wide variety of potatoes all at the same price so no confusion, and the helpful labels as to what they were best for made it easy to choose. The tea I liked for well balanced women, I have stocked up with. There is a wide range of grains, flours and nuts and everything is displayed well and there is not clutter in the wide aisles. At the check out the smiley cashier advised us to get recycled bags that people leave there for other users and there is also a big box of jam jars to help yourself to if making preserves. I would recommend anyone looking for a shop well stocked with lovely fresh vegetables and fruit, dried pulses, etc. to make the effort to go there.

Fantastic range of high quality healthy products and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better, fresher spread of organic, locally grown vegetables.
I always stop in and get my weekly shop on the way to my Tai Chi class just around the corner at St. Werburghs Church Hall.
If only all healthy whole food shops were this good!

Fab place for delicious, fresh, organic veg and a few other tasty treats along the way. Own-​grown & locally sourced where possible, a brilliant place to shop. (Vegan shop so don’t go asking for meat or dairy etc)

The ultimate place to shop! you can buy anything they stock knowing you’re helping support a more sustainable world and happier people.
Amazing prices, amazing food and an eye opener if you’ve only ever been to asda

I love the Unicorn– and I’d just like to say that I’m no hippie ;-)
In all seriousness though as someone with a variety of allergies (I know– sweet joy) this place caters for anything unchemically and also vegan stuff, including cake. I’m allergic to dairy and eggs so vegan cakes are the only type of cake I can eat without having a reaction!
Friendly atmos and lots of staff willing to help, plus an ace kids play shop too so you can browse without the munchkins around your feet.
This place has probably single-​handedly led the way for Chorlton now being THE place to live in Manchester.

Remember The Young Ones? Of course you do. If not, I’m officially disowning you. Anyway, one step into Unicorn and I thought, wow, this is where Neil would shop. It’s everything the hippy at heart could ever hope for, mung beans, lentils and all.
Unicorn’s the place you go to be kind to both the planet and the animals upon it. First of all, the produce is predominantly vegan. Second, placky bags? Huh, no chance. And why would you want one when you could pick up one of Unicorn’s own cute cloth reusable shopping bags, detailing a certain fruit or veg and when it’s in season? Thirdly, speaking of which, homegrowers and organic enthusiasts need look no further.
This place has ‘wholesome’ written all the way through it like a stick of Blackpool Rock. Whether it’s ingredients for a stew you’re after, perhaps a nice pot of vegan cheese or lump of smoked tofu, an unusual herbal tea, some cloth nappies for your li’l boho baby or even some sage advice, this is the place to come. Oh, and the sheer variety of Booja Booja free-​from just-​about-​everything ice cream? Knocks Eighth Day right outta the untreated water. On that note, this is like Eighth Day’s minimarket amplified — you can get a lot of the same brands, but just a much greater variety. Part of Manchester Road’s mighty Shopping Local triangle, you’d be (organic unsalted) nuts not to give it a try.

The produce has been reviewed flawlessly by the other reviewers, but I still want to enter the Unicorn circle jerk on Unilocal.So I thought I would just briefly weigh in on the other aspects I find appealing.
The staff always seem pretty relaxed and happy, our check out gentleman was drinking tea at the cash register and I know that seems like a stupid thing to get gooey over but I drink about a gallon of tea an hour and you would not be allowed to get away with that at say I dunno, Tesco, crap example really but hopefully you know what I mean.
They have a book exchange, boxes to put produce in instead of using bags (i mean so do alot of places but blah) there are recipes on flyers and guides to different types of cooking oils, whole grains etc for the uninitiated.
I used to dread my weekly shop but now I day dream about it at work, thank you unicorn for giving me some where to buy my almond butter, burritos, heirloom tomatoes and coconut oil.

Unicorn is quite simply the best place ever and the eco-​jewel in the crown of the noble and good kingdom of Chorlton, that land of the yoga bunny, the eco-​warrior and community campaign group Keep Chorlton Interesting
Walking around the unusually-​wide aisles of this wholefoods supermarket, it is easy to feel inspired that the times are *not* a’ changing. Because they’ve changed. And here we find ourselves in a land flowing with everlasting organic milk and honey, and we no longer have to constantly check the label because it’s all good stuff!
Unicorn is a fully-​fledged supermarket with the small and large trolleys to prove it, but the relaxed atmosphere and experience of the five senses being bathed in everything that is good is tangible. Starting outside the door, the Big Issue vendor deftly helped me free a trolley that was jammed, and I could feel his genuine wish to help and for my Unicorn shopping experience to be a good one.
Inside. Organic seeds. Garden tools made in Wigan by a company called Bulldog. (I bought a hand fork and a 3-​pronged hand cultivator, which I think will prove useful for weeding close to plants without damaging their roots.) Organic fruit and veg which is all labelled and sourced as locally as possible (e.g. Broad Beans from Gielty of Ormskirk). And plenty of choice of fruit and veg — how come supermarkets never manage to have more than a few lines of organic produce? A lovely blackboard telling what’s in season and how things have been going for the farmers out in the field. Sometimes, I’ve seen another small blackboard outside showing how Unicorn is cheaper than Sainsbury or Tesco for the same items. This doesn’t surprise me, as a good co-​op is a very strong business model, without the big salaries and pressure for huge shareholder dividends of all chain supermarkets.
I’ve not tried much from the chilled display, so I’ll leave that to others to review. The dried goods are handily displayed on tiered shelves with small, medium and large sizes of each item. In the back corner, there is a lovely little play area, including a compost bin for the little eco-​warriors to put their apple cores in! Every time I’ve visited, the play area has been very much in use, with lots of fun being had. The kids are nice to each other!
The bakery and hot food takeaway is all good stuff from the best organic bakeries in the area, supplemented by some goodies baked instore. I’ve had great soups from here, eaten with a buttered roll or pastie, very wholesome-​tasting — sweet potato or roasted red pepper, mmm! On the shelves in the middle are a many speciality ingredients which are hard to find elsewhere. From my till receipt, for example — Toasted Sesame Oil (organic), Pomegranate Syrup, Puffed Wheat (organic), Puffed Millet (organic), Polenta (organic). Even if you’re not an enthusiastic cook, I would personally much rather have a breakfast cereal of Puffed Wheat with a dash of maple syrup and whatever else I fancy rather than trust the Honey Monster!
Waiting at the checkout, the lady in front offered me half a organic loaf in a brown paper bag — thank you very much, madam! I always find the checkout staff and all the others very pleasant and on-​the-​ball — there is a maturity about this place. Unicorn is not a side-​show in Chorlton it’s the dominant retail model (shh — you know what I mean!) with a turnover of millions of pounds.
One last thing — at the checkout, those branded plastic things that supermarkets provide to separate your shopping on the belt from the customers in front and behind are replaced by… pieces of wood! Pass on the well-​worn, wooden baton and the good word about Unicorn. :-)

I miss Unicorn so much! I miss the huge bags of herbs that are the same price as the teeny tiny jars you get in the supermarket, the weird and wonderful spicy nutty treats you can get, the red rice that adds great variety to a humble risotto, pretty much everything in there.
Some of the products I’ve managed to source elsewhere, like the chillies in jars and the detergent free organic shampoo — but can I find bulk bags of lovely fresh smelling oregano? Not a chance.
Every now and again I see someone with a ‘eat your greens’ or a ‘swede’ bag and we exchange a knowing look, them eyeing my ‘old bag’. Few Glaswegians have got to experience the joys of Unicorn and every time I have a visitor they must bring up Unicorn food for me.
Yes its pretentious and very Chorlton but I love it.
Word to the wise — do not buy the elderflower wine. Sounds delicious, tastes like wee.

If you live in Chorlton there’s no way you will have got away without having heard about this local co-​operative. I’d say that approximately 50% of Chorltonites own a reusable Unicorn grocery bag which is permanently attached to their arm.
If you’re in the vicinity of Unicorn, you will be screeched at by the smiley Big Issue woman outside. I swear she’s the most profitable Big Issue seller in Manchester — everyone seems to stop on the way to buy their organic sprouts to give her some money, food or clothes.
So you’ve got an idea of the kind of people who shop there. What about the food? Inside the store there is a good range of earthy organic fruit and veg (with some great deals on seasonal produce), a selection of delicious organic beers and ales and an amazing deli counter (my personal favourites are the spinach and onion bhajis).
Even as a vegetarian I don’t shop here that often, but if I had the money I’d be in here every day!

Run by a co-​op of local health food fanatics and eco-​warriors, Unicorn is a brilliant, sprawling grocery store that sells crates of organic fruit, vegetables and salad from local farms. They also sell a wide selection of organic health-​food staples including rice, pasta, tofu, granola, veggie sausages, tomato passata, free range dairy products, freeze dried apples and wine. There’s also speciality food for vegans and coeliacs and eco household products like cleaning lotions, toilet roll etc.
Since the shop has a small car park and is located in central Chorlton, it’s usually bustling with local students, environmentalists and yummy mummies stocking up on the week’s shopping. If you walked in eating a steak sandwich you’d probably be quietly escorted from the building. In general however, the staff are much warmer and easier going than at other wholefood stores like On The 8^th Day.

Whilst I’m neither Vegan nor Vegetarian, I still appreciate a store that is dedicated to supplying food specifically for this market. It doesn’t stop there though with Unicorn. This co-​op stocks locally grown organic fruits, vegetables, sugar free products, fair trade products, even organic alcohol.
The best part for me is the deli counter which stocks cheeses, pates, marinated olives, cakes and pastries. There’s also a good range of wholefoods, grains, wholewheat/​rye/​spelt breads, even ethical household products. It might not have the biggest selection in the world but what they do have is great quality and very conscientious.