Busy Bee Garden Centre Reviews Summary

Accessibility

Pros:

• "Lift inside so fully accessible and accessible toilet too."
• "With plenty car parking spaces and with disabled parking spaces available, lift access, very spacious shop with a large cafe."
• "Easily accessible for disabled or prams (a lift between floors)."
• "Disability parking on higher car park."

Cons:

• "There is only one tiny lift to service the whole store, so a lot of time is spent waiting for it."
• "Great place but could do with another lift or at the very least a polite notice asking people to only use the lift if really required."
• "No parent and child parking, no trolleys that you are able to sit your child in."
• "The shop isn’t set out for wheelchairs, as the restaurant and shop is quite packed in."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Busy bee, well what can I say about busy bee 🐝 it's a great place to visit they have a very good range of items... nice staff is always a must they have great staff happy to help you."
• "Friendly helpful staff, easy parking."
• "Absolutely great service from Anita in the garden furniture and bbq area here."
• "Very welcoming and friendly staff."
• "Staff were all very friendly and attentive and much of the food was home made/baked."
• "The staff are always friendly and helpful and the prices are very fair."
• "Staff very helpful and friendly."

Cons:

• "The state of the high chairs in the cafe was disgusting."
• "One of the biggest negatives was the lack of free WiFi in the restaurant."
• "Went for a prearranged afternoon tea for 3 people... Good value for money, just need a Customer Service Course for a couple of the staff."
• "The owner and manager that treats the staff terribly, shouting at them in front of customers."
• "Today we met the rudest and most spiteful female member of staff."
• "Staff are so rude. Especially the older woman doing refunds."
• "Didn't find the place welcoming, or indeed friendly."

Price and Value

Pros:

• "Lovely large garden centre that is very much like Wyvale garden centres but without the extortionate prices."
• "Being an IOW exile we come to the Island frequently and often end up here for Lunch/Tea/Coffee or a look around... again reasonable prices although some of the items are rather pricey at times."
• "I had THE most delicious fruit scone with jam and clotted cream and a pot of tea for a very reasonable price."
• "Plant stock was well cared for and displayed and competitively priced, but the real treat was the many unusual varieties and species, several I've never seen for sale at garden centres."

Cons:

• "Everything is far too expensive."
• "So expensive for what it is... sadly all the plants outside where blown over and looked neglected."
• "The prices on the Christmas shop were ridiculously expensive."
• "A bottle of cola was £2.25!!"
• "You are able to find some good buys but most of it is over priced."
• "Only downside is it can be pricey there and would compare prices with Thompsons garden center."
• "Manically busy at Xmas time, loads of stuff to keep children entertained. Prices are a bit high."

Product Selection and Quality

Pros:

• "Good range of sewing equipment, some lovely and different vases and ornaments."
• "Busy bee is a nice large garden centre with lots of variety of plants, a large selection of pots and gardening tools."
• "Bought some decent products here, including a nice table and chairs."
• "They have a plethora of items that range from homeware to clothing and obviously gardening products."
• "Generous sized garden centre with everything you need for your garden."
• "Interesting variety of good for sale - not just for gardens."
• "Always guaranteed decent fish and chips."

Cons:

• "Just a shame they were out of the grow bag we wanted on this occasion!"
• "They tend to have a somewhat good variety of indoor plants, but they always have pests or root rot."
• "There's a tiny section of cat toys and a choice of around three igloo beds and a scratching post and that's it. The rest is dedicated to dogs or garden birds."
• "Also the pet section is great - but only if you're a dog owner."
• "Since it’s got bigger with the retail side of things, it seems to have lost any real interest in the “gardening” unless you want to buy your garden off the shelf."

Cafe and Food

Pros:

• "The restaurant is amazing. The cakes are out of this world."
• "The large cafe serves excellent food and the store has a lovely Christmas feel in December."
• "Good cafe with plenty of seating."
• "The Olive tree restaurant makes a good pizza too."
• "We also had roast lamb lunch well worth the money staff very helpful."
• "The cafe serves outstanding food with great service."
• "The cafe is amazing, I have never seen such massive slices of cake."

Cons:

• "Very disappointed as thought coffee shop would be open...You are missing out as a business especially when tourists come in the school holidays."
• "Furthermore the cafe was an absolute joke. We waited 35 minutes for two toasties."
• "However the pizza base on the pizza I had there today was very salty."
• "Stopped for an £8 breakfast. It was very disappointing."
• "Went there for lunch with my daughter today and was really disappointed... We ordered mozzarella, pesto and tomato panini, it was disgusting, so won't order that again."
• "Came for lunch and greatly disappointed. After paying nearly £10 for a panini we were given a bland meal, with an odd, soapy aftertaste."

Christmas Experience

Pros:

• "The Christmas displays are excellent this year with a large variety of Christmas decorations, lights, etc."
• "Busy Bee’s Christmas displays, which are outstanding."
• "Absolutely love busy bee's especially at Christmas, you can just go in and walk around Santa's wonderland without being harassed to purchase anything but it's almost impossible not to."
• "Their Christmas displays and decorations are fantastic."
• "The fully stocked Christmas shop contains every decoration that you could ever want."
• "If you're looking for a Christmas experience, look no further."
• "Christmas world was fantastic, so beautiful 😍never seen anything like it, so pretty & sparkly things everywhere!"

Cons:

• "Was extremely disappointed in the 'Winter Wonderland', basically it's a large amount of Christmas decorations, trees etc at a high price."
• "I find the Christmas period interesting but far too over crowded and overwhelming."
• "But there were very few trees. Not nearly as many lights."
• "Usually love coming here but left feeling a bit disappointed today... since Christmas World is always so fabulous I fully expected to find maybe a little section for Halloween. Not so. I didn't see a thing."
• "We walked out today and we will avoid the place until after Xmas. It is Oct 28 and they are playing XMAS SONGS and have xmas tat everywhere."
• "It has definitely fell off of our Christmas routine."