Friendly Grocery

I walk into the Friendly Grocer, he says, «Watch where you’re going.» True story. But that reminds me of the time I walked into the shop called, ‘The Friendly Grocer’ in Pyrmont.
First thing I saw as I walked into the shop was a television screen facing the entrance, ‘Bold & the Beautiful’ or ‘Passions’ or one of those melodramatic soap operas is playing and it’s kind of disconcerting to walk in with eggs and milk on the mind and be subjected to the deaths and affairs of the beautiful people.
This particular Friendly Grocer’s has an Asian angle and there are many unusual coconutty, lychee based drinks in the numerous fridges that line the western wall. The front of the shop is stock full of sweets, lollies and health care products; then as you make your way to the back of the shop, more traditional groceries can be found; the packaged and the canned.
There are a few shelves full of Asian groceries like sauces, biscuits and snack foods. Cuttle fish flavoured chips stands out to me, but I’m not anywhere near brave enough to indulge.
The store is called the friendly grocer and yet as I walk through the aisles surveying the products, not one word is said to me, not one smile thrown my way. They’re not unfriendly, but to say that they are friendly is a slight overstatement.

I’ve previously spoken about the Tardis of food courts, now it’s time to talk about the Tardis of mini-​supermarkets! From the outside, it’s just another place to pick up a can of Coke (with or without your name on it), and then you walk inside and it still looks like your average mini-​mart. Walking down the first two aisles wouldn’t make you think anything else, but then a trip down aisles 3 and 4 reveals that this place is much bigger than first thought. In fact there’s another supermarket back there! And there’s all sorts of useless stuff back there! Not much in the way of food you’d want to eat, but there’s plenty of «stuff».
To be fair, it is just the sort of place you’d go to pick up a drink, but there is more to it than meets the eye!

Ok, I kinda love this place because it’s so random and misleading… and if I wasn’t scouting for new places to share with you I never would have walked inside…
So from the outside Friendly Grocery looks like a small convenient store… a little corner shop BUT as you start to make you way through the aisles you begin to discover that it’s actually HUGE… I reckon this place is at least 3 or 4 times bigger than i imagined it to be…
And since its so large, it means they carry more than just your local convenient store — they have everything lightbulbs, laundry mesh bags, pain scrapers as well as milk, eggs. bread, ice creams and chocolate…
PLUS the prices are fairly resonable — 2 medium chocolates for $ 3, small deodorant $ 6…
I’m impressed and will definitely visit the Friendly Grocer again…
(ps: guy behind the counter — no so friendly)