Green’s Food Fare

As far as I am concerned this is the best most friendly staffed shop in northern Ireland, really is worth the trip from Bangor to visit. Love coming here.

Often dismissed as a specialty food store (well it does say so on the shop sign!) Green’s is an admirably old school food store and I love it!
It’s a great place to wander around checking out all the stuff and brilliant bargains they have on offer.
The fruit and veg are really well stocked (Tesco and most supermarkets are rubbish for this these days) and you’re guaranteed wholesome produce.
They also have an old school pick n mix section which was just delightful and would be a real treat for any kids.
Refreshing too see this kind of a store holding it’s own with lovely staff instead of self-​service machines!

It’s remarkable when an independent foodstore continues to exist in a town centre. Green’s is evidently a thriving concern. Most of the food it sells is of the normal grocery range.
I half expected something a bit more delicatessen-​like but I wasn’t entirely disappointed as there were nice fresh olives with various flavours and stuffings like cheese or pimento, as well as a selection of better jams than the run of the mill ones.
On my way round I was surprised to come across a coffee shop in the middle, but I continued and after stocking up with a few basic things for weekend the bill was less than I’d expected and altogether better value than getting the same thing at a supermarket.
It’s quite old fashioned in here. You need to weigh your fruit and vegetables before getting to the till. Being so used to supermarket mechanisation I failed to weight some bananas I’d got, though the girl at the till made nothing about sorting it out however.

Green’s is more than it seems!
I always thought it was a speciality shop much like sawyers in Belfast but upon entering the store it was clear this was not the case. It was sort of like stepping back in time! It’s just a grocery store which has never bothered to catch up with tesco’s or adsa, and it’s really refreshing!
The most surprising part?
It’s cheap as chips! Prices are so cheap here it would put Morrison’s to shame! No wonder it holds pride of place on market Street! It was packed too and the majority of the staff seemed to be lifers which meant customer service was truly fantastic! Love this place!
I dander around for ages admiring the produce and slowly filling a basket with things that weren’t good for me! But at those prices why not? Check this wee gem out!

Green’s is somewhere I have always walked past in Lisburn, but not gone into, until recently.
It is a proper wee old fashioned convenience store, something that you literally never see anymore. A thought flashed through my head for a second, wondering how in the world they would get any business, what with the huge Teso superstore in Lisburn, until I took a good look around, the place was absolutely packed.
Then I took a closer look. The prices were very, very competitive. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s a brilliant thing, to see a shop like this nowadays, and not just some generic supermarket.
It doesn’t look that big from the front, but it’s like a tardis inside, with lots of aisles and even a coffee shop in there!
There is a huge pick and mix section (I resisted temptation with all my willpower!) and lots of brands you wouldn’t often see in the supermarket, including lots of household names, all stacked neatly, with labels facing the front, with great care. I will never bypass this wee shop again!

I have *always* wanted to have a peek in Green’s. Until yesterday, I thought it was some form of speciality food shop but it is, in actual fact, just an old school grocery store. And I like old-​school.
Very reminiscent of Stewart’s (they were the days), Green’s has a little line of retro tills just as you walk through the door. Beyond this are aisles upon aisles of every kind of food you’d expect to find in a grocery store. Some of the stock is slightly different to what you’d find in Tesco etc. — they had rather a lot of Scottish biscuits and shortbread for example. Nice.
The highlight of my visit was the pic n mix section, and this was really old-​school. More old-​school than I initially realised. Having selected my sweets and lumped them all in one of the plastic bags provided, I headed towards the till and set the bag down. «Oooh, they need weighed love», said the shop assistant, and marched off towards the pic n mix section, with my sister and I hot on her heels. «Sorry, I didn’t realise!», I explained, but she wasn’t fazed in the slightest. She placed the bag on a set of scales (yes…remember those?! They even gave you a little sticker to put on your items), and headed back to the till. I apologised once again, saying I hadn’t realised that the shop was quite so nostalgic, but she just laughed and said, «Ah, this is Green’s after all!». I appreciated that.
Rummaging through my purse, I produced three pound coins, ready for her to inform me of the price. «£1.64 love» came the unexpected statement. ‘Sweet!’ (in more ways than one) thought I… it was a heavy bag, and I was prepared to pay quite a bit more. It really was the icing on the cake, so to speak.
Happy days… until *someone* ate all my pic n mix, that is. Grrrr. Just means I’ll have to pop back someday…