basically it opened up in the 50s by post wwII greek immigrants and the inside hasn't changed since. it still has all the original posters from the 50s, furniture, machinery, and chocolate boxes, the place is literally a time warp into the 50s. it use to be the main food vendor for the stanmore cinema which was next door, but now it's a bunch of apartments so since it closed business has droooopped. the outside looks like it's falling apart and the inside is dirty and dark as hell. it has had the same owner since it opened (well the brother of the owner took over after he died), it is open literally all hours, and if you walked by at night you wouldn't think it was closed, you'd think it was abandoned because the doors are open but no lights are on inside. when you go in you'll probably see no one, but then the owner just pops out of nowhere behind the counter. if you ask him for something, no matter what it is the only answer you'll get is "i'm out of stock, come back in 3 months and i'll have it" but he NEVER restocks, he has a wall filled with empty chocolate boxes so you think the place is loaded, sometimes you might be lucky enough to get something, but it'll be a couple of years overdue. the owner basically hates anyone going in yet he persists on keeping the place open. the front window is broken and all he did was board it up. upstairs is a barber shop so whenever i think of the place i think of sweeney todd upstairs, and mrs lovetts meat pies down stairs.
some people think the guy runs some kind of Dexter torture thing behind the store, others think he is a vampire, the fact is he never ages.
most people are confused by why he keeps the place open. herarely has any customers, he isn't aking any money, and he makes no effort to keep the place looking acceptable.
my most recent experience with this place was around 1030pm after i had a night out in Newtown and so i decided to drop by. for some reason it was closed (i use to walk by at 1am and it was still open) but trhe lights were on inside which was really weird, and i saw him brushing his teeth through the reflection of the mirror he was in front of (so that debunks the vampire myth). i tried to get in but the door was locked and he was just death staring me through the mirror and i was dead still for like 5 minutes until i heard ANOTHER ambulance go down parra road which had me back to normal.
the way i'm telling it now is probably shit because i've told this story so many times and i get tired but if you ever see the place you know there's some real supernatural shit going on in there.
my theory is he's probably a good guy scaring people off because the store is possessed or something.
the state of the place i guess is pretty typical though because these post wwii migrants tend to be quite loaded and generally they like to own whole entire streets by purchasing all the properties but they never bother to spend money on fixing them up.
so that's my version of the tale.