Ok everyone,

I am thinking of opening a shop when we get to Oz selling all the things you get here that you cant get over there. Now my wife is in the 'embrace your new culture and forget about Cadbury's chocolate etc.' but I feel; why not have you cake & eat it! and anyway, if we feel the UK products are superior, then maybe discerning Oz folk will as well

Anyone got anything they would like stocked?

Cheers Mark

An ignorant shop assistant would be essential.

I am sure a lot of people would like:
Pg Tips, Walkers Crisps, Heinz Beans,Cadburys everything and Marmite NOT Vegemite -yuk!

irn bru and a good malt

Can get it off the web anyway.

A lot of these foods are over here already. It just takes a while tracking them down! If you meet up with other Poms they will tell you which local supermarket stocks certain things. In capital cities there's a good chance of finding a UK shop too, we even have one here in Mandurah "The Candy Store", which sells mainly sweets but a few groceries too. The prices are pretty amazing though $17 for a jar of Marmite, so we're sticking to Vegemite. Although our local Action started stocking Marmite recently, but it quickly sold out and the shelf has been empty for some time. It was labelled as "Our Mate" but the colour of the label was the same, as there is already an Ozzie Marmite. Where you do find UK finds, even in the local supermarket, the price is sometimes prohibitive. We can buy Weetabix, but it's twice the price and Vita-Brits taste just the same. But many UK goods are stocked all the time, at the same price as Ozzie equivalents. Haven't seen PG Tips, but Tetley is here and that's ok. No Walkers crisps either, but they do stock Smiths. (Note the Ozzies call crisps "chips", but they also call chips "chips" so it gets confusing!) You'll find there are many other familiar brands readily available, like Heinz Beans and Heinz soups, Kellogs cereals, Nesquik for the kids, Robertsons Marmalade. I think the biggest problem when we first got here was that the supermarkets all looked so "foreign" and it took ages to get round, but it's easier now that I'm used to the layout. I even found some "Tesco" items in our local Action, that was a surprise.

There is a shop in Lakeside shopping Centre Joondalup that does just that , seems to make a good living so give it a try.
The best thing you could do is open a good British Chippy with real unfrozen chips cooked in lard and imported pies , fish with Brit batter and haddock would be great , I am going wobbley at the knees.

My list

Brains Faggots
Any good brand Steak and Kidney Pie
Cream of tomato Soup any Brit brand ( none here just tomato Aussie style crap)
Any Brit made Chocolate products ( we do have cadburys here only its Aussie chocolate very poor)

Just remembered, there is a huge choice of chocolate here, you'll find all the usual Kit Kats, Mars, Cadburys chocs, but there is a very, very slight taste difference, hardly noticeable, we think maybe there is a different fat/chocolate ratio used when manufacturing, to prevent the chocolate melting too quick in the heat, or going white when the fat separates.
Also the Ozzies do like their sweets. The kids and adults over here must have really bad dental problems, the selection in the supermarket is huge, they still sell sweets by the checkouts (something Tesco banned), and even at school the kids are given sweets as rewards for good work. At Christmas we found there were heaps of different seasonal sweet bags packaged up alongside the nuts and other goodies. And another confusion, they call sweets "lollies" which to us means a round sweet on a stick!

There is a good selection of sweets but do you not find the supermarkets very small and very few brands on the shelfs ? no hyper markets like the UK that sell everything like asda etc and have a great selection of everything including booze also not open Sundays and close early most days except Thursday.

You have met an Aussie one then ? my wife loves the way they wrap up clothes in the shops here , grab the garment with both hands screw into a ball take bag in other hand and open throw said garment into it and throw at the buyer , if asked any questions about stock say its coming from over east next week , then turn your back and carry on talking to the other assistant.
You do get a bored smile and a good day before they switch off again , its below them to bother with you.

I went through a bit of a home-sick stage and really wanted some food from home, I found a site that you can buy a few things from, but my god it was a rip off!

There are a couple of English sweet shops here (in Adelaide), but I haven't really got a sweet tooth.

Some things that spring to mind are:

Branston Sandwich Pickle
Grape Nuts
Pot Noodles
Jaffa Cakes

Nara

Tina,

Aren't 'Lays' the same as Walkers ? The packaging is very similar, albeit with Pat Rafter as opposed to Gary Lineker/Michael Owen, and the marketing is almost identical.

Cheers,
Paul.

When we finally leave here next week we have planned to have a stopover with friends in WA on route to QLD. They have been there for 5 or 6 years. Given the restrictions on what foodstuffs you can get through customs, any suggestions for things they might really like us to bring? I can imagine a pot of Branston smashed in the suitcase.....

Magnetman,

Don't bother bringing the Branston, that's available here too.

Cheers,
Paul.

I must have been walking too fast down the pickle aisle. Mmm, think I'll make myself a cheese and pickle sandwich for lunch.

Hope you're well Paul. I can't use messenger at work, and haven't had PC set up at home since we moved our stuff out (we're buying the place we've been renting and are currently staying at bf's parents whilst we decorate... boy I'm sick of painting!)