Welcome to the sweet world of MacMart Shoppers Store, a.k.a. the sugar lovers' paradise! Chocolate, candies, biscuits, dried fruits, you name it! They aren't the sweets that you buy in your usual supermarket, but rare finds mostly imported from Europe, Middle East, Australia (yes, they do have Timtams!), China and Japan.
The Shop
From outside, it looks just like a regular grocer's shop. Don't be fooled by the facade. You'll discover, at the back of the shop, a room that would give dentists and nutritionists shivers. The shelves all around the room and the impressive 'Special Offer Table' in the middle are bursting with sweets. It's messy but it's a sweet mess!
You'll find an extensive range of chocolates slabs: from Cadbury, Milka, Hershey's to the pretty prestigious Swiss brand Villars, all coming in a large variety of flavours. They also sell KitKat, Maltesers, Toblerone, Kinder goodies and the more common Mars, Bounty, Twix, etc.
Their range of candies is equally broad: different kinds of Haribo, Skittles, Mentos, Starburst, to name a few.
More than just sweets, MacMart Shoppers Store also sells cereals, dried fruits and nuts, chips, canned and bottled goods (mostly sauces from all over the world), non-alcoholic drinks and some cosmetics. Ah and some clothes as well. A true Ali Baba's cave, I've told you!
Products are fairly priced. They are not cheap obviously as they come from overseas but they are reasonably priced. In fact some of the products that are readily available in supermarkets are cheaper here. To give you a rough idea, chocolate slabs are about Rs. 600 to 700 and decent sized candies or chocolate pouches are about Rs. 650. Prices rise up to Rs. 3,500 for jumbo-sized packets.
The Goodies
Feeling adventurous, I decided to try some Pocky biscuits, which are Matcha Green Tea flavoured Japanese biscuit sticks (Rs. 400). They also had them in more classical flavours like almonds or chocolate. But I was in the mood for something more exotic.
The biscuits were not bad, they didn't taste like Matcha at all though but instead more like white chocolate. They were almost all broken, I could only find 1 full one and 2 – 3 okay ones for the picture. Apart from the sad picture op, it didn't bother me that much.
I was enthusiatic to try the Snack Bar version of my favourite British biscuits, flavoured with coconut and chocolate (Rs. 700). Unfortunately, the cereal bar didn't remind me anything of the deliciously oaty and salty original Hobnobs. It was just like an average snack bar, overly sweet and soggy.
Finally, driven by curiosity (and puzzlement I have to admit), I got this Minion Egg (Rs. 200).
It contains strawberry flavoured cute little biscuits (that are definitely more pleasant to look at than to eat) and an undefinable plastic toy that the Chinese written instructions failed to make comprehensible.
If you are into quirky Christmas decorations, these eggs are ideal.
The Service
People working there have this unfortunate tendency to shadow you everywhere in the shop, which can be a bit bothersome but there are very friendly. It was pouring down and thundering outside at the time I visited the shop and they offered me a seat so I could wait for the storm to calm down, which was very nice of them.
Conclusion
MacMart Shoppers Store is a key contributor to Colombo's sweet scene. Sugar addicts and homesick expats will surely find something comforting amongst their broad range of imported sweets.
