Vesco Express, or 'Mr Vesco' as it is known in our house (I have no idea what the proprieter's name…read moreactually is), is a little convenience store on the corner of Junction Road and Selsdon Road, selling the usual assortment of papers, sweets, cigarettes, and a random assortment of food and cleaning products. Without fail, it has a Croydon Advertiser sign outside with the latest monstrous thing to have happened in Croydon in big felt-tip letters, and it's got one of those great notice boards where people advertise a mix of rooms for rent, crap old things for sale, and 'massages'. Inside, it's cramped, with everything piled high, but, to his credit, Mr Vesco isn't one for following you around as you browse the biscuits, and for that I love him. In the Spar, further down the road, you get a shop worker trailing you to make sure you're not stealing packets of Oxo cubes and Chewits, a practice guaranteed to make everyone look a bit shifty through sheer embarrassment. Anyway. The only downside to Mr Vesco is his chiller cabinet, which I wouldn't trust for anythng other than milk as it never seems quite chilled enough. And I had to send the other half back once with a tub of ice cream that was past its sell-by date and was all wrong inside, like it had melted and been refrozen. Embarrassingly, when the other half met some resistance in asking for a refund on the dodgy ice cream, he claimed I was pregnant in order to get Mr Vesco to agree that out of date ice cream was bad; I'm sure every time I go in now he's eyeing up my belly

Good service but expensive though…read more I live in Sydenham and wanted to support a local business, so I went to PMS Printers with my namecard printing. They are double sided colour printing against white background. I can do the same job in Hong Kong for £30 for the lot, but it cost me 5 times more expensive here in London. In total I got 200 x 2 cards printed and one of the lot is laminated Sent them the design and they respond straight away, we had many difficulty getting the colour right but we did it in the end. Since I live no less than 10 mins walk away I offered to go in and pick it up. They were done in 3 days I struggle to go back to them for the price I paid, but you get the job done

Really friendly, fast and reasonable. Glyn is really happy to talk through your job and make great…read moresuggestions. I have used them a few times and have always been delighted.

This is my local newsagent and the best one on the Green Lanes stretch. The store is larger than…read morethe average newsagents, so there is a feeling of space in this shop. The selection of newspapers and magazines is very good. I've noticed newspapers from all over the world, reflecting the wealth of ethnic backrounds of local customers. There is also a large stand with greeting cards for all occasions. This shop is really a mix of newsagents and corner shop, selling all sorts of convenience foods. The prices are slightly higher than the local supermarkets, but the convenience of buying a pint of milk almost right on your doorstep is worth paying extra for, in my opinion. You can also get you tube/bus passes here. the bus stop is right in front of this shop, so a quick top-up of the Oyster card is more than convenient here.

Do not have you collect + parcel delivered here- have it delivered to another store. The parcels…read moreare left at the end of the aisle on the shop floor near the door, so very vulnerable to theft, and the owners do not keep track of which parcels they have in the shop. Even though I received a text and email to say the parcel was in the shop and ready to collect, the owner claimed she didn't have it, the driver lost it, that the driver loses things all the time, WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING FOR MY PARCEL. I asked her to check with other members of staff, maybe someone else accepted it, as I received confirmation that the parcel is there. She said these texts and emails are sent by mistake etc etc. I then stood in her shop and called Collect Plus and spoke to them on the phone. The Collect Plus rep on the phone confirmed that they had a signature from S Patel who accepted my parcel, so it must be in the shop. I then told the shop owner this, and it was only THEN that she said okay hold on, I will look for it, but she made me stand by for a further 15 minutes (I was in the shop for about 40 minutes by this time) whilst she served other customers, had a chat with the workman etc etc, all whilst I was on the phone to collect + and did not even start looking. As she still hadn't started looking, the Collect + representative then agreed to call the shop on my behalf, through on the Paypoint line. The rep from Collect Plus then had to call the shop, and funnily enough, as soon as paypoint called the shop, the husband of the woman I was speaking to in the shop came down, looked for my parcel, and found it And then, without ANY APOLOGY, the lady turned round and said to me you told me it was from ASOS so I was looking for a grey bag, so it is your fault we could not find the parcel. Not only was this a lie, but can you imagine how horrible that is? For them to have my parcel, then tell me they didn't have it, and not even look, and after all that, not even get an apology and just say it's my fault? Disgraceful. What a horrible woman.