UK UK rappers open new supermarket to help their community 'feel seen' - There is a prayer room and a comment box near the checkouts where shoppers can make requests for new products.

UK rappers open new supermarket to help their community 'feel seen'
Reuters (archive.ph)
By Catarina Demony and Suban Abdulla
2025-01-31 11:29:04GMT


British rappers Krept and Konan stand in their new supermarket called Saveways that caters to ethnic minorities in Croydon, Britain, January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Marissa Davison

British rappers Krept and Konan pose with co-founder Kaysor Ali in their new supermarket Saveways that caters to ethnic minorities, in Croydon, Britain, January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Marissa Davison

British rappers Krept and Konan pose for a picture in their new supermarket called Saveways that caters to ethnic minorities in Croydon, Britain, January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Marissa Davison

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Tired of going from shop to shop in their hometown to find the culturally diverse products they need, two British rappers have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Award-winning duo Casyo Johnson and Karl Wilson, known in the music world as Krept and Konan and the voices behind the 2015 hit "Freak of the Week", grew up in Croydon, south London, where about 40% of residents identified as Black or Asian in a 2021 census.

But the duo say many of those communities are underserved by small local convenience stores and that the "world food" aisles in some of the major grocery chains often lack in product variety - a gap they hope to fill with their new 15,000 square foot supermarket, "Saveways", which opens on Saturday.

"We want people to feel seen," said Konan, who along with Krept was awarded a British Empire Medal in 2020 for their services to music and the community in Croydon. "We want people to feel that they've got a place that represents them when they want to get their specific food."

Shelves have been stocked with hundreds of spices, different types of beans, rice and cooking oils. Shoppers will also be able to bulk-buy halal meat, exotic fish and fruits, as well as ethnic hair and beauty products.

There is a prayer room and a comment box near the checkouts where shoppers can make requests for new products.

The idea to open a "one-stop-shop" with products tailored to Black, Asian and ethnic communities was pitched to Krept and Konan by their business partner, Kaysor Ali, who has known the rappers for more than 15 years.

"There is a lot of heart behind it and that's where it really comes from," Ali said. "To bridge that gap ... because no one has ever really done it - not to this standard."

Reporting by Catarina Demony, Suban Abdulla and Marissa Davison; Editing by Alex Richardson

 

[6 Years Ago]

where about 40% of residents identified as Black or Asian

'feel seen'

Yes, I agree. You need to watch out for the niggers and pakis

 

[oh no its pipkun]

I hope this works out and it catches on. No more activists haranguing the big supermarket chains to build storesin the ghetto and forcing regular joes to subsidize all the shoplifting. They can build their own supermarket chain.

 

[Necrosan]

Tired of going from shop to shop in their hometown to find the culturally diverse products they need

Shelves have been stocked with hundreds of spices, different types of beans, rice and cooking oils. Shoppers will also be able to bulk-buy halal meat, exotic fish and fruits, as well as ethnic hair and beauty products.

How is this not fucking parody? What product could even qualify as culturally diverse? There isn't a single product in this list that was invented or is made by blacks, even "etnic hair" which is just strands of plastic.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I've never been to an ethnic store that wasn't oriental or eastern european that didn't fucking stink to high heaven.

 

[BobbyBriggs69420]

Seems pretty cool these guys are becoming store owners, I can admire that a lot more than I can being a rapper, or an office worker or an Uber driver and on and on.

As long as unwilling white people didn't buy them the store. Unwilling white people paid for the store didn't they?

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

Meanwhile, I went out to try and buy Polish mayonnaise the other day, arguably the whitest white person foodstuff ever created, and could I find it? Fucking no. Shelves lined with curry sauces, spices and seas'nin's, though.

 

[Troonos]

We see you. We just don't want to see you.

 

[CharlesBarkley]

UK niggers are like US niggers if US niggers were big gay retarded pussies who loved buttsex on the daily and instead of guns, penetrated each other with knifes and their penis.

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

UK niggers are like US niggers if US niggers were big gay retarded pussies who loved buttsex on the daily

so they are exactly like us niggers.

 

[CharlesBarkley]

so they are exactly like us niggers.

Nah because US niggers use guns and they say stuff like "Man, I had to yank out a old heads tongue and wiped dey' ass with it." where a UK nigger will be like "Oi my chips are a tad bit salty than the morrow' chips, now where can I find a tiny 10 year old lad supple in the flesh to molest? Jolly good!"

 

[Chaos Theorist]

I bet you the place closes down from shoplifting in a year

 

[Yamaha YM2612]

Wait, UK or their community? Can't be both, UK is a white community

 

[That Chris Guy]

How long until someone writes in the comment box, "Needs less niggers, lads"?

Perhaps I'm giving the Britbongs too much credit here...

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Tired of going from shop to shop...

Lazy niggers.

... in their hometown to find the culturally diverse products they need, two British rappers...

...products tailored to Black, Asian and ethnic communities

Are they British or are they black? Pick one.

Shoppers will also be able to bulk-buy halal meat

Another paki shop where you can't buy bacon, sausages or ham. Not very diverse. The lazy niggers will have to go shop-to-shop if they want ham.

There is a prayer room and a comment box near the checkouts where shoppers can make requests for new products.

Here's a request for a new product: "A one way plane ticket back to where you came from".

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

I assume they will have a large section of these in the chip aisle:

 

[Pure Soap]

There is a prayer room and a comment box near the checkouts where shoppers can make requests for new products.

But do they have an Aloha Snackbar?

 

[I'm Retarded?]

what "culturally diverse" products do these fags need that regular stores don't carry? do they not carry the right watermelon at the local Tesco or some shit?

 

[Chongqing]

what "culturally diverse" products do these fags need that regular stores don't carry?

When the bleach isn't sold directly next to the chicken, it's confusing and inconvenient.

 

[Spaztic]

Dunno why you guys are so mad that nigs are starting a nig (or muslim tbh) store in nigtown. It's like any other import store, they're gonna buy all the 3rd world brands of shit that the modern British are so fond of, along with nig specific products like.... uh, hair extensions.

This is actually a really good business opportunity, even if the management is half-assed it's a sure profit maker. You can't really do it if you're white, because any interaction with day-to-day clients will cause you all sorts of liability issues - like when you have to stop a shoplifter going out the store, or ban those same shoplifters. You would need black frontmen to take the heat and avoid unlicensed racism charges.

Speaking of shrinkage, this ain't a globohomo shop. Somehow bodegas don't get robbed blind every day (it's because the shop owners will pursue and attack thieves instead of asking forgiveness for being racist)