LARGO - "Hello, love," says a smiling Krysia Goodwin as a customer walks into her shop. After a while, she rings up a sign that says "Parking for Irish only," a stack of Cadbury chocolates and several small bone china plates.
The business, London Pride, recently moved to Largo from St. Pete Beach. It has catered for more than a decade to the tastes of local Brits who miss the foodstuffs of home, as well as those on holiday, hungry for Irish bacon or Cheshire cheese.
Shelves display scented English soaps, tapes of Irish football and English soccer, Benny Hill, Inspector Morse and Father Ted, meat pies, sausages, beers, biscuits, flags, toys, T-shirts and magnet bagpipes that play Scotland the Brave.
Mrs. Goodwin and her husband, Gerry, came to Pinellas County six years ago from Phoenix for a vacation and to scout the area for a bed and breakfast to buy.
"We hooked up with an agent that specialized in bed and breakfast sales, but it didn't work out," Gerry Goodwin said. "Then Krysia saw London Pride advertised for sale in the Union Jack monthly newspaper. I wanted to have a business and a house by the time I was 50 and I made it with a week to spare."
Now the couple give complimentary copies of the papers to their customers.
In the new location at Sabala Plaza, there is more space for inventory, Mrs. Goodwin said. They have expanded their line of fine bone china and Woods of Windsor soaps and scents and added a line of specialty beers.
Mrs. Goodwin said it cost $3,000 to set up the business in Largo. The couple sell worldwide from their Internet site, but most of their business is local, she said.
Among the shop's regulars are Jill and Hugh McGinley, who hail from just outside London and own and operate Island Manor motel in Indian Shores, and Alan and Gillian Thomas, natives of Oswestry, England, who live in Clearwater and own Intercoast Pool and Deck Refinishing.
"I go in probably two or three times a month," said Mrs. McGinley. "I stock up on things when I go - half a dozen tins of this and that. I go mainly for the bacon, sausage and I like my English baked beans and steak and kidney pie.
"Until a couple of years ago, we could tell friends coming over to visit - bring us this or that, but you can't do that anymore," Mrs. McGinley said. "We get quite a few Brits here at the motel - I send them up there (to London Pride)."
Alan Thomas said he is a frequent customer for such groceries as sausage, bacon and English chips. The imported bacon "just tastes better," he said. Add English chocolates and curry sauces to his list of favorites, he said.
"We could live without these things," Mrs. McGinley said. "But it's nice to shop there and be able to have an English dinner."
London Pride
14100 Walsingham Road, Largo
British food and beverages, TV, movie and sports videos, CDs and tapes, gifts and souvenirs.
