Continental Shop

OMG to the annoyance of my best friend I spent a good 25 minutes in this store over delighted with all the English imported candy and treats, especially the ones for Easter. Very reasonably priced for imports. It was Easter, therefore, it was naturally busy. Customer service was awesome.

Big warning: Do not use debit cards at this place! Useless customer service! I’m a longtime steady customer of this shop. On Dec. 10, I used a debit card for a $ 49.44 purchase of Xmas goods. The small reader they use said the transaction did not go through, I swiped again, same thing so I used a credit card. Imagine my shock when I checked my account a couple days later, and saw that both those debits had indeed had gone through! So I had paid three times! Michael Clewen, the owner, said this had happened to a number of customers and it was a problem with the processor, Indigo Payments, being overloaded due to Xmas sales. He assured me that I’d get a refund. A few days later, no refund, I went back. It would take more time, he said. They’re inundated. No apology, mind you. This was not much of an excuse in the day of electronic banking.
I went away for the holidays, fully expecting the money to be in my account when I returned. Guess what? It wasn’t. Back to the shop. He wasn’t there, my number was taken — he’d call me back. Of course he didn’t. Back I went — now the fourth time. He called the processor. I asked why are we waiting on the processor, issue me a refund. He said he didn’t «think» he had my money, the transactions never posted to his account. «I don’t want your money,» he barked. Huh? Well, the money was taken out of my account. Again, no apology. No actual checking of his account to see if the money was there or not. I went back again and he gave me the name of the processor, Indigo. I called their customer service. The woman was actually helpful, unlike Michael Clewen, and found that yes, both transactions had indeed posted to his account!!! She called him while I was on the line and he said I’d get a refund. I was elated.
A week later, still no refund. It is now seven weeks since this error occurred! I called, yet again, and he made some excuse about missing a digit on my debit card number. I gave it to him again. Three days go by, still no money.
Mike has never apologized, never offered me credit, a refund, something to compensate for this considerable inconvenience. I’ve shared this experience with members of my British expats group. There’s another British shop in Santa Monica and elsewhere in L.A. He should take better care of his customers because he’s lost this one!!!

I don’t understand all the bad reviews for this place – but they were written 4+ years ago, and I can definitely say they are no longer relevant. As an huge Anglophile (My tv watching habits are basically a revolving parade of BBC programming – it all started from my mom and grandmother having me watch «Are you Being Served?» as a child”) I have been to almost all of the British food shops/​grocery stores in the LA/​surrounding areas, and this is my ABSOLUTE favorite – not only is it the biggest (the size of an actual small grocery, complete with aisles) but it also has so much stuff from the UK that no other shops have — up to date magazines and newspapers, TONS of DVDs, even a rental spot where you can rent British series from many, mannnny years back.
I feel like this is the most well-​curated of the bunch and has stuff you would actually use and be interested in if you missed your homeland. A lot of the other shops have really crummy touristy souvenir stuff – but why would you want any of that when you could buy it on an actual trip? I never had any issue with anything being out of date, and I found the saleslady to be very kind (and I usually hate everybody, so this is saying a lot). This one by FAR has the most inventory and is like a proper grocery store instead of a touristy sort of place. Basically an Anglophile’s heaven. I can’t drag myself to any of the other shops as long as I know this one is around!

I was looking for Caramac bars, and they had Caramac bars. Odd location and store, but hey — had what I was looking for. Since they closed the English Tea Shoppe in Santa Monica, wasn’t sure where else to look for the product (Rocket Fizz didn’t have them either).

i love love love this place! First discovered it back in 2006 while working at santa monica hospital across the street and thought i was in HEAVEN! as an expat i revel in all the wonderfully comforting british products. not only do they have food you can’t find anywhere else (english bacon! YUM! cornish pasties, malt loaf) but they also sell dvd’s of english television programmes! god save the queen!
in 2006 i would have easily given it 5 stars but the novelty has finally subsided (even though the place is still brilliant!), and it is a little over priced (okay maybe a lot over priced — but can we really put a price on memories??). further, as other Unilocalers have stated, sometimes your bar of chocolate will be a little… old…(so check the best before date prior to purchase). if you ask me, it still tastes better than the sugary hershey rubbish they’ve got here though… how can they even call that stuff chocolate?

Been shopping here for years. I am English and lots of the British community shop here. I get all my comfort fixes here. I went this weekend and was surprised that there was lots of new stuff that I haven’t seen before, so I bought things to try.
I have noticed expired dates on products but they usually mark down the price and put them in the clearance section like the Christmas cakes and other post holiday stuff. As another reviewer pointed out, the goods may not actually be expired — in US the date is written as month/​day/​year, in Europe date is is day/​month/​year so that may be the confusion with thinking everything has expired.
I also shop at the Tudor House, they have much less choice of British goodies but you can get a pot of tea and something to eat there. So depending on how much time I have I will juggle between the 2 shops. The staff is very nice at both shops. Funnily enough, I do not shop in the Kings Head SHoppe across the street from the Tudor House it seems like that has more stuff for people who love all things British rather than
the British people who live in Santa Monica.

Alpha C’s review couldn’t be more true! At the sight of this shop I knew heaven was a short walk from work for my daily (European!) chocolate fix so I hoarded on old faves and new stuff. I was down to my last toffee crunch bar when I noticed the expiration date, two months past! I wanted to puke and my shock turned to a confused state partly blaming myself for my ignorance and hoping I don’t keel over from all the expired stuff I just consumed. But isn’t it the shop owner’s responsibility to check the products they sell?
So I walked back there armed with receipt and an opened bar of candy hoping not to get into a confrontation but expecting that they would be alarmed and clean up their inventory or something.
Luckily, it didn’t escalate into something stressful but is still heartbreaking. The ladies I spoke to didn’t bat an eye on the issue and talked me into «they’re just putting expiration but it won’t go bad» to «here it looks perfectly fine, have a bite». I was spooked and for a moment thought I was in a Twilight Zone series and these ladies are clearly not anywhere near apologetic for selling expired stuff! I wish I read Alpha C’s review first.
So instead of weeding through their expired stuff hoping to find the ones that aren’t, I suggest you AVOID THIS SHOP AT ALL TIMES! These ladies who run the shop think it’s PERFECTLY OK TO CONSUME EXPIRED FOOD!

I’ve been shopping here for over a decade, ever since I moved to the westside. In the last year, there are fewer items on the shelves, more out-​of-​date stock being sold (even brought their attention to some custard packages that expired 7 months earlier. They weren’t surprised, nor did they remove them), and less variety in the offerings.
Considering the amount of space they have, the pricey retail address, and the presence of Tudor House and Sainsbury’s within a mile in either direction, you’d think they would have to do better to survive.
Sad to say, Continental House, but you’re not long for this world if you don’t step it up.