Buy Wise Express

Buy wise has one distinguishing characteristic — it’s open really, really late. After a night of drunken escapades elsewhere in the city you return to Kings Heath with two things on your agenda — getting lots of food and going to bed once you’ve gorged yourself. It is also open all day for those who don’t live as aimless a life as me.
They have the finest (maybe I’m being a bit generous) produce from distant shores around the globe. They have fresh produce outside the shop and normally they rival bigger chains on price and available exotic produce in my experience.
My typical ‘Buy Wise exclusive’ late-​night snack is a bag of unidentified meat-​stuffed pasty/​samosa resembling morsels, a couple cans of tuna and a selection of fruits. It fills the spot nicely and returns your body from alcohol-​saturated to a fine equilibrium of alcohol, grease, mango and fish.
Buy Wise never fails for the unfussy shopper, whatever the hour. They’ll indubitably have something for a very reasonable price to keep you sustained, whatever state you’re in.

I’m not that much of a night hawk, but on the occasion I do stay up late I can always be rest assured that I have a local convenience store to hand. Buy Wise Express never closes; when all the other shops closed due to the riots last year, Buy Wise Express was still open. Now that’s what I call commitment.
Buy Wise sells a wide range of ‘ethnic’ foods. They provide food from South East Asia all the way to Jamaica. They also have a Halal butchers in store for all those practising Muslims out there.
Buy Wise do not stock alcohol, so if you have been out all night and fancy a late night/​early morning tipple then you will have to try elsewhere. This isn’t too much of a problem for me because I’m not a student any more! They do sell tobacco products all night though and for me this is an essential service for times when I run out of cigarettes. The prices aren’t to bad either.

Buy Wise Express is an independent supermarket on Kings Heath High Street. It’s not the kind of place that I’d do my weekly shop, but its particularity good for items like coconut milk and seasoning mixes as they are half the price here as they are in chain supermarkets like Sainsbury’s.
As the supermarket is open 24 hours a day, it is a good place to come to for late night munchies and it’s between 11pm and 4am when this place comes to life, as post-​pub and post-​clubbers drop by to fill up on chocolate, crisps, energy drinks and cigarettes. Buy Wise Express don’t sell booze as the owners are practicing Muslims and in line with this at the rear of the shop is a halal butchery (HMC approved).
I’m a fan of the shop to stock up on fresh fruit for the morning, and the range includes European, Caribbean and Asian fruits and vegetables like apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, etc. Their bird’s eye chillies are always fresh and shiny, and I usually grab a few of these when I’m in there to spice up late night kitchen creations.