TAJ the Grocer stocks everything from vegan mayonnaise to metre-long Rohu fish.

It’s been a fixture of Brighton's Western Road since 2005, when brothers Shahid and Amir Khan helped expand the small grocery store their father set up in 1965.

It may have had humble beginnings, but the supermarket is now so vast manager Rarfy Nersesian has been drafted in to show me around.

We wander through aisles of Middle Eastern spices and vegan meat substitutes. The smell of jasmine blossom wafts over as we pass a whole aisle of incense.

Rarfy said: “It’s the variety that makes Taj special. We sell things you can’t get anywhere else.”

He’s right. There are palettes of speciality pumpkins, boxes of sweet halwa, and sheets of frozen banana leaves. There’s a halal butcher, packs of dried fish, and pickles that are hard to find outside India: fresh turmeric, amla, and fenugreek.

Rarfy reaches into a freezer and pulls out pieces of octopus and bags of fist-sized Bangladeshi prawns.

He said: “Whatever the customer wants, we’ll try our best to get it. Supermarkets have to go by set formulae. We don’t. That’s what makes Taj an interesting place to work. We get orders for kilograms of unusual chillies and loads of special deli requests.

“Our customer base is very broad. We have Middle Eastern, European, and British customers, as well as vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters.”

We continue our stroll past Far Eastern foods. There are shelves of sushi rices and stacks of woks. We have a run-in with the hot chilli dip section. Rarfy points to a fearsome bottle of King Naga chilli dip, one of the world’s hottest condiments.

Rattled, we amble around the dairy aisle, which brims with curd, paneer, and tins of Bulgarian cheese. As we reach bagged flatbreads, Rarfy explained the store is set for a shake-up.

There’s going to be a new bread section by the window, and the doors are moving to where the bins of olives currently stand. There will also be a new section for homeware, which at present perches on top of shelves throughout the store. Tagines, pestles, and dim sum steamers will all have a new home.

There’s a lot going on at Taj. On the way out, we pass the incense again. Suddenly, there are boxes of Halloween scents in: Goblin’s Lair, Wizard’s Spell, Witch’s Curse. The place smells of cinnamon.