Wah Lee

Wah Lee is such a delightful oriental emporium.
They stock all sorts from teapots, ceramics, and paper lanterns, to beaded slippers and jasmine tea just to name a few.
I really enjoy wandering through the store and stocking up on something different and quirky every visit. I have been to San Francisco and it reminded me of a few stores I had seen while shopping in China Town.
I love that they have a real mix of products not just one type you have a vast variety! During Guy Fawkes celebrations they are mega popular from 2^nd-​5^th of November when then sell a few popular brands of fireworks.
The tea pots and Chinese vases are my fave at the store they have some really beautiful designs that compliment the home and kitchen.
Worth a stop in to funk up the flat, home or grab some cool gifts for friends.

The first time I walked into Wah lee, I was completely ignorant to the store’s Auckland wide renoun. I wasn’t suprised to later discover that Wah Lee is considered to be one of Auckland’s cultural icons. I had the store owner strike up a conversation with me not long after I walked in. He was very friendly, completely nutty. He kept asking me if I might be interested in different things, he had no idea what I was shopping for or what I was doing, he just kept taking wild stabs in the dark, asking me if I might want this or that. He has a very eccentric range of goods, no rhyme or reason to what he chooses to stock, it is really difficult to classify what kind of store that it is. Full of personality and junky stuff you never knew you needed until you saw it. Don’t forget to join his amazing Facebook page.

So most people of my age’s first introduction to Wah Lee’s would have been through fireworks. This was before the days where hawkers set up on every corner and vacant shop selling parallel imported, often disappointing, bundles of gunpowder. But Wah Lee’s is actually far more then just a fireworks emporium. I’ve bought all kinds of things here — from a drum cymbal to a potato gun. They have everything here — everything you didn’t know you would actually want, they have it. They also have one of the greatest facebook page updaters I follow. Each update is a rambling meditation of life through the lens of an eccentric shopkeeper, not an overpaid marketer. They post pictures of different wares they come across in their day and discuss how many people hate the things. It’s great. The same manner is transposed to the way they serve customers, willing to digress into all types of conversations at the expense of thrusting a product on someone. Definitely worth a journey to the upper reaches of Hobson Street

Fireworks!
Now that I’ve got your attention, fireworks!!! And whatever else Wah Lee sell. Actually quite a bit, some of it quite cool, but as a teenager growing up in Auckland, and as an adult, bitterly refusing to grow up in Auckland, for me Wah Lee has always been about the fireworks.
Not as cheap as the Warehouse MegaBox, or those silver bags you get from the supermarket, but this is just the same as how a rare steak is usually a bit more expensive than white bread dipped in pig anuses. It cost more because it’s better. What you get here are quality, imported Chinese fireworks, and they shit all over the rubbish you get anywhere else. Short of getting your pyrotechnics licence and making your own, this is about the best way to get good, big, entertaining fireworks. Side note: a friend of mine got her pyrotechnic licence, and it was an arduous and expensive process. Better to just come to Wah Lee, I reckon.

Wah Lee’s was the one of the first shops to stock «Asian» food in Auckland; it’s been around since 1904 and is still possibly one of best places to go in the city, mostly ’cause it’s maybe the furtherest thing I can think of from a chain store; totally idiosyncratic and full of personality. As they say on their Facebook page: «We have had many chats, possibly not the best for someone that likes efficient service-​although the staff may think that is what you want.»
It’s almost impossible to explain Wah Lee’s to someone who hasn’t been there: they sell food, but also fireworks, but also health supplements, but also bamboo blinds, plus shoes, plus tea. It’s really just a treasure trove. You could spend hours here digging through everything, and the staff would probably just help you rather than scowl and try and move you on as they would in other places. Look, it’s just great: please go there and spend money so they can last another 109 years.
(There was a great documentary about this place on Nat Rad a few years ago; tracing both the change in shopping habits but also Auckland’s Chinese community; it’s probably still up on the Radio NZ website if you’re interested.)