SOCKBURN FOOD MART AND DISCOUNTER is a dairy at 125 Main South Road in Sockburn, Christchurch, with a 4.3 rating on Google. Dairies are New Zealand's corner shops, and their value shows on the top-up run: a litre of milk, a loaf of bread, a pie at lunchtime or ice blocks on a hot afternoon, when a trek to the supermarket isn't worth it. Regulars tend to judge one on freshness and turnover — cold milk, soft bread, a tidy counter — rather than any single special. Prices usually run a little above the supermarkets, the trade-off being minutes saved rather than dollars. The best of them quietly become neighbourhood institutions, run by people who know their regulars by name. On the main road through Sockburn, this one is well placed for locals and anyone passing through western Christchurch.