As you walk through its small grey door and catch your first glimpse of its shelves stacked with everyday essentials, it looks almost identical to the thousands of other convenience stores across our city.
Yet, set back on the bustling Cheetham Hill Road next to a tyre garage, Rodyna is no ordinary shop.
It is an institution that has been an integral part of Greater Manchester's Ukrainian, Russian and Eastern European communities for approaching two decades.
And as the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's forces unfolds, the shop's Ukrainian owner says it will do anything it can to help its customers - proudly continuing its mission to give them a taste of home during this darkest of hours.
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Rodyna was founded by Oksana Oliinyk, 52, and her husband Volodymyr, 55, 18 years ago.
Oksana, who now lives in Chadderton, Oldham, and hails from the city of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, came to the UK in 1995, shortly after her country gained its independence from its neighbour.
"We had a very difficult situation by then in Ukraine, because after we became independent everything was just building up and we had to look for a better life, to be honest with you," she said.
"I had a great-grandfather here who was a second world war prisoner here who had lived here since 1947.
"So we came and settled here. We lived in London for six and a half years but then we moved to Manchester as we had friends here but we were also thinking of setting up a business.
"That's when it first came to us to set up a business which can give people a little bit of a taste of their homeland."
The shop, which opened in 2004, started out life on Old Church Road in Failsworth before they moved to their current premises on Cheetham Hill Road in Cheetham Hill, on the outskirts of the city centre, in 2011.
"There has always been a quite big Ukrainian community, even then," Oksana said.
"In Manchester, we have about five social clubs, one in Oldham, Ashton, Stockport, Bury, and central Manchester.
"There's also a very big community in Bradford.
"As soon as we started we were very busy. We became like a social club or a meeting point.
"We have people who come here for help, who maybe don't speak good English and want us to translate letters and things.
"We also have an advert board where people can advertise house renting, flat renting. We are always happy and open to help."
Oksana, who has two adult children, one born in Ukraine and one in the UK, and who now has two grandchildren, is at pains to point out the shop is not simply for Ukrainians.
"We call it a Ukranian/Russian/Baltic countries shop," she says.
"The idea was to serve former Soviet Union people because we were part of it.
"We lived as a family together and all the products are familiar to everybody. We didn't want to divide."
"Some people didn't like it, but the name of the shop, Rodyna, means family in Ukrainian.
"After we came up with it we discovered there are two meanings.
"There is a similar word in Russian, Rodina, which means 'Motherland.'
"So the Ukrainians call us Rodyna and the Russians Rodina. Family and motherland, its very similar meanings."
Only around 20 percent of the shop's customers are Ukrainian, and around 20 percent Russian, she says, with the other 60 percent being made of people originating from the Baltic countries – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
However, to Ukrainians, it is a cherished place due it being the only shop of its kind in the region.
Manchester City star Oleksandr Zinchenko is a regular customer and big supporter of the shop, they say.
And it sells a range of delicacies and products that those from Ukraine, Russia and the Baltic countries simply wouldn't be able to find in big British supermarkets.
"It's just amazing what people want. Never mind the alcohol!" Oksana says.
"But all the things in here, I missed them when I first arrived, that was the whole idea behind it."
Particularly popular are Vareneykyk – dumplings with mashed potato and other fillings such as mushrooms or soured cabbage.
They can be served with sour cream, with a spicy sauce, or with black pepper depending on your taste, Oksana says, as she pulls a bag from one of the several floor to ceiling freezers at the back of the shop.
Just next to the freezers are shelves filled with dark coloured loaves. Rye bread is much tastier and much healthier than your average British loaf, Oksana proudly proclaims, as she walks me to the meat counter to show me a slab of pork fat, which is apparently put on the bread.
Rather surprisingly, stacked close to the meats are jars of caviar – red Salmon caviar and black Sturgeon caviar.
"We sold tonnes during Christmas time," Oksana says.
"We also have some English customers who come in and buy the caviar as they can't get it anywhere in Manchester apparently."
They also stock fresh fruit and veg.
"A lot you can maybe get here, but people think it's great because it's from their country," Oksana says, though she points out the huge black grapes from Moldova and tiny ground cucumbers from Poland as delicacies.
"They really taste different. The long ones in England don't taste nice" she says.
Behind the shop's till is a wall of bottles. When it comes to booze it took a millisecond for Oksana to tell us their bestseller.
"Vodka."
Ukrainian vodka Nemiroff, especially the Honey and Pepper infused one, which Oksana says is 'quite spicy' is a particular favourite, drunk neat, no matter what.
"They will not mix it," she says.
The passion and joy in Oksana's voice as she talks us through the produce of her homeland is replaced by sadness and raw emotion as the conversation moves to the horrifying situation unfolding 1,500 miles away.
"It's quite difficult for me. I can't really comprehend it," Oksana says.
"I can't say we didn't expect it as there has been war for eight years in Ukraine since Crimea was annexed.
"It's not easy to accept. We do have families back in Ukraine and we do worry about them. We hope and pray for everyone."
Oksana was one of the hundreds of Ukrainians who took to Manchester's St Peter's Square on Thursday as the Central Library was lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
"It was very emotional, people were standing and singing the national anthem," she says fighting back tears.
"Every single minute you look at the internet and just hope that it ends. But you know it won't as there are troops all over Ukraine."
The sunflowers in the shop's window - Ukraine's national flower - are a typically understated show of defiance.
But over the past few days the shop has become a focal point for Ukrainians struggling to come to terms with what is happening, she says.
"They are coming and asking if we can help newly coming people for work.
"A lot of people are calling and asking for Ukrainian symbols like flags or hats things like that.
"We don't know what the full reaction will be. Maybe some Russian people are afraid to come to us.
"When we had a similar situation in 2014 people were coming and looking to us like a threat, the Ukrainian shop, as most of the people know it has a Ukrainian owner.
"But I appreciate every customer of mine.
"We have lots of Russian friends, they are beautiful, friendly people.
"We have lots of Ukrainian who speak Russian only. But we would never show anything towards Russian people. It is not their fault they have such a government.
"All our customers are our friends.
"We are like a family which confirms the name of the shop."
