Brown sugar and pecan mustard, raspberry jalapeño ambrosia and gourmet artisan sea salt from Brittany in France, along with key lime marmalade, California grape leaves and champagne honey mustard — that's just the first half of one shelf at Mandros Imported Foods in Lancaster.

"We're always on the lookout for good stuff," said Bill Mandros, who owns the store at 351 N. Charlotte St. with his brother Dino.

"The kind of products we have here … are the sorts of things you can't find at your regular big box suburban supermarket," he said. "Our goal is to have an interesting mix; we have to, especially since so many of our customers are such serious foodies, as well as members of Lancaster County's ethnic communities who know exactly what they're looking for when it comes to, say, Greek olives or soft imported European cheeses."

When it comes to the global economy, for many people the first image that comes to mind usually has something to do with faceless corporations or billion-dollar megamergers. But there is also another —and far tastier — side to the benefits of globalization, one that can be easily found in Lancaster County's handful of independent international grocery stores.

"Not a lot of people know this, but in the days of the British Empire, many people from India were brought to East Africa to build railroads. So when you talk about us being an 'Indian Grocery Store,' the truth is we have things from India, but also Britain, Kenya and Ethiopia, too," said Sanat Vaidya, owner of the International Grocery Store at 145 Rohrerstown Road.

"We have to," he said, "because catering to the Indian community in Lancaster also means carrying fine British teas from London or Kenyan wimbi uji (a kind of East African millet flour)."

For those looking to try something different, Lancaster's ethnic grocery stores are more than happy to open their doors to American shoppers and to help their new customers learn about their products.

"We have a lot of people from Poland in Lancaster County, as well as a great many people from the ex-Yugoslavia living in the area around New Holland. So, for me, it just made sense to open my store as a place where people could come for a little taste of home," said Sadmir Galijasevic, the Bosnian business owner of the European Grocery Store at 1345 Fruitville Pike.

"European chocolate, for example, is much different than American chocolate. It's smoother and more buttery, and people who were raised in Europe miss the real stuff terribly," Galijasevic said. "We also do a brisk business in European mineral waters and special cheeses, as well as in meats. Customers are so thankful because they can come to us and find the same kind of kielbasa they used to enjoy in Krakow."

American customers, he said, in particular seem to enjoy a product called Ajver — a red pepper and eggplant vegetable spread for crackers famous throughout the Balkans and Macedonia — as well as authentic Russian pickles and sour cabbage.

"They're good for hangovers," Galijasevic said. "At least, that's what I've been told."

For Mandros, his family's store first opened in 1957 as a regular corner grocery. A first-generation American whose family emigrated from Greece, Mandros' parents came from the island of Peloponisos to settle into Lancaster's thriving Greek community.

"My parents made the store into a place where Greeks could come and get a taste of home. However, as my father started making more trips to suppliers in New York, he started bringing back more and more stuff, and as the years passed … we started to have more of a Mediterranean feel, selling products that aren't just Greek, but also Italian and French, too."

Though today Mandros sells products as varied as imported Scottish salmon and authentic Lapsang Souchong tea from China, it's the store's imported cheeses and rare olive mixes that keep drawing the customers back for more, particularly during the holidays.

"We're always on the lookout for new stuff. We listen very carefully to our customers' requests, and if they make a recommendation, we try it and see if it will work in the store," Mandros said.

For Vaidya, who first opened his shop in the early 1990s, his store's main focus is still on Lancaster's Indian community, particularly when it comes to providing exotic Indian vegetables like tinda (a kind of baby pumpkin) or parval (a kumquat-like gourd found in northern India), as well as authentic whole or ground Indian spices like curry powder or garam masala (a mix of cloves, roasted cinnamon and cumin).

His store, he said, is also one of the only places in Lancaster where customers can rent or purchase authentic Bollywood videos and DVDs, like the 1997 comedy "Daud: Fun on the Run," about a career thief who accidentally steals a nuclear bomb, or the 1998 movie "Barood," whose complicated plot — in the best Bollywood tradition — involves smugglers, terrorists, a beautiful starlet, suicides, a jailbreak, murder and revenge.

Presently, Vaidya said, he's in the process of opening a second store on Manheim Pike, a project he's hoping to get off the ground by this summer.

"People want more than just the same prepackaged tasteless thing from the frozen foods section of the local supermarket. They want spice and selection, and they like it when their food has a little specialness to it, or a little extra kick," Galijasevic said.

"They like coming here to find out what real Italian prosciutto tastes like or to sample cherry chocolate bourbon bonbons from Poland."

Galijasevic said shop owners like himself are more than happy to share what they have with their new American friends in their adopted homelands.

"We have things you can't even imagine, and they're all good," he said.

"So whether a customer is looking for gourmet Hungarian salami, Turkish kefir or some very special kinds of chocolates for Valentine's Day, all they have to do is walk through the door."