Friends

Organic Grocery Store

A little corner shop that does the small stuff so well it embarrassed me.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 41729 · 2023

Pieces830

Minifigs5

Year2023

Set number41729

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The verdict

This is the best grocery store Friends has ever made, and honestly one of the most quietly clever builds in the whole line.

The double sliding door got me completely, and the fact that Jordin and Autumn are built with real human differences (vitiligo, a limb difference) made me pause in the nicest way. It is not a huge set and the price sat a touch high at retail, but the detail per stud is generous. Wonderful for a play-focused shelf and a shockingly good parts pile if you build your own things.

Best for: kids who love role-play shops and adult builders hunting recolors on the cheap

The full review

What it is

I did not expect a Friends grocery store to charm me the way this one did. It is a compact single storefront, 830 pieces, and yet every time I opened a bit of it there was another small idea tucked inside. The double sliding entrance is the moment that got me: you push one glass door and the other slides open with it, driven by a little gear hidden up top, and it feels far more satisfying than a set at this size has any right to. Inside there is a produce wall, a checkout, shopping carts you can actually push around, a recycling bank out front and a delivery van parked alongside. It plays like a real little shop.

The catch

I will be straight with you about the rough edges. At 89.99 dollars for 830 parts it was priced a notch high when it landed, and it is not a big model, so if you are chasing square footage on the shelf this reads more corner store than sprawling supermarket. There is also one genuinely annoying miss: the checkout conveyor is made from a row of round Technic pins meant to roll, but they are packed so tightly they just do not turn. In a set where the doors glide so beautifully, a conveyor that refuses to budge is the one detail that made me sigh.

Who it's for

If a child in your life loves role-play shops, this is close to ideal, low fuss to rebuild after play and full of graspable functions. It is also a lovely quiet win for representation, with Jordin built to show vitiligo and Autumn shown with a limb difference, both done without any fuss or lecture. And here is the surprise: if you build your own creations, this cheap little Friends box is a sneaky-good parts donor. If you specifically want a large, static display piece, look elsewhere. For everyone else, especially at a discount, this one is easy to love.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building it is a gentle, steady couple of hours with more variety than the piece count suggests. Nothing here is a slog of repeated bags. You move from the Technic guts of the sliding door to the fiddly little produce shelving to the delivery van, and the pacing keeps you curious. It is the kind of build where you keep finding a clever half-plate offset or a neat use of a bracket, the sort of small engineering that makes a modest set feel considered rather than cheap.

For a MOC builder this box punches well above its price. There is a brand new mold, the tall Cupboard 2 x 3 x 5 in white, plus a handful of useful recolors. The real treasure is the run of Light Nougat bricks, standard shapes in a warm skin tone that had only turned up before in the Boutique Hotel and Downtown Noodle Shop, so getting them cheaply here is a genuine find. You also get two fresh printed tiles: a white smartphone tile (the 19th phone in LEGO history) and a playful Guble Bubble gum print on dark pink. Loads of value in the little bags.

Fun facts

01The set was designed by Wes Talbott and only sold during 2023 (January to December) before retiring, so it is already off shelves at LEGO.
02Jordin, who is unique to this set, is built to show vitiligo, and Autumn, one of the new lead characters, is shown with a limb difference, part of the 2023 Friends relaunch's push for a more representative cast.
03The white smartphone tile inside is the 19th distinct smartphone printed in LEGO history, and it comes alongside a made-up bubble gum brand, Guble Bubble, printed on a dark pink tile.
04The whole cast is Leo, Autumn, Jordin, Isaac and little Alba, plus a cat named Churro, and two of the mini-dolls appear only in this set.