Mrs. Levy : Mrs. Levy is Warshaw’s platinum-haired, kimono-wearing matriarch. Born Helen Florkevitch, she inherited the store from her parents, immigrants who had operated a fruit and vegetable pushcart in their native Poland. Helen has worked in the store since she was a young girl, when she filled out order forms and wrote cheques for her parents, who couldn’t read or write. Now in her seventies, Mrs. Levy ranned the store and worked there every day, from early morning to evening.

Rosie : Rosie had never strayed very far outside her Italian neighbourhood until she got a job as a cashier at Warshaw. Full of charisma and vitality, the red-haired Rosie practically jumps off the screen. She is the mother hen of her group of cashiers, but questions how long she wants to stay at the job.

Susy : Susy is the gentle cashier whose parents moved to Portugal. When her mother pays her a surprise visit in the store, she realises how much she misses her family.

Sandra : Sandra is the sassy cashier with a devilish twinkle in her eyes. Completely boy-crazy, she doesn’t mind speeding through her work if it means more time to flirt.

Elda : Elda is the cashier who is dating Anthony, the butcher. A solid young woman with aspirations for law school. She and Rosie are inseparable.

Spiros : Spiros is the touching 61-year-old vegetable stocker at Warshaw. He has worked at the store for 30 years, since he came to Canada from Greece. He has a small wrinkled face, thinning white hair and steely black eyes. Spiros speaks a language of his own: broken, full of metaphors, digressions, and flatteries to pretty women. Spiros himself is a metaphor for Warshaw: older and wrinkled, but full of energy and character. He dreams of one day winning the lottery.