When you're the fourth generation of your family to run the same shop - "it's not a job, it's a way of life".
So says William Martyn, whose great-grandfather - also called William - opened the doors of his Muswell Hill Broadway grocer's store in 1897.
For almost 130 years the family has run this north London institution - with generations of locals describing the aroma of Martyn's coffee roaster as "the scent of Muswell Hill".
William Martyn sometimes wonders what his Victorian ancestor would think of the place if he came back for a day.
He would certainly recognise the wood panelled interior with mahogany shelving and storage bins in the now Grade II listed shop - although he might observe that it stocks more speciality gift items and less starch and soap.
"It was a purpose built shop - my great-grandfather was the first to occupy it and paid rent until he made enough money to buy it," says William.
"He was a general grocer in those days - there would have been quite a few on the high street and it was competitive, selling everything a 'housewife' required including brooms and starch as well as food.
"He used to give the milkman a shilling for telling him when someone new moved into the area.
"He must have been good at it because he opened more branches in Golders Green and Finchley."
The family lived above the shop until his grandfather moved out to the new suburb of Whetstone. As a child William and his sisters weren't allowed in when the shop was open.
"But I would often help my grandfather and father on a Sunday stacking tinned fruit for the new displays, or doing the Christmas windows," he recalls.
Goods arrived in big wooden boxes from as far afield as Australia and had to be graded and weighed into bags to sell.
William's own father took over the Muswell Hill store in 1948 - straight after national service.
And growing up, he was "primed" and willing to go into the business, but spent four years learning the retail ropes at Waitrose before moving over full time in 1984.
"We were still selling cornflakes, bleach and toilet rolls then but father and I took the business forward to specialise more as the supermarkets meant people were using us less for their general groceries."
They sell their own brand goods - dried fruit including pears and peaches - 40 different kinds of tea, nuts, exotic jams, pickles, chutneys, honey and marmalades, and coffee beans prepared in a gas-powered 1950s UNO roastery that sits in the shop window.
William says Martyns has been roasting its own beans for almost 90 years and now stocks 20 varieties: "It's like the OXO kid sending out the smell into the high street - people come in and say 'I smelled the coffee down by the roundabout today.'"
"There are many more roasteries now but the advantage is there are more people drinking coffee and sales have gone up over the years."
Asked why his family was never tempted to modernise the shop's historic interior, he replied: "Father was never a man for change or for keeping up with the Jones'.
"He was happy with the shop as it was and as time went on it became more special because it had kept its original features."
In fact they were quite annoyed when Haringey Council got it listed as a rare surviving example of a late Victorian grocery.
"We felt we had been looking after it for more than 115 years, we were a family business and quite capable of safeguarding it," he says.
"We didn't need the interference of the council who had once sent health inspectors into the shop and told us to get rid of all the wood to make it more hygienic."
He's deeply appreciative of the loyal local customers who have shopped there for generations.
Now they can come in-person or order online - like one Japanese customer who orders 120 packets of tea every Christmas.
And there have been plenty of famous customers, including actor Bob Hoskins, comedian Victoria Wood and one of the members of Girls Aloud - William can't remember which - but says: "We treat them exactly the same as the other customers."
William's late father and grandfather all worked in the shop until well past retirement age but he is now 63 and hopes to hand it on to his son Tom.
"He is very interested," says William. "He's grown up with the customers and they know him already, but he's also a qualified electrician so he has something to fall back on if the shop has hard times."
Between minimum wage and business rate hikes, plus online competition, he says it is challenging keeping a high street shop open.
But as his grandfather once told him, "It's a good thing to go into food, we always need to eat."
"We've been through world wars, recessions and Covid, when I was busier than ever delivering locally when people couldn't get supermarket slots. We've found in hard times people cut down on new cars and carpets but treat themselves to nice food."
Even when his son takes over he says he will probably still keep working.
"Father still came in his 80s and I will probably do the same. We are a family business - my sister comes up from Devon every Christmas to help out. It's not like a job - it's a way of life, it's in your blood.
"When you run a business that your great-grandfather started you often think 'what would he say if he came back for one day?"
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