Fighting knocked out the capital's power plant in 1992, and Taylor never got around to fixing it.
Armed peacekeepers manned sandbagged checkpoints outside the store.
"This poor country! We have to do everything we can for it," said Azar, a member of Monrovia's dominant Lebanese business community.
Shacks selling palm wine have sprung up at the peacekeepers' base at Monrovia's port, which was heavily looted during the fighting but now is operable. Troops and civilians drink together, bobbing heads to Nigerian tunes.
"We see them and we know we can't fight anymore," says a 24-year-old, unarmed rebel fighter calling himself O.J. Desperate, identifiable as an insurgent by the red dental floss dangling from a pierced ear.
Peace force commanders expect to reach their full strength as soon as next week.
Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau already have sent soldiers. Forces from Ghana are hoped for by Friday, and the last slated troops -- from Togo -- days after.
Officials agree that force is understaffed. President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria -- the largest troop contributor with more than 1,500 soldiers -- called it "grossly inadequate."
A transitional government arranged under the peace deal takes over from Taylor's successor, Moses Blah, next month, and a UN peace force of 1,500 troops should begin arriving.
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