Police are hunting two bandits who threatened a young shop assistant with a machete and a kitchen knife.

The armed men stormed into the Sefton Growers Market store yesterday afternoon, cornering the terrified 19-year-old woman, and demanding cash.

They grabbed $1000 in notes before fleeing.

"She'd been screaming and shaking and probably she was very scared.. and i just helped her settle down," the store owner's wife Sarah Cai said.

Police say both men appeared to be Pacific Islanders.