Shree Shubhlaxmi General Stores

Every day begins with dusting off the shelves because the city dust seems to find its way inside no matter what we do. Our shop is over at B-12 in the Vijay Shopping Centre in Sector-11. It’s a busy little area of Ahmedabad, especially with Hotel Have just a short walk away. Shree Shubhlaxmi General Stores has been here for a good while now. It’s a small shop, so we have to use every inch of space we have. We stack the big bags of rice and flour in the back and keep the smaller items like spices and soaps up front where people can see them. The afternoon sun can be quite strong, making the shop feel a bit warm, but we have a couple of fans going to keep the air moving. We usually have a small radio playing some old Gujarati songs while we work. Most of our customers are regulars from the nearby apartments. They come in for their monthly supplies or just a quick bottle of cold water. We don't use any complicated computer systems here. Everything is done the old-fashioned way with a pen and a ledger. Sometimes we run out of a particular brand of oil, and we have to tell our customers to try something else or wait for the next delivery. It’s just a regular, honest business. We aren't trying to be the biggest store in Ahmedabad, just a reliable place for our neighbors in Sector-11 to find what they need.