Lakshmi Provision Stores

Lakshmi Provision Stores is our family-run grocery shop on Old Chamrajpet Road. We are at 382/2. This street has changed a lot over the years, but our shop has stayed pretty much the same. We have bags of rice and dal stacked up against the walls and various spices in jars on the shelves behind the counter. It is a small space, so you have to be careful not to knock anything over when you walk in. My father started this place, and now I handle most of the daily work with some help from my younger brother. We open up early in the morning, usually around seven, to catch the people buying milk and newspapers before they go to work. There is a specific smell of coffee beans and soap that always lingers in the air here. We do not use any computer systems for our billing, just a simple notebook and a pen to keep track of what people owe us. The floor is stone and it stays cool even when it is hot outside. Sometimes the delivery trucks block the road when they are dropping off new stock of oil or sugar, which makes the neighbors a bit annoyed. We know almost every customer who comes in by their first name because they have been shopping with us for decades. It is just a basic neighborhood store where you can get what you need for your kitchen without any fuss. We have a small bell above the door.