Araham General Stores

Mint Street is probably one of the busiest places in all of Chennai. We are right there in Sowcarpet, near where the old Dena Bank used to be. The address has changed from Old No 168 to New No 347, but we are still in the same spot. It’s a general store, so we have all sorts of random things on the shelves. Sometimes even I forget exactly where we put some items. It’s a narrow shop, like most of the buildings around here. You have to navigate through the crowds on the street just to get to our door. We spend most of our day talking to people and moving boxes around. It’s very loud outside with all the rickshaws and people shouting, but inside it’s a bit calmer. We don’t have any big corporate goals. We just want to make sure the locals can get their daily items without having to go too far. The light in the shop isn’t the best, and the floor is a bit worn out from all the walking over the years. We’ve thought about painting the walls or fixing the ceiling, but there’s never a good time to close up and do it. So, we just keep going. It’s a family-run kind of thing. We know the other shopkeepers on the block quite well. We help each other out when someone needs change or a bit of help moving a heavy crate. It’s a tight community here.