Spice Traders

If you walk down Annasalai in Palavakkam and head toward Jeeva Rathina Nagar, you might catch the smell of what we do before you see our sign. Spice Traders is located at No: 4/456. It’s a small place, really. We spend a lot of time weighing out bags and moving crates around. The air is always thick with the scent of different powders and whole seeds. Sometimes it makes us sneeze, especially when a new batch of pepper or chili comes in. It’s a local operation. We know the neighbors and the people who walk by every day on their way to work or the market. The floor is concrete and the shelves are mostly just wood we put up ourselves. We aren't trying to be a big supermarket. We just handle spices. Sometimes the delivery trucks have a hard time parking on the street because it gets narrow, but we manage. We keep a ledger on the desk to track what goes in and out. It’s dusty work but we like the routine of it. We open the shutters in the morning and stay until the sun starts to go down. It’s just a regular shop in a regular neighborhood. Nothing too complicated about it. We just sit here among the sacks of goods and wait for the next person to come through the door with a list.