Rathe Sarees

Our shop is at 18 Ganesapuram in Madathukulam. It’s a small town vibe here, and everyone pretty much knows everyone else. We deal in sarees, mostly the kind people wear every day or for smaller family functions. The shop isn’t very big, so we have to be careful about how we stack the sarees on the racks. If you pull one out from the bottom, the whole pile might slide, which is always a pain to fix. We spend a lot of time folding and refolding fabric. It’s quite colorful inside though, with all the different silks and cottons. Customers usually come in and spend a long time looking through everything, sitting on the floor cushions while we show them different patterns. We don't use any fancy sales talk; we just show what we have and let them decide. Sometimes the power goes out in the afternoon, and we just open the front door wider to let the light in. It’s a slow pace of life in Ganesapuram. We open up early, sweep the front, and wait for the first customer to walk in. We don't have a big team, just family members helping out during the busy seasons like festivals or weddings. It’s a simple life running a saree shop in a place like this. We just focus on having enough variety so that the local ladies don’t have to travel all the way to the bigger cities. Most of our stock is locally sourced, so we know the quality is okay for the price.