Ashok Goel General Store

Working at Ashok Goel General Store in the Main Market of Palwal means you see a lot of faces every single day. The shop is one of those places where the inventory seems to never end. We have everything from tall stacks of buckets to small boxes of matches. It takes a long time to learn where every single thing is kept. We usually get here before the sun is too high to start organizing the displays. The front of the shop often has some items sitting out on the pavement so people can see we have them. Inside, it’s a bit of a maze with narrow aisles between the shelves. We have to keep a close eye on the stock of things like salt, sugar, and tea because those go the fastest. The floor is concrete and shows the tracks of many feet coming in and out. There’s no air conditioning, just the breeze from the door and a couple of wall fans that hum all day. In the Palwal market, you hear all sorts of shouting and horns, but inside the store, it’s mostly just the sound of paper bags being filled and the clink of the scale. We don’t do anything special for marketing; people just know we’re here when they need to fill their pantry. It’s a steady job that keeps us on our feet from dawn until the streetlights come on.