Spice Shop

Our place, which we simply call Spice Shop, is over at Plot No. A 64 in Sector 85. We’re quite close to the Punjab National Bank, so it’s easy for people to find us when they’re out doing their banking. The first thing you notice when you walk in is the smell—it’s a mix of everything we have in the bins. We spend the day weighing out peppercorns, cloves, and different powders into small bags. It’s a lot of manual work, and we try to keep the counters as clean as we can, though spice dust is hard to manage. We aren’t a big supermarket; it’s more of a traditional setup where you ask for what you need and we pack it up. We get a lot of locals who’ve been coming to us for years. We don’t have any fancy branding or slick advertisements. Most of our day is spent talking to customers and checking the quality of the new sacks that come in. It’s a bit repetitive, but there’s a rhythm to it that we like. The sector is growing, so we see new faces sometimes, but mostly it’s the same group of neighbors. We just focus on keeping the bins full and the scales balanced correctly. It’s a simple life here, surrounded by good smells and hardworking people. We’ve been at this spot for quite a while now.