Imam Variety Store

Imam Variety Store is our little place in Atghara, over in the Rajarhat Gopalpur section of Kolkata. We are pretty close to the main road, so it’s easy for people to find us when they need something quick. As the name says, we carry a bit of everything. You might find some plastic buckets in one corner and some packaged spices in another. It’s not the most organized place in the world, but we manage to find what people are looking for. The shop gets a lot of natural light in the morning, which is nice, but by the afternoon it can get pretty stuffy inside. We have a small radio that we keep playing in the background to keep things lively. Most of our customers are locals who live within walking distance. They come in for a bottle of water or some biscuits and stay for a couple of minutes to talk. We don't have any big corporate rules here. If someone is a few rupees short, we usually tell them to just bring it next time. It’s that kind of neighborhood. We do all the stocking and cleaning ourselves, so there is always something to do. Whether it's dusting the shelves or reordering some snacks, the day goes by pretty fast. We’re just a small variety store trying to keep the shelves full for the folks in Gopalpur.