Anand Collection

Our shop, Anand Collection, is tucked away in the Electrical Line section of Mangal Bazar in Jogeshwari East. If you know the area, you know how packed it gets, especially on market days. It is a bit of a squeeze to get through the lanes sometimes. We started this place because we knew the neighborhood well and wanted to be right in the middle of the action. The shop isn't very large, so we have to stack things pretty high up to the ceiling. You have to be careful when pulling something down or the whole pile might shift. We sell a variety of things, mostly items that people in Jogeshwari are looking for when they do their weekly shopping. There’s no fancy display window here, just the goods laid out so people can see them as they walk by. The lighting inside is okay, though it can get a bit dim in the back corners. We spend a lot of our day just talking to the neighbors and the other shopkeepers in the line. It’s a very local feel here. Everyone knows who is who. We don't use any fancy computer systems for everything; a lot of it is still written down in books. It’s just a straightforward way of doing business. When the festival seasons come, the whole street gets even more crowded and we stay open a bit later than usual. It's a lot of work but it's what we do.