J S Agarwal General Stores

Our shop is located in Narayan Peth, which is a very old and busy part of Pune. Being near Mati Ganpati means we get a lot of people passing by on their way to the temple. J S Agarwal General Stores has been in this spot for quite a while, and the Indira Appt building is a landmark for most folks around here. The shop is filled with all sorts of things, from notebooks for the school kids to heavy bottles of cleaning liquid. I usually spend my mornings dusting the counters because Kelkar Road gets quite a bit of traffic smoke. It is a simple setup with high shelves that require a ladder to reach the top. Sometimes I forget where I put the smaller items like buttons or safety pins, but eventually, they turn up. The bells from the temple nearby remind us of the time throughout the day. We do not have a lot of help, just a couple of us managing the billing and the packing. It’s a bit of a squeeze when the delivery truck comes to drop off the new stock of grains. People in Pune like to chat, so a quick trip for a bar of soap often turns into a ten-minute talk about the local news. It is just how things are in this part of the city. We keep the shop open and try to help our neighbors find what they need.