V.N Raju General Stores

You can find us over on Eluru Road in Vijayawada, specifically at Maruthi Nagar. Our door number is 31-8-20, which some people find hard to remember, so we just tell them we are right on the main Eluru Road. It gets very hot here during the summer months, so we spend a lot of time making sure the shop stays as cool as possible for anyone walking in. We keep all the basic general items that a household might need. It’s a lot of lifting heavy bags and making sure the jars are filled up with biscuits or candies. We don't really do big advertisements or anything like that. Most of our customers are just people living nearby in Maruthi Nagar who need a last-minute ingredient for dinner. The traffic on Eluru Road is almost always heavy, so there is a constant hum of engines in the background while we work. I usually sit near the front to keep an eye on things. We’ve got a system for where everything goes, though sometimes things get misplaced when it’s busy. It’s a straightforward business. We open up, we sweep the floor, we sell what we have, and then we close up. There isn't much more to it than that, just staying consistent and being here when the neighbors need something for their kitchen or house. We try to keep enough stock so nobody leaves empty-handed after walking through the Vijayawada heat.