KARACHI: “You see those little homes there?” Raja Tehseen Hussain points in the direction of the little colony across the road from his retail grocery shop at Shahabuddin Market, also known as the New Empress Market.

“That’s where most of my customers come from,” he smilingly says.

There was a time when all grocery shopping especially of flour, lentils, cereals, tea, soaps, etc, for the entire month used to be done at such shops, which people refer to as parchun ki dukaan in local lingo. But of late, it has become more preferable for people to head to the supermarkets, marts or those megastores akin to warehouses. Meanwhile, the retail grocery shop is dying a slow death.

But Raja begs to differ. “All this talk about being able to shop for everything under one roof can also include us. I mean look at my shop,” he says gesturing to the many small shelves in his shop where he seems to have everything from dish-washing soaps, detergents to all kinds of toilet cleaners, shampoos, beauty soaps, brooms and mops standing in one corner next to open sacks of flour, rice, lentils. In front of him are bowls full of a variety of tea leaves, ghee, cooking oils, and even seeds and other concoctions for feeding birds from pigeons, parrots and cockatoos. “Maybe you can’t touch everything or come inside our shops as they are small and only we can reach up to get you what you want but we are also very well-stocked,” he adds.

The secret of their sales is in the retail market. “You think my customers, coming from those little cottages in the colony, go to marts or supermarkets for their grocery shopping? Their monthly earnings do not allow them to do so even if they felt like it. The breadwinners in some of these cottages are daily wagers; they have to live life one day at a time. Therefore, they come to buy a quarter of a kilogramme of lentils or sugar maybe,” he points out. “Besides, we also keep accounts for those customers who can’t pay us right away. They do so later when they can. It is all right. We understand their financial problems. So this market also runs on goodwill and prayers,” he smilingly adds.

Another shop in the narrow congested market is selling more of the same with other additions. There is one shop that has various kinds of noodles and pasta which can also be bought in small quantities, which the shopkeeper then seals in a small plastic bag. Or the customer will have with him or her their own basket or container to keep their groceries.

If you are going on a short trip and don’t want to take with you an entire bottle of shampoo, conditioner or big tube of toothpaste, this is the market to find just about everything available in little sachets.

“My mother used to come here for little things as we live in the flats just behind this market. Now since her knees are giving her trouble it has become my duty to buy daily-use items from here,” says Naeema, who is there today for a quarter of a kilogramme of tea and a bar of nylon soap for washing clothes. She also buys a sachet of detergent as an afterthought and with Rs10 left over in her purse.

Another customer says that he finds these little grocery shops more expensive than the supermarkets. “I only come here for flour now, as they keep a particular kind of millstone flour that I cannot find anywhere else. Otherwise after doing the math I realised that I was being charged more here,” he says.

Salahuddin, another shopkeeper, agrees. “Yes, that is true. I won’t deny it,” he says nodding. “The thing is that we in our small shops don’t have as much storage space as the supermarkets who buy entire container loads in bulk at a far cheaper rate. So since we don’t buy in bulk we are not given any concession or subsidised rates and then we also sell from our shops to make our margin of the profit,” he says before reaching inside a jar of sweets and toffees to bring out one as a treat for a very bored little girl accompanying her grandfather for grocery shopping. The sweet brings a smile to her lips.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2018