Slice of life: ‘Supermarkets took away my business’

I reside in Perungalathur and have been running this small shop for more than 15 years now. Earlier, I had many customers who thronged my shop to purchase their groceries and stationery. 

However, today, I tend to wait for hours before I can spot even one customer. With a number of supermarkets and bigger shops coming up in my area, most residents prefer making their purchase from there and I have lost most of my customers. This is the case with most shops like mine. I barely get any profit, but cannot even think of taking up any other job due to my old age and the time I have put in to running this shop. 

I barely earn between Rs 1,000 and 2,000 a day, and my profit is mostly less than Rs 300, which is too less. By the time I am done paying my rent, electricity bill, etc,  there is barely enough remaining to run my family of four. While it is a challenge, I continue to put in all my efforts — as I had struggled a lot to set upthis shop. I try my hand at extra jobs such as delivering milk, water cans and the like, which have been helping me earn a few extra bucks — to help meet my daily needs.