Less than a kilometre separates the vast Spencer’s inside Quest Mall and the sprawling Haldiram building opposite CC&FC in Ballygunge. And yet, neither of these two premier shopping centres is chock-a-block with customers on most evenings. This is largely because tucked away on a sidewalk on Ballygunge Park Road is a grocery store called Bhagya Lakshmi, the go-to place for groceries in the locality.
Much humbler in size and scale than Spencer’s or Haldiram, Bhagya Lakshmi has been around since 1991. Enough time for the store to build loyal customers across families and generations, especially among the Marwari and Gujarati communities. “People come to us because they have faith in us. At Bhagya Lakshmi, we prioritise our service over products. We know that customers can get the products we sell at other places. But it’s unlikely that they’ll get the same service,” said Sulav Ganeriwal, part of the second generation