Desi grocery stores in U.S.

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Right from childhood in a small hamlet in TN, grocery stores have been places of interest to me

Small little things like the "knife" that the shopkeeper used in my grandparent's suburb of Virudhunagar to cut coconut into "chillu" always fascinated me. (It was a customized tool shaped out of the bicycle's pedal stick).

And their continuous evolution in a small Kerala town Palakkad where they started accepting credit cards in the time frame around 1992. ( I won't forget my first Andhrabank VISA card that had no significant fee, gave a generous limit and didn't demand me to open an account with them etc).

I made it a point to visit only those stores with a credit card sign since then (while in India) as I thought the sale to me had to be accounted properly and no tax cheating happens

Then there were the "margin-free" stores that issued a customer loyalty / membership card (new concept for Kerala) in late 90's that caught the fascination, with terrific speed by the billing girls operating their keyboards

(However, the fastest keyboard girls belonged to the pazhamudhir nilayams of CBE, amazing!)

No wonder, I observe the desi grocery stores in U.S. a little more-than-normal-way and often pick on them...