Shops

Along K.V.Kuppam High Street there are shops of all types. A few are more modern and people can step inside them but many look more like we would think of as stalls. People buy from the open front of a small hut or unit, rather than going inside to look around. Many people also just set out a few home grown vegetables on the pavement, or home-cooked sweets and savoury snacks.

There are shops selling aluminium and stainless steel kitchen pots and pans, hardware shops where people buy nails and tools, a medical shop, clothes shops and material shops selling sari lengths or material for shirts and lunghis (the wrap around cloth worn by men). Other shops sell flowers, woven into garlands or hair decorations, vegetables, cooked savoury and sweet snacks, groceries, hot and cold drinks and ice cream. In recent years several shops selling fresh chicken have opened and sometimes freshly slaughtered goat is available from a stall on the road side as well as at the Sanday Market each Monday. There is nothing resembling a supermarket in the village but there are two small ones in Vellore 16kms away. Bangalore, which is a 4 hour journey by train from the village, has very large modern shops, cafes and even a Pizza restaurant, but very few of the villagers would travel that far.

Ladies will travel to Vellore for special purchases. There they find a much greater choice of things like saris and materials, Indian sweets and cakes, fruits such as fresh pineapples, apples and oranges. There are also restaurants. The Women’s Self Help Groups run a shop inside the Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore.

The road through K.V.Kuppam is lined with shops selling a wide range of goods.

A general store where everything is on display.

Several shops sell portions of fresh chicken.

Some shops are simple thatched huts.

Clothes shops are popular in the village.

Bangles!!!!

Jewellery shops also act as pawn shops, where people can get loans using their jewels as security.

Most things can be bought in K.V.Kuppam but for more choice people have to travel to the town of Vellore 16kms away.

The nearest supermarket is in Vellore.

A modern vegetable shop near the supermarket in Vellore.

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