A Small Shop
(By The Main Road To Tanjung Malim)
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| A Small Shop |
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| Convinience Store |
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| Learning Material |
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| "Kedai Majid" |
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| Store's Popularity |
I did not really remember when my dad started
his business. Just a small shop by the main road to Tanjung Malim. Occasionally
villagers called it a convenience store. Of course not a mini market. At the
time, the word "mini market" was quite rare to the ears. However all
kinds of items were in the shop; candy for children, cigarretes for young
people and medicines for older villagers, as well as teaching and learning
materials for primary schools. By then “Kedai Majid” was quite popular among
the villagers regardless of age. Anyway,
I also shared the store's popularity as Majid's son.
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| Cowboy Town |
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| Merely Middlemen |
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| Rubber Tappers |
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| "Puntung Berasap" |
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| Wooden Shops |
At that time there were only a few shops in
Sungai Choh, which I could count on with 5 fingers. Thus, characterised a small
cowboy town with a wild west feeling. Yet no lawman or gunfighter appeared on a
horseback. There were also shops owned by the Chinese. However there was no
Chinese community in the neighbourhood. They were merely middlemen, buying
rubber latex and rubber scrapes from the villagers. So that's how the villagers
lived as rubber tappers as well as labourers and government servants for the
rest of their lives in times of "puntung berasap". So those were the
days, when a row of wooden shops with half-rusted zinc roofs occupied both
sides of the main street. Serving as the main supplier of households.
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| Nasi Lemak |
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| Less Crowded |
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| Regular Customers |
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| Customers' Hearts |
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| Satisfied Customers |
However I used to cross the road to buy pulut
sambal bilis from Taha's coffee shop for my favourite breakfast. Occasionally
nasi lemak from Junas's coffee shop. Since Sungai Choh was a small village with
less crowded, my dad tended to know every villager. So there was not much of a
problem getting regular customers. At That time the word “advertisement” was
not in his vocabulary. He just believed that, "business not only sells
goods but also buys customers' hearts". Thus, his words were a promise,
but then I found out that my father was true to his words. So customers were always right, and only satisfied customers would be good advertisement.
