When I was a kid, I was always super excited to go to “Kedai Runcit” or, as we call it in English, a sundry shop. But as we grew up, convenience shops like 7-11 and KK Mart started popping up. While these shops are much cleaner, they don’t always have everything we need.
I still remember when a new Kedai Runcit opened. It was huge and had almost everything I could imagine as a kid. One of the things I bought from the shop was a yo-yo. If you don’t know what a yo-yo is, here’s a quick description:
A toy made of two joined discs with a deep groove between them. String is attached and wound around the discs. You can spin them up and down by their weight and momentum as the string unwinds and rewinds.
While I was looking at toys, my mom would come here to buy the daily supplies, including fresh produce. But when the Lori Pasar started in our neighborhood, Kedai Runcit started to lose their popularity. Instead of Kedai Runcit, every morning, this uncle would bring all sorts of fresh produce in his 1-tonne lorry. He would park at a corner at a set time, and the housewives in the area would go to him to buy their produce. It was perfect because he would also take special orders.
I hope this is still happening now, but I haven’t seen it in the past decade or so. Maybe after I started working, I don’t spend my days in the neighborhood. In fact, I moved to a condo with a different lifestyle (I now go to Jaya Grocer… lol).