TOOLS
His needle and thread stitches his covers together.
His sewing machine makes the above work faster.
A certain machine helps to make the cotton less coarse and usable.
MATERIALS
Bulk of the material he used was cotton which is filled into the beds and pillows.
Cloth was used to encase the cotton.
Thread was used to sew the cloth together.
He gets all his materials from the same supplier in Tamil Nadu with whom he has a life long contract.
CONSUMPTION
His trade requires monetary consumption.
He spends part of his profits on periodically restocking his material.
He has employees who sit in the store with him.
He also uses a lot of factory made cloth and thread.
His business consumes harvested cotton.
SKILL
He is very fast with the needle and thread.
Using the machines is another skill that is very necessary in their trade.
He speaks three languages: Kannada, Hindi and Telegu, although he learnt how to speak Kannada and Hindi only after coming here.
ECOLOGY
His business benefits the cotton industry and farmers. It was benefited the transported industry. It would also provide an income for the employees who were very highly skilled at their work. Residents of Yelahanka are his main source of income. The fact that Yelahanka has a lot of pgs and hostels benefits him a great deal.
STRATEGY
His location was strategically planned so he would be the closest mattress seller to the area where new paying guests are coming up.
SPACE
He has a large one room store where he stores his material creates his products and sells them.
His wares also spill onto the pavement in racks.
GEOGRAPHY
His shop is located on Market Road, the busiest street in Yelahanka New Town.
EARNINGS
His earns substantial amounts of money from each customer he gets although he gets very few customers.
He sells his mattresses at a few hundred rupees according to their sizes – sometimes earns in two or three thousands from the same customer.
He has even earned up to 5000 rupees from a single customer.
He supports his wife and two children including his eldest child’s education.
Also a part of his earnings circulates to buy more materials, pay his employees and maintain his machines.
PEOPLE
His customers are people who live in Yelahanka New Town and close by or have just moved there.
MONEY
He had rented his shop and bought his tools and materials using a loan five years ago when he had first come to Yelahanka.
He had problems adjusting to the locality and the trade initially and the only thing he preferred about Bangalore as his business site was the weather.
He earned enough to pay off his debts within three years.
LIVING
He comes from Kadappa District in Andhra Pradesh where he had a similar business in mattresses and pillows and where his parents live.
That store had run for ten years after which he moved to Yelahanka because of his marriage to a girl who lives here.
His wife taught him Hindi which helped with his trade.
BUYERS
His customers are residents of Yelahanka – and he makes most of his money by selling mattresses to people who come to live in hostels and paying guests here.
He mentioned a boy who came from a hostel and bought mattresses for himself and his friends from him.
OUR EXPERIENCE TALKING TO HIM
We tried a different approach while talking to him. We explained straight out that we were college students doing field research and he was very friendly about it unlike some other shopkeepers we had talked to. He was very forthcoming with his story – laughing and talking with us and sharing grievances.
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