Neeli Malik
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100 Days of Groceries - Original 2020 Photoblog

100 Days of Groceries is a photography project, exploring the aesthetics of buying groceries, documenting mostly independently owned stores in which people can buy food; greengrocers, corner shops, newsagents, markets, butchers, bakeries, fishmongers, etc. Each post will document a different establishment. Some of the photographs are taken in passing, but some of them I visited specifically. Some documentations will be accompanied by text, either conversational interviews with the workers in the shops, or simply my own observations of the shop at the time. Read more about the project here.

Taste of Chamberlayne (May 2020)

Taste of Chamberlayne, Chamberlayne Road, Kensal Green, London, May 2020
 
Taste of Chamberlayne is a café located on Chamberlayne Road. It has been open for twelve years now. Even though the government allowed his café to operate selling takeaway sandwiches and coffee during lockdown, Mahmoud decided to open a pop-up grocery store.


I asked him, why open a grocery store in your café?
He replied that when quarantine was first enforced, he was watching long queues gather outside the Tesco opposite his café. Back home, Mahmoud’s dad works in a marketplace selling groceries. Fears of food shortages abound, Mahmoud thought, let’s go get some fruit and vegetables to sell during this period of coronavirus.

Every morning he wakes up at 2am to go to the market by himself. He says it’s hard, but it’s okay. He picks up the best vegetables and fruit, brings them to the shop, and sets it up outside. He tells me:

“People like it, people enjoy it, and we start to do some delivery so people can say safe and stay home. I do free delivery most of the time because I want to help people. We need to be active and work hard, and now give up. This is a business, but also, we want to help people if they are sick. We need to be positive and finish this problem.”

It’s not been too different to sell groceries rather than run a café. Mahmoud tells me they are linked to one another. The vegetables and fruit they sell are also the ones they use in the café, in sandwiches and smoothies. Mahmoud gets what his coffee shop needs to keep running, but also extra to sell to the customers.

I asked him what he has been enjoying most about this period:
“When I am coming back from the market, I put the crates of strawberries in my car. Driving home, I can smell them, sweet and very nice.”

Neeli Malik