Lifestyle

Venture Tuesday: The Tuckshop - reintroducing barter system!

Raina Sahu runs The Tuckshop, where she sells an eclectic range of branded clothes, shoes and home accessories. Shoppers get a taste of imported coffee and home baked cake - free!! What’s more? She has brought in a new concept of bartering!

The Tuckshop

As you walk into The Tuckshop, a sign greets you saying ‘Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture your heart,’ True to the saying, Raina Sahu, who runs the place manages to capture your heart with the love and cheer she spreads liberally. There is a small children’s corner where the kids are kept busy with art and crafts while mothers shop. Another unique thing about this place is that, you can barter! Yes, you heard it right; you can barter for the things that you buy by probably helping her out at the store or by giving something in return.

Explaining this concept, Raina says “I don’t want people to go back disappointed; they shouldn’t feel that they can’t afford it. So I started bartering, and we’re doing great, though people are a little shocked when I tell them that we barter, we’ve done Rs. 20,000 worth barter last month. This concept is very new but it’s definitely catching up,”


Raina’s store is beautifully done up and no one corner of the shop resembles the other. There are sanskrit shlokas written on the wall, for sale are paintings done by her daughters and the whole shop is aesthetically very appealing. Between her 7 and 9 year old daughters and a slew of visitors and students, one can see different styles of art work all throughout the shop.  She is continuing to encourage people to come and paint and write in different languages. The entire store has been built by her using scrap materials and  even displays works by upcoming artists, she says pointing at the glass paintings on display, ‘she wanted to showcase her art here and I wanted to give her the platform to do so,”

Raina who moved to Bangalore after spending 19 years in the U.S found it extremely difficult settling down in the city, she says “When I landed here, it was complete chaos, I didn’t know the local language, we had difficult time adjusting to traffic and my kids wanted lasagna, we didn’t know where to get it from and to top it all, maids ran away with the money. I didn’t want the same thing happening to others coming here as well, so now I offer expat support and people find it a lot easier when there’s someone to guide them. Almost like a host family in town. Through the store, I’ve connected many people with doctors and other required services and now even if there’s a small thing, they call me for help,”



The Tuckshop is like a cultural potpourri, “We have a lot of expats coming here to shop and the barter system has worked really well. This American traveler in town helped with organizing and painting the store in exchange for a stay at my parents house next to the Ganga up north. Also there’s this techie whose designing my website, he again bartered it with jackets and clothes from the store. I have bartered my way from shop merchandise to taxi from the airport, to home stays to candy from USA," says Raina.

She further adds, "I would like to aim at doing 30% of the business for barter and the rest from the sales of the merchandise which is quite reasonably priced.  I get clothes/accessories from all over the country; people love to shop here because of the wide variety,”

But there are some guidelines for bartering, Raina says “You can’t bring in stuff that wont sell and barter it. It has to be worth the barter. There’s Gerry Martin’s farm close by and he was looking for a bread maker. So we did a barter of rabbits for my daughters in exchange for the breadmaker from me, “so that’s how the barter works!” We are in the process of putting up a list of “tuckshop needs” for barter.

Raina goes out of her way to make the customers feel at ease, every Friday it’s barter time at the store; she invites people to come and help in exchange for goods. "The Tuckshop also provides a platform for people to bond hence becoming a cultural melting pot for people across the city," Says Raina. 
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For more information, see www.tuckshop.in, or get in touch with Raina Sahu at 9880353670
 

Tags: the tuckshop, raina sahu, barter system, expat support in bangalore, gerry martin farm