The little essence of kedai runcit
Back then before the existence of convenience stores and supermarkets, there was the kedai runcit (sundry store). It was a place where people would be able to get all kinds of their daily necessities such as grain, oil, food, everyday household items, etc. While parents would visit the store very often for their daily needs, children love visiting the store too as the store also offers very exciting snacks and toys for them. If you are lucky you’d sometimes get some free things from the owner as well.
"It was not just a store, but a place of community."
Sometimes people would simply go over just to chit-chat with the store owner and also their neighbours. Over time it has become the heart of the community and also a part of our culture. With the rising growth of convenience stores and supermarkets, more and more local sundry stores are slowly getting eliminated over time due to how convenient everything is nowadays.
My great-grandmother used to own a kedai runcit as well back in Ipoh. I still remember the old times when I used to visit the store and get free snacks from her. The store was overly crowded with items, with only one path small enough to fit one to walk by. Usually, the customer would just tell her what they want to buy and wait at the front entrance, while my great-grandmother goes through all the mess in the store and magically pulls out whatever they wanted to buy. To avoid me disturbing her at work, she’d have me sitting on a pile of rice bags and giving me free snacks to keep me busy. Unfortunately, she passed away very recently and the store was destroyed to build new businesses.
We may be at the last generation of the sundry stores, but as technology is becoming more advanced it will just get harder for these stores to survive. Hopefully, this project can serve as an archive to document and showcase the beauty that Malaysia has and introduce it to the next generations. In a way, it is a cross-generation project where the older and younger generations are trying to connect.
To do this I need to create visuals that are attractive to the younger generation but also remains that sense of nostalgia for the older generation. I started visiting sundry stores for inspiration, going through all of the mundane items in the store. Although these items are small, they are the little iconic things that make up the kedai runcit.
In the end, the result was a combination of today's contemporary design style with the colors and shapes taken from the iconic household objects/nostalgic snacks in the store. Invoking that sense of overwhelming excitement that people used to feel when they visit the kedai runcit.
Tikam-Tikam calendar is inspired the traditional children's game of luck. It was most commonly found in sundry store and children will be able to play it with only 0.50 cent. To use the calendar, user would be able to tear off the front part of the page revealing the dates inside. Each page features a design that was inspired by specific nostalgic snacks that Malaysians used to eat back in the days. With the overwhelming shapes and colors that it presents each page, it brings that sense of excitement each time a page is torn off.
For this project, a zine was created as a form of documentation to commemorate the kedai runcit. The purpose of this project is not to give a history lesson or be educational, it is merely an archive and sharing session for the love and memories we had with kedai runcit. In this zine, we look at the little iconic items, their little stories, and random memories that people have with the store. Although these things are mundane, they are the little essence that makes up the sundry store. Hence the title "Little essence of a sundry store".
Through this zine, I hope that people will be able to experience that sense of excitement kids used to feel when they visit the kedai runcit.
The project received positive feedback from both young and old generations. Both groups express positive reactions to the visuals and also understand the purpose of this project.
It was nice to see everyone feeling excited for the project, especially the older audience as well. Young audience were really curious to learn about this culture and were really interested to have conversation on the project. Many adults who had great memories with the sundry store were very excited to share their own memories and stories to both me and their own children. It was nice to see how this project was able to spark that conversation between these 2 different generations right in front of my eyes.
These small interactions that I had are just like the little items in the sundry store. Although these things are little, some people may even call them meaningless. But they are the little essence to the sundry store. After all, it’s the little things in life that matters.
