The Eco Store, the oldest organic store in HSR Layout, celebrated its sixth anniversary this July. Today, there are many more alternatives in the neighbourhood, but this shop stands out for sticking to promoting high-quality products produced by farmers and farming groups. As its founder Seshu Maringanti says, “We carefully select our products so that they are healthy and harmless to our body.”
The store gets vegetables five days a week (Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun), as soon as they are harvested in the farm. Their grocery section has a wide range of products ranging from rice, millets, pulses, and so on. Their gardening section has organic products that are required to grow an organic garden in one’s courtyard/balcony. In addition, they have kitchen waste management products like khambhas, microbes and remix powders. “Our cosmetic products are one of the best,” says Seshu. “They do not have chemicals like SLES that harm the skin.”
In summary, The Eco Store is a one-stop shop for all organic and eco-friendly products. They also have an e-commerce website to provide the convenience of online transactions. “When we started our store in 2012, our customers used to ask us ‘What is Organic?’”, he says. “Now, there is no dearth of awareness, but customers demand authenticity.”
Today, the organic food space has become quite crowded and competitive. “The trends that we saw in the regular FMCG market like deep discounts started to surface here too,” says Seshu. “Entities with deep pockets and high business aspirations are entering this market. This is not good for genuine farmers and retailors.”
For The Eco Store, the phrase that descibes it best is ‘Small is beautiful’. “One trend that I noticed consistently is that people who are expanding beyond their sourcing capacity are forced to compromise on the authenticity of their product unlike us.”
Future plans
“My expansion of this business will always be in line with the capacity of the authentic sourcing that I discover, especially fruits and vegetables,” says the techie who quit his full-time job eight years ago to become an entrepreneur. “I am focusing on expanding our online reach. I might also open another store in the near future.”
THE ECO STORE
1018, 13th Cross, 24th Main, Sector 1, HSR Layout
Phone: 080-22580132
