Shops / Shop of the Week
Shop of the Week: Gulzar Fancy Goods, Easton
Gulzar Fancy Goods is a sells-a-bit-of-everything hardware store located on St Mark’s Road in Easton.
Founded by Syed Gulzar, the shop opened its doors in the mid-90s, founded on the back of Mr Gulzar’s other business – Gulzar Food Store, a grocery shop he opened in the 1980s while working as an engineer.
King Charles paid a visit to Gulzar Food Store in February 1998.
is needed now More than ever
King Charles came to visit Gulzar Food Store in 1998
Although Gulzar Food Store was sold in 2000, Gulzar Fancy Goods remains and sells hardware tools as well as an array of many other items that you would keep in a toolbox.
In 2021, Mr Gulzar passed away, leaving the business to his son, Tarek.
Since then, Tarek has been running the shop, trying to keep his dad’s legacy going.
Key cutting is one of the many things on offer at Gulzar Fancy Goods
Tarek is trying to fill the shop with more hardware items to fill “every nook and cranny”, he says. Like his dad, who “used to go out and do community work for people and handywork using the skills that he had, and this became his toolbox.”
Tarek adds: “Everyone comes here and, if you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere.”
Customers still ask Tarek about his father four years after his passing.
He was a beloved member of the community, in part because “he’d not only sell items, he would also show people how to use and fix things”.
People still ask about Syed, the previous owner of the shop, four years after his passing
For Tarek, Gulzar Fancy Goods is more than just a shop: “it’s a community and it’s a service. I take my knowledge and pass it on to people.”
In fact, many of the businesses on St Mark’s Road view themselves as part of a community.
They often do business with each other, “bouncing off each other”, Tarek says, to help keep their business and the community afloat.
Main photo: Izzy Watt
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
