Google Images

I came across a useful shop on Malden Road in Worcester Park yesterday, of which more in due course. But in the meantime I have their business card, snapped above.

I had thought that the shop, a large grocery story which included meat, bakery, fruit and vegetables in the offering, was run by Turks. But looking at the card a bit more carefully, I realised that the script bottom right was not Turkish. Nor was the name very Turkish.

Google Images was able to put me right, telling me that the script was indeed Arabic, giving me a transliteration very close to that on the business card. Which is very clever, but I am still some way from knowing from where in the Arabic speaking world. Perhaps that will come in due course.

At least I now know the equivalent of 'D' and 'A' in the Arabic alphabet. Except that, as Google Images reminds me, Arabic does not have a phonetic alphabet like ours (derived from the Ancient Greek), being rather an abjad, which according to the beginning of reference 2 does not do vowels. More complications: I suspect I need to keep reading.

With the website on the other side of the card giving the snap above.

All of which leaves me worrying about what I call the International Store at Clapham Junction, which I use from time to time, and which I had always assumed to be Turkish. And then there is the one in North Cheam noticed at reference 3.

And looking rather shuttered in Street View,. Maybe putting the shutters up of an evening is less bother than taking the display down. And then starting over in the morning. From where I associate to the plant stall at Epsom market on Thursdays and Saturdays which must take an hour or two to put up and then again to take down. A long day.

References

Reference 1: https://www.shopify.com/uk. Someone else getting in on the 'ify' handle. A visually noisy website.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abjad.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/cheam-arena.html.