Photo Essay | Dimming Lights of Tbilisi’s Neighborhood Shops

All photographs by Gvantsa Lomaia.

I only go to a small neighborhood grocery store – a “minimarket” – near my apartment block for two reasons: to buy cheap sausages for Rizha, the ginger stray dog we all have joint custody of, and whenever the supermarkets are closed.

There are not many options around. The ground floor of the newly built apartment block in Tbilisi’s Sanzona area where I live is occupied by commercial spaces, and many businesses have opened and closed there over the past decade: a gym, a mattress store, a used car parts shop, a delivery service, and a cafe that was a bit too cool for this place, but never one of those chain shops and supermarkets.

You have to walk blocks to reach them — the Nikora, the Libre, the Gvirila, the 2 Nabiji. Except for Europro, these are the main supermarkets in the area.