General Items, a shoebox-sized homeware store in downtown Bengaluru

“We met in Bengaluru last year through a mutual friend. You could call it love at first sight,”  says product buyer Malini Malik of her first encounter with Spandana Gopal, founder of design studio Tiipoi. Within 10 minutes, the pair had bonded over their love of minimalist interiors and functional design, and the idea to start a business together was born. Four months later, in August 2024, they opened General Items, a shop and “occasional” gallery in Bengaluru’s bustling Ulsoor. 

The shoebox-sized bricks-and-mortar space used to be a general store that sold school stationery. “It felt very dreamlike,” says Malik of the pitched-roof structure, reminiscent of the way a child might draw a house. They have since lightly renovated the space, installing full-height windows and red shutters as a nod to the primary colours that adorn the façades of general stores across India. Inside, the soundtrack features electronic music, including Four Tet and Beach House, and the air is misted with a bespoke green tea and patchouli scent. 

How do we elevate a general item into something that sparks joy?

They opened with an edit of everyday items, themed around “Objects of Emotion”, and a plan to refresh the entire offering once a year. The current crop of makers are all based in India. “Items could be from anywhere as long as they fit within the General Items ethos,” says Malik. For Gopal, the only criterion is: “What is a general item and how do we elevate this into something that sparks joy?”

Displayed along a central island are Tiipoi’s Longpi black ceramic cooking pots, made from clay from the north-east of India, porcelain pitchers by Nada, a pottery studio based in Goa, and blue ceramic butter dishes by Tosha Jagad (Studio Tosh). Gopal also points to a set of beautiful handmade brooms made from date palm by a woman in Madhya Pradesh. The shelves house books on subjects ranging from handpainted signage to recipes from the southern Indian state Andhra Pradesh. 

The pair have also developed their own line of products, including tote bags (£9) and notebooks (£4), and a bestselling cotton ripstop utility jacket (£170), a collaboration with popular Indian fashion label Lovebirds. Shirts and more apparel are set to follow. Each month they host a “Meet the Maker” session, as well as literary readings, sourdough workshops and weekend events. 

The store has attracted a mix of Gen Zs and millennials and, to their surprise, over-indexed on men. “I did not consider them a target audience,” says Malik. “You normally see the man get bored, especially in a homeware store.” Their concrete models of houses and sculptures (from £23) have been especially popular.  

Plans for expansion are definitely in mind. “Our dream is to open more stores in Delhi and Mumbai,” says Malik. But they want to preserve the essence of their original shop. Adds Gopal: “The magic of General Items is partly because of the space that it’s in.”