Sharbot Lake General Store: The Story of Bob Basra pt.1

W.A Willis | Sep 30, 2020

(Editors note – Bob Willis, who worked on a book with a mutual friend, the late Marion Hart, approached the News a couple of weeks ago about doing a story about Bob Basra and the Sharbot Lake General Store, which is something we have never done at the paper. He submitted this piece, which is longer than our norm, but it contains interesting material and we decided to run it in full, in two parts. The second part will run in an upcming issue)

Joy has its moments when we least expect them, especially amidst Covid-19. I was sitting in Canadian Tire, waiting for my oil change, chafing at the discomfort of my mask, also observing the discomfort of others seated near me.

Somehow a conversation started, amidst the nervous tension. It began on a subject I don’t remember, but it took an unexpected turn. That same week I had been to the various box stores, looking for hardware to build the gate for my garden fence, and had headed home disgusted, both with the selection and prices. I didn’t know what to do.

I live in Mountain Grove and always pass the Sharbot Lake General Store, and usually stop for gas because its prices are often the best in the area. I understand this is not by chance but because of the deliberate choice of its owner, Bob Basra, with the competition following his lead. ‘Strategy’ I am told, but I suspect there is some measure of goodwill.

And so I stopped for gas and decided on a whim to check the General Store’s hardware section, considerable, I might add. Lo and behold, there were the fasteners I was looking for, and at prices that were reasonable, even cheaper than the box stores. I expressed my surprise at the checkout, and again I was told it was ‘strategy.’

This memory and its joy was what took the conversation at the Canadian Tire in the direction of Bob Basra and his General Store. Seated across from me was a man who said he was a home builder, and was a regular of the store. He regaled me with a story from January 1998, which many will remember was the time of the Ice Storm. By then, Bob Basra had been operating out of his current location for about eight years, now its prominent Petro Canada sign, with the flashing light along Highway 7, announcing a welcome to the Sharbot Lake community.

The Ice Storm will conjure up memories for many and this is what the man remembered. He recalled how Bob and his wife helped the community by going to Toronto to buy propane cylinders and supplying the whole community in desperate circumstances, not being opportunists, but maintaining reasonable prices and putting the needs of the community ahead of their own. My jaw dropped as I listened to this story of goodwill and joy; it almost seemed like the Christmas story, where we read of the joy and goodwill to all humanity. We are all too familiar with a world that seeks to gain from others’ misery, and we are often tempted to do the same. This was not so with Bob Basra. My curiosity was piqued; who was this Bob Basra?

The General Store today

For any newcomer to the General Store, there is a good chance they will encounter Bob in one of the aisles, as he checks his inventory and prepares his stock orders. It is easy to mistake him as a retiree, working as a stock boy to fill his time, much like those we see at Walmart or Lee Valley. Not so with Bob, he is the owner and patriarch of this family business where members of his family also work. His wife, Surinder, works as administrator/book keeper, with her duties wide ranging from paying bills, budgeting, account management, and purchasing. The latter includes inventory and product acquisitions (always looking for exciting new things) and the actual stocking of the shelves and merchandising. Day to day operations include opening and closing, and just being available to jump in whenever a need arises.

Jasmeen, a daughter and the eldest, works in Consumer Analytics at Myer, a prominent retailer in Australia, where she has lived for the past four years, only returning home because of COVID, and her company thankfully allowing her to work from Canada. She helps out in the store when time permits.

Jaskirn, the middle daughter, works in Product Marketing at Microsoft and has recently transferred to the Canadian office. She also has been in Australia for the past four years, and is able to work from home during this period, helping out in the store when able.

Both Jasmeen and Jaskirn are most thankful for this opportunity to be at home once again, as they have been away, and it has been over ten years since the family has been able to spend so much time together.

Gurdev, also known as Dave, is the youngest. He is a recent graduate from the Robotics program at Algonquin College and continues to help out with the family business while pursuing opportunities in his field of study. And so this is the family with roots in India, but also firmly planted in the Sharbot Lake area, and now having spread out again to the farthest reaches of the world. Bob, I am told, is well informed on world current events, and keeps his finger on the pulse, following trends on a wide range of issues. His unassuming manner will also offer no clues that here is a successful businessman. If he is not in the store, he can usually be found behind the store in one of several outbuildings. It is hard to know the extent of the goods and services offered at this store, and as Jeff Green, the owner/editor of Frontenac News confided in me, “If Bob doesn’t have it, you don’t need it.” This is because Bob makes a note of customers’ requests, and if he receives repeated requests for the same item, he will make a point of stocking it.

Growing up in India

Bob Basra had humble beginnings, and began his life on the other side of the world. Born Balwant Singh Basra in 1947 in Phagwara in Punjab, Northern India, he entered the world the same year as India’s Partition. 1947 was a significant year in modern Indian history, with it being the year of its independence from British Colonial Rule, and also the year that India was partitioned into the independent states of Pakistan and India, with India briefly becoming known as the Dominion of India until it created its constitution and became a democratically elected republic in 1950.

Bob, as he is affectionately known in his store, grew up in a world of change, and this perhaps explains his uncanny ability to not just survive, but to thrive. He was the youngest of four boys, with the oldest still living in India, and two others since deceased, one having migrated to Scotland. A recurring theme in Indian life after the Partition and Independence was migration, both from India to Pakistan and other parts of the world. Bob would later choose the latter.

He grew up speaking Punjabi, which the whole family still speaks, including his wife and three children. At school he learned the national language, Hindi, and in Grades 7 and 8 began learning English.

The family farm was several miles from the town of Phagwara, and was without electricity until Bob entered high school. They depended on coal oil and kerosene for light, and Bob grew up reading by kerosene lamp. All farm plowing and irrigation was done by ox. The farm produced annual crops such as sugarcane, corn, cotton and wheat, and as water allowed, shifted to summer and winter crops such as squash, cauliflower and cabbage, with these sold at the local market.

Life in rural Northern India was difficult, and survival meant caring for your neighbour. For those of us who come from an ancestry of settlers in rural Canada, we have all heard the stories, of how the immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and wherever else had to survive the shock of Canada’s harsh winters through helping one another. Neighbours would quite literally set aside their own priorities to help a person in need. So it was in Bob’s family, with his father and brothers offering their help to less fortunate families, whose families may not have been as large and having the necessary manpower to get jobs done. This became a foundational value in Bob’s life.

He went through school and because there were not many job prospects, had to find things to do. Bob’s father, besides being a farmer, was a Numbardar by profession, this being among other duties, the tax collector from local farmers. Circumstances led to Bob becoming involved in his father’s work, doing this for several years. With the Partition relatively recent, changes were still being implemented in the administrative system, with tax forms not yet in Punjabi (Gurmukhi script) but in Urdu which Bob’s father knew but Bob didn’t. For Bob to work with his father he had to self-learn Urdu. Again, the theme, Bob had an uncanny ability to adapt to change.

Moving to Canada

Job prospects were few, and Bob, like many his age, had to consider migrating to the West in order to survive. Seeing no alternative, he made his move, leaving the familiar for a distant land, a foreign culture, and landing in the West Coast of Canada in the mid 1970s. Even then there was change, with another move to Montreal, where he lived from 1976-84, attending trade school. Again, he was hit by change, with outsourcing and manufacturing moving overseas, and employment opportunities in manufacturing becoming limited and difficult to access.

In 1985 he moved to Ontario, finding a job managing a service station north of Toronto. This property was sold within a year, precipitating another move for Bob, this time to a Shell station in Kaladar in 1987, where he was part owner. His partner’s wife’s reluctance to leave her job in the city brought the relationship to an impasse and Bob offered to buy him out. The partner received a better offer from someone else and so Bob sold his interest and moved on, this time to Sharbot Lake in late 1988. He and his partner separated on good terms and are still friends to this day.

Part 2 is now available! Read it here.