Mustafa started as a tiny Campbell Lane shop

Mustafa Centre, the famous 24-hour multi-floor department store, started in 1971 as a small textile shop on Campbell Lane run by the Mustaq Ahmad family. It grew through the 1980s into a full department store and by the early 2000s had taken its current form: a 24-hour, multi-floor ecosystem covering groceries, electronics, gold, remittances, SIM cards, fragrance, and almost anything else a new migrant from the subcontinent might need. The 24-hour model wasn't gimmickry — it served shift workers, weekend planners, and migrants who could only shop after long workdays. It remains family-owned.