BHS-AL AIN

“Wow!” the sight was indeed bedazzling. I looked in awe, mouth agape at the splendid work of art, a real masterpiece by the connoisseur architect, the unique design, the façade, the beautifully laid garden, and the small fountains at the atrium. This airport was much bigger, and more attractive than the one I had seen before in my life.

The magnanimous airport was swarming with travellers moving around, from different nations around the world. Some could be seen patiently sitting at the waiting lounge, waiting for their flight to be announced, some reading magazines, newspapers, the ladies taking care of their children, who could be seen either with a cola in their hand or a piece of burger. Some could be seen waiting in the queue at various terminals to board the flight, and some collecting their boarding pass. In the back ground I could here various announcements being made through the centralised speaker system. The announcements mostly were in Arabic followed by English.

The cynosure was the duty free shops; the most excitement could be noticed there. This entire section by itself was equivalent to a huge mall, the shops with a veritable cornucopia of all kinds of stuff, a big supermarket, electronic showrooms, branded outlets, and a huge food court. Name a brand and there was an exclusive showroom of the brand carrying various varieties of clothing, perfumes, cosmetics, electronics, and general articles. There also was a huge section devoted entirely for cigarettes and alcohol. The world’s best assortment of alcoholic brands like black label, red label were to be seen displayed.
I think such a phantasmagorical, and enormous duty free shop doesn’t exist in any other international airports.

Once I came out of the airport I was equally struck by this wonderful oasis in the middle of the desert. Dubai is one of the seven emirates of UAE, and is known as Dubai City to distinguish it from the other emirates. Dubai is surely a tourist’s favourite destination. What a lovely city to be in. The first time I landed in Dubai I could only manage to be there only for a few hours inside the airport. I had to travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to join in my new office situated there. When I checked-in for a paid taxi I was stunned to see a Mercedes Benz waiting for me outside the airport. I was thrilled. Imagine a Mercedes for a taxi. I enjoyed the entire one hour journey from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. During the entire journey the driver made sure I was comfortable, played some good Hindi music for me and also entertained me with his experience as a driver in Dubai.
After my stint in Jeddah for four years I joined Liwa Trading Agencies here in United Arab Emirates. The corporate office was situated at Abu- Dhabi the capital of UAE. Here I got exposed to more brands like JCPENNEY, APPLEWOODS, FLORSHEIM, and PREMAMAN apart from BHS.

Stylo, Ranjith and Manoj had joined this organisation a few months before me and were based at the corporate office.

I was based at AL-AIN the oasis of UAE. It is also dubbed The Garden City of UAE. It was a beautiful town with no high rise. The town was full of greenery, with more of villas and less of buildings. The existing ones were also only having two to three floors. As it was a small town there were not many malls around like the ones they had in Dubai. Hence the BHS store at Al-Ain was a very popular store among the locals.

In Al-Ain I got introduced to Imtiaz, who used to work for Kodak. He was from Mangalore, a small city situated in south of India, a man in his late twenties, a bit short in height, but with a good strong built and having a helpful nature. Imtiaz helped me a lot during my early stage at Al-Ain. The best part of him was he used to never hesitate in helping anybody. He later introduced me to his native friend Harish, who had come down in search of a job. He was a debonair, and compared to Imtiaz and myself he was taller and handsome, and was very possessive of his appearance. I helped him in getting a job in my organisation. Harish joined my store and started working in the men’s section of BHS. Around this time I got married and my wife also joined me here in Al-Ain.

The BHS store was a huge single storied building. The warehouse was attached just behind to the main building. It used to operate from 9am in the morning to 1pm and 5pm in the evening to 9pm. It was a huge white coloured building with office premises given on rent on the first floor. To both the sides of the entrance to the store were huge window panes used for window displaying of the products and new arrivals. As one entered the store two walkways were available one to the left leading to the men’s section and the right one leading to the ladies section. To just the left side of the store was Premaman and way down to the right side was the lingerie section. Applewood and household sections were inside towards the other end of the store.

The only difference in this store for me was that even ladies were allowed to work. Most of them, in fact all were from Philippines. Sulekha was the senior supervisor of this store and it was she who taught me visual merchandising. She was an expert on the same. She was a short, slender lady, with short open hair which was shoulder length and in her late twenties, married to an Indian, was a very honest, smart and hardworking lady. Premaman, a well known brand from Belgium known for infant collections and maternity outfits was handled by Geraldine, a very hard working lady, known for her skills in displaying stocks in her department very efficiently. Eva and Editha used to handle the kids department. Eva was known for her speed in every job she was entrusted. She was an expert cashier as well. Editha was known for her customer service skills. She also had a very enchanting smile, of course, the reason for her efficient customer conversions. Loretta and Divina used to handle the ladies department. Divina was a cheerful girl and was the youngest among all the staffs, and also a keen learner. Loretta was a tall girl with beautiful hair, and was good at keeping the department neat and clean. Rosemary was in charge of APPLEWOODS which was a brand from UK known for its aromatherapy products. Rosemary was the eldest among the ladies and was an expert in giving tips on beauty, and knew her products very well. All the lady staffs were from Philippines. Siraj was in charge of the house-hold collections here and was a very senior person by age. Srishan was in charge of the warehouse and a master in his area. All alone he used to take of the entire operations of the warehouse. It was Siraj who had trained him here in warehousing. Harish was the youngest male staff and was in-charge of JC Penney household section. He used to also assist Jamal in menswear. Jamal had a very good sense of humour and was also very good in maintaining relationship with his customers. Siraj, Srishan and Jamal were from Kerala. Buhari, a tall dark and handsome guy from Chennai in South India was responsible for the house keeping of the store. He was very efficient in his work, and used to get shworama, an Arabic sandwich for me everyday during our break time. I used to enjoy Buhari’s company as he was a gem of a person. At the back office Sanjeev was our commercial manager and responsible for all accounts related activities.
His and my family became close friends. I have fond memories of our outings together not to forget the visit to the famous ‘Global Village’ during the Dubai shopping festival which occurs yearly. Movie-time was a special weekly feature and this is when I got addicted to our bollywood movies.

Here I understood and learnt how to prepare a schedule and do stock-take more efficiently for the entire store. As I had already worked for BHS I found it very comfortable to work here, share my experience and at the same time get to learn more especially from these girls from Philippines.Compared to Jeddah here at Al-Ain I got exposed more to the lifestyle of the locals and was in a better position to adapt to the working culture. It was also easy to get settled down here compared to Jeddah.