My first Store

BHS-JAMJOOM

Retail industry in India is in its nascent stage. I started my career in retailing in the early 90’saround thirteen years back abroad when organised retailing was not spoken or heard about in India. It was here in Jeddah in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where I learnt the ABC of retailing. I used to work for.Al-Shaya Trading Agencies was one of the largest retailers in the Middle East and was a leading franchisee for most of the leading brands from Europe, British Home Stores being one of them. British Home Stores (BHS) which is one of the well known departmental stores in the United Kingdom known for its collection of apparels for men’s, ladies and kids. It also has a wonderful collection of household goods.

I joined here in this organization as a sales advisor and was positioned at one of the outlets of BHS in Jamjoom centre, in the city of Jeddah. Jeddah is a Saudi Arabian city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah province and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh.

. Al-Shaya Trading Agencies was one of the largest retailers in the Middle East and was a leading franchisee for most of the leading brands from Europe, BHS being one of them.


Here in BHS I had to handle the men’s department. The size of this departmental store was 20,000 square feet which to me was a real big one those days. It was a very beautiful shop and I really enjoyed the ambience around. I came to know that all the fixtures, the various other equipments used, and other general items were all uniform in all the BHS stores. There were mannequins dressed up elegantly at the windows of the shop. The floor was laid with beautiful grey carpet, again a uniform feature found in all the BHS stores. The interior of the store was completely lit up brightly with all the spot lights focused over the fixtures. The walls were all displayed with various bevy of colourful merchandise. The entire shop lay-out was in an L-shape. The entrance to the shop led to a wide walk-way. To the left side was the ladies formal section and to the right was the ladies casual section. Further down there was an exit to the left side and way ahead was the entry to the kids department, which was extended to the right direction of the entrance to the store. To the far end was the men’s section and to its right side was the lingerie section. The layout of the store was really beguiling, and the merchandise were all displayed on different types of chrome-finish browsers placed on the floor. The unique thing about all these fixtures was that they all had wheels on them. The walls were also having white coloured slat-walls on which the merchandise were displayed adroitly. I had never seen such a store layout which such a huge variety of collection of merchandise ever in my life before. The over all ambience of the store was fantastic. Customers could be seen browsing conveniently through the browsers, picking up merchandise which they wanted, and the sales men helping them buy the products. The shop did not have an over the counter type selling mode. I had never before in my life seen such a type of a store where customers could walk in freely, see and feel the merchandise they want to buy. The company had only two such outlets in Jeddah, one was a very small one, a three thousand odd square feet store with collections only for kids situated in Heera International Souk, another mall of its kind at the junction of Hera'a Street and Madinah Road. The other branch was in Al-Rashid mall at Al-Khobar towards the western region of Saudi Arabia. This branch was bigger than the one at Jamjoom centre.

My training started from the warehouse because I was told this is the place where one learns and understands each and every product existing inside the store. Our warehouse was situated towards the outskirts of Jeddah .I was already briefed to be ready early in the morning, 7 am sharp, at the gates to our villa, where Stylo would accompany me. Stylo had joined the organisation around four months back and hence knew the processes well. He was also a Malayalee, but could not speak the language fluently; hence we used to enjoy hearing him speak Malayalam. He was born and brought up in Mumbai, a suave; was almost 6ft. in height, a fair complexion, long, naughty face. He was handling the ladies department along with Samson.