checks out… but checks into a new location
by S. Kenneth Shishir
City’s first home appliance store Shariff Electricals, established in 1938, is now on the move. The present store housed in the old building opposite the Bata Showroom on Sayyaji Rao road, which also housed other old popular stores of Mysore like Krishnaswamy Stationeries and Panchacharya Press, is now being vacated as the building is weak and the old iconic stores are finding new locations. And so Shariff’s, the most popular among the shops and the most sought after place for home appliance in city for more than 75 years too is moving out. Luckily for the old customers they are not moving very far from the old. The new store is still on Sayyaji Rao road opposite Devaraja Market main entrance.
M.A. Shariff, Managing Director of Shariff Electricals and his father late Hyder Shariff, were electrical contractors who not only dealt in electrical items but also specialised in wooden electrical casing. Hyder Shariff did most of the electrical casing work in the Mysore Palace and then his son M.A. Shariff ventured into electrical appliance business and took up distribution of GEEP torches, dry cells and bulbs under the name Shariff Sales and General Agencies on Old Bank Road in city. Soon companies such as Philips, Crompton Greaves, Usha and Khaitan came calling noticing that Shariff had become Mysore’s one-stop-shop for basic home electrical items. As business grew, in 1981 they opened their official electrical appliances store, Shariff’s-1. Then the second Shariff’s-2 was opened in 1995. In 2006 Shariff’s-3, a multi-brand and multi-storeyed showroom of home appliances began. M.A. Shariff’s children Maqsood and Faizy now manage these stores.
When M.A. Shariff was asked how he felt about moving out of the old store, he says “it feels bad, but it was bound to happen. The building was old” and adds “but I have to thank our customers in Mysore who made us what we are today.” When asked how he has managed to have such loyal clientele, he says “in sales you must make customer the king…and service is the king- maker. That’s what makes customers keep coming back.”
Speaking of the new challenge posed by online retail, Maqsood, the elder son of M.A. Shariff says, “we have to accept the challenge and we must learn from it. The best way is Omni-line: have both an online store and a brick and mortar shop. This way it removes the hassle of returns and service. It also helps the touch and feel factor which is missing in online stores.” Maqsood says Shariff’s will launch their shopping website soon.
Faizy, the youngest son of M.A. Shariff, speaking about the new multi-floored Shariff’s says that with the large space available now, they can display more products and also stock more. He adds, ” ‘NO, we don’t have that’ is something our customers will never hear from us.” Looks like the mantra of “service is king-maker” rings deep in this family.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Monday, November 03rd, 2014