Saree – but it’s the end
A FAMILY-RUN clothes shop in Nottingham is closing its doors after serving the local community for 45 years.
Seehra Saree Centre on Berridge Road, Forest Fields, opened in 1976, when the premises were taken over by Avtar and Harjit Seehra.
The shop specialises in selling South Asian sarees – also spelt sari – and other dresses from the subcontinent. The family lived above the shop when it was first established.
The business has been kept in the family with their son and two daughters stepping in to help the couple, who are now ready to let go of the shop they have run for decades to retire.
The shop has served many families in the area with a third generation of customers most recently coming into the store to buy dresses and other items for weddings and other events.
Harjit, 70 – who was born in Kenya, married Avtar in Swindon and now lives in Mapperley – said: “We’ve been here just over 45 years now and it feels like I’ve been here all my life.
“I was only 25 when we opened so it’s quite sad to be going but it’s about time because we need a rest.
“We really loved all our customers. They were like family to us, not just customers.
“We have people coming in whose grandparents we served years ago. It’s so nice to see them.
“The shop has been a big part of the local community here. People have come asking us why we are leaving and some have been crying. We will miss them all a lot.”
Harjit and husband Avtar, 77, run the shop with son Manjinder and their two daughters Deesha Sian and Sharon Mankoo.
Changing shopping habits and the pandemic are the reasons behind the decision to close the store and instead look to the property market.
Manjinder, 46, says: “The business started here in 1976. It was just a small shop here at first before mum and dad bought expanded in 1985 with the two shops next door. So it was three shops in one.
“Slowly we started reducing it over the years. I was only one when we opened the shop.
“My sisters and I have worked here while we were studying at university so we are all part of the business – but, for mum and dad, it was their life.
“Originally we lived above the shop on Berridge Road and then in 1985 we moved to Aspley and now Mapperley.
“Our kids have now been brought up in the business too and my eldest, who is 14, feels it now we are closing.
“It’s been like a house here with a kitchen and a TV set up.
“It’s definitely all a bit emotional to be leaving.
“We’ve had lots of families come to take pictures before we officially close and it’s much more than just a shop for us.
“Times have changed, though, and there’s just not the demand that there was before.
“We’ve been thinking about a change for a few years now and lockdown seems to have brought that around faster.”
He explained: “My dad came to the UK in 1968 and my mum a few years before.
“They ended up settling in Nottingham after seeing the Castle and thinking it was a nice area.
“Mum was a factory supervisor before and dad had a good job as an engineer.
“Once they saw the shop was available though, that was it.
“A highlight for me was getting to go to India to order suits and dresses from there.
“It was a big responsibility, but I really enjoyed it.”
The shop’s last day trading will be on October 30 with the unit set to be rented out to a new business afterwards.