When you’ve been writing about the Scottish local retailing sector for a quarter of a century, it gets to the point where it feels like you’ve seen and heard it all before. But every so often you hear something that makes you go, “wait… what??”
I had one of those moments during a conversation with Girish Jeeva, one of the leading young lights of local retailing in Scotland. Now, Girish has often openly and sincerely told me that it’s not actually him that runs his pristine and multi award-winning Premier store in Barmulloch in Glasgow, it’s his colleague Snehal.
So when he told me that Snehal was returning to her native India to get married, I naturally asked him if he was gutted. All I got in return was a blank expression and a flat “no”. I asked him if he had a replacement lined up and his response baffled me: “No, she’s going to keep running the store.”
From India? How the hell does that work? I’ve heard of working from home – I do it myself – but running a store from home? And from 4,000 miles away? Seriously?
Girish just did his characteristic little chuckle and reassured me that “it’s all fine”. Try as I might, however, I couldn’t work out how it could possibly all be fine. With his eye for a bit of press coverage, he suggested that this would make a great story for SLR – and, when you read this issue’s cover story, I hope you agree with me that he was right.
It’s an utterly bizarre and bonkers and unlikely story, but what’s most incredible is that it clearly works. The store is hitting its numbers and looks as perfect as ever. Snehal sits at her desk in India and runs every part of a store on the other side of the planet, and I mean every part. Ordering, 24-hour home delivery, stock control, date checking, ranging and merchandising, rotas, payroll, staff training, the lot.
It’s an inspiring and uplifting story and it shows what happens when you ignore what everyone’s telling you and how things “are meant to be done,” and just do it your own way anyway. It’s also a classic example of learning the rules and conventions inside out and back to front before you proceed to break most of them.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director, SLR
Working from home… but not as you know it
When you’ve been writing about the Scottish local retailing sector for a quarter of a century, it gets to the point where it feels like you’ve seen and heard it all before. But every so often you hear something that makes you go, “wait… what??”
I had one of those moments during a conversation with Girish Jeeva, one of the leading young lights of local retailing in Scotland. Now, Girish has often openly and sincerely told me that it’s not actually him that runs his pristine and multi award-winning Premier store in Barmulloch in Glasgow, it’s his colleague Snehal.
So when he told me that Snehal was returning to her native India to get married, I naturally asked him if he was gutted. All I got in return was a blank expression and a flat “no”. I asked him if he had a replacement lined up and his response baffled me: “No, she’s going to keep running the store.”
From India? How the hell does that work? I’ve heard of working from home – I do it myself – but running a store from home? And from 4,000 miles away? Seriously?
Girish just did his characteristic little chuckle and reassured me that “it’s all fine”. Try as I might, however, I couldn’t work out how it could possibly all be fine. With his eye for a bit of press coverage, he suggested that this would make a great story for SLR – and, when you read this issue’s cover story, I hope you agree with me that he was right.
It’s an utterly bizarre and bonkers and unlikely story, but what’s most incredible is that it clearly works. The store is hitting its numbers and looks as perfect as ever. Snehal sits at her desk in India and runs every part of a store on the other side of the planet, and I mean every part. Ordering, 24-hour home delivery, stock control, date checking, ranging and merchandising, rotas, payroll, staff training, the lot.
It’s an inspiring and uplifting story and it shows what happens when you ignore what everyone’s telling you and how things “are meant to be done,” and just do it your own way anyway. It’s also a classic example of learning the rules and conventions inside out and back to front before you proceed to break most of them.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director, SLR
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