Ranganathan street wears deserted look
Saravana Stores founder S. Yogarathnam passes away at 76
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-04 06:29 GMT
Chennai: Saravana Stores, named after the Tiruchendur Murugan, has became synonymous with Ranganathan Street in T. Nagar here.
The retail king — S. Yogarathnam — who along with his brothers took the state capital by storm through his trail blazing enterprise of offering products at a fabulous discounted prices, is no more.
Founder of Saravana Stores, Yogarathnam (76), died at his residence at Ramnathan Street here on Thursday. He is survived by wife Lakshmi and four proprietor sons –
Y. Pallakkudurai, Y. Shanmugadurai, Y. Pondurai and Dr. Y. Aruldurai.
According to family sources, Yogarathnam has been ailing for some time and he even undertook treatment at a private hospital. His final end came early on Thursday.
With over 10,000 employees, mostly young men and women from the southern districts, the Saravana Stores, which draws thousands of customers on any day, almost bursts at the seams during festive seasons. The entire Ranganathan street is often flooded by a sea of humanity and people wait for long hours to even enter the shop.
With its tagline “cheapest prices in town,” the Saravana Stores is a brand that revolutionised the concept of shopping. This largest family-owned retailer was founded in 1970 by the three brothers - Yogarathnam, Selvaratnam and Rajaratnam, who came from Panickar Kudiarrappu village in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district, giving up their family’s rice mill business.
In 1977, the first Saravana Store was opened at the shopping hub and today Saravana Stores has 66 outlets. Following the success, the brand went on to start its own jewellery showrooms in 2003 called the “Saravana Stores Thanga Nagai Maaligai.” Readymade, clothing & suiting, children’s wear, Sarees, salwar sets and fabric, designer sarees, silver jewellery, household articles, electronics, home appliances, footwear, bed & bath products, cosmetics, and just anything is available.
Customers leave or wait with disappointment
The otherwise crowded Ranganathan street in T. Nagar wore a deserted look on Thursday as most shops downed their shutters to pay homage to S.Yogarathinam, one of the partners of the famous retail chain Saravana Stores. He passed away on Thursday.
Many customers not knowing the reason for the closure of the shops left disappointed while others waited for them to reopen at 4 pm.
All 12 Saravana group shops, which otherwise remain open seven days a week, were closed. Three years ago, the street had seen a similar situation with shops shut after the death of Yogarathinam's younger brother, said S. Muniaswamy from Tirunelveli. He has been working as a security guard for Saravana Thanga Nagai Maligai gold store for the past 10 years. He said Saravana stores works all round the year except during a nationwide strike or election."Over 500 customers came today since morning, but seeing the store closed left disappointed. Neither on Diwali nor on Pongal are the shops closed," he said, adding that he was well taken care of by his employers.
Sisters S. Navina and S. Priya, who had taken a day off from work to buy gold for a special family occasion, were highly disappointed to find the Saravana gold store closed. "We specifically came to buy jewellery from Saravana store, but it is closed. But we heard from the shopkeepers they would open it at 4 pm. So we were waiting for that," she said.
Small shop owners on the street said that they were unsure about opening and would do so only after 4 pm. "Mr Yogarathinam before his death had requested that we should keep our shops closed during his death," said Mohammad Ali who has been working as a salesman for the last five years in a garment shop.
Kantilal Khatri, owner of Antara Natural Udyog a supplier group to Saravana, recollected his childhood memories saying that during his childhood days he would see the Saravana brothers coming to them for materials.
They would put on all the materials in a box on their shoulder and then tie it up to a cycle.
"I started my business in 1980, but before that my father used to do so. They were very hard working. They maintained relations with the customers like that of the family members," he said.