Panaji store etched in the minds of young learners

PANAJI: A close-knit group of three manages what is popularly known as the ‘reliable book store in Panaji’, Sardessai’s Enterprises, which is nestled in a bylane of the city’s Church Square.
Other than ensuring timely availability of textbooks for school students, the trioSiddhey, his wife Namrata and their oldest employee Shailendra Kakodkarhas managed to stay relevant despite several commercial upheavals that have all but wiped out the book-selling business.
The store was opened sometime in the 1970s by Yashwant Sardessai, Siddhey’s uncle. Although Yashwant, then 32, was paralysed, he was willing to stand up and be counted when he began his business. It helped greatly that his brother, Suhas, supported him through the book store’s infancy.
For a major part, the outlet only sold school textbooks for first to tenth graders. Business was small but the intent was to gradually build on it and ultimately be known for finding textbooks “that other book stores did not have, or had run out of”.
Business at the store grew by focusing on the customer; simple things such as writing down book titles that were frequently sought by customers, and placing orders with distributors accordingly. Soon enough, the store’s reputation grew as being reliable and customer-friendly. And when the Pune Board of education finally made way for Goa Board, business at Sardessai’s saw a spurt in growth.
Siddhey took charge of the store in 2001. Although he had learnt by observing the business closely, he also relied on the guidance of Shailendra, who started off as salesman at the store over three decades ago.
Then, the crash came. Two changes affected business adversely. One was the government’s scheme of free education that immediately slashed textbook sales for the first to the eighth grade as these were now supplied gratis to students. The second was the e-commerce wave that provided discounts, choice and home deliveryfactors that could not be matched by standalone book stores.
That is when the first changes were implemented. Sardessai’s began stocking textbooks for higher secondary schools and BCom, BSc, Engineering and Computer Science courses, among various others.
An unrelated incident turned providential for the book store when Siddhey married Namrata. The young lady, who had honed her customer service skills at her father’s business venture in Thane, Maharashtra, took to the small outlet like a fish to water. She brought in fresh thinking, offering and educating parents about options when certain textbooks were not easily available. She would also jot down mobile numbers of customers, because she did not like to see them going back disappointed. She took to calling or texting parents as soon as the books they sought were in stock.
“We have the biggest crowds from the third week of May till mid-July, and people queue even before our shutters go up. During these times, we open as early as 7am and close at around 9pm,” Siddhey says.
Well aware that diversification is key to staying afloat, the couple began dealing in school bags, uniforms, stationery and the like since the last two years.
Business has now steadied, but their bread-and-butter segment, school textbooks, had approached a plateau. A worse impact has been the organised, corporate distributors approaching schools directly, cutting out the small-time retailers. “This wouldn’t work in Mumbai as book sellers are united there, but not in Goa,” Siddhey rues.
Still, the three forge together, doing their bit to keep parents happy and schools kids studying.