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Dreams Incubate in Shopping Mall Carts
"I wanted to just study and go back home, but I ended up liking it, and I decided to exploit the opportunities here," Tchama said.
'So Much Confidence'
Gaurav Ohri, 27, and his family have done what Gungor, Ford and Tchama dream about. At one point, they had up to four kiosks as well as six stores, though none of the stores was permanent.
  Milagros Ford, left, owner of two kiosks in Tysons Corner Center, helps Alison Kelleher, a Georgetown student, at Ford's jewelry kiosk, Trendy. (By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post) |
When Ohri was 12, his parents, Lalit and Surinder, moved their family to the United States from India so that their children could attend better schools. When they first arrived, Gaurav Ohri would spend weekends helping his father sell inexpensive wallets and other accessories from India at a flea-market table at Capitol Hill's Eastern Market.
Soon his parents opened a permanent kiosk selling Indian goods in the Old Post Office Pavilion in the District. The business, named Sonya Leather after one of Ohri's sisters, grew steadily. They opened a second location in Ballston Common Mall in Arlington in 1990. Then others in Montgomery Mall and Landover Mall in 1995. They expanded the Old Post Office Pavilion kiosk to a general store.
Ohri studied management information systems at George Mason University, and when he graduated, he took over the daily operations of his parents' enterprise. He opened a kiosk in Tysons Corner Center. Then, in an effort to expand beyond Indian items, he bought $300 worth of women's handbags in New York's wholesale district. They sold within days.
Soon all of the carts had more handbags than Indian wallets. The company was renamed S&S Handbags. The family opened a cart in Pentagon City Mall. The company now imports little from India.
Ohri, who has rimless glasses and close-cut hair, traveled to China and negotiated direct shipments of handbags, about $300,000 worth every few months. The family has a 6,000-square-foot office in Lorton with a warehouse distribution center.
S&S Handbags has also begun opening temporary stores in malls, including Tysons Corner Center and St. Charles Town Center in Waldorf. The firm negotiates short-term leases for vacant retail spaces and puts up "FINAL, CLOSE OUT SALE" signs.
"That gave us the confidence that we can pay [mall store] rent and employee salary and still make money," Ohri said. "We only have two carts left, and now we are ready to make the next step. We have so much confidence now that next year we aren't doing any more carts."
