Tag #123366 - Interview #90376 (Lazar Abuaf)

In 1950, on my return from military service, instead of working in the commerce of shirts which I was very familiar with, I opened a different style store in Beyoglu.  I always say, life is full of coincidences, my changing careers happened like this.  At the time, my older brother Kemal was a janitor in a handbag store named “Yildiz” [turkish for Star].  I returned to my old boss Franci after I was discharged. 2-3 months after this, my older brother said to me: “I received a very good offer from the lady I work with. Would you like to be partners in this store?”. “O.K. Kemal, how will we do this work?”, I asked.  “You have a credit history in the market, you can bring various merchandise here, we will fill the store, we will build a new showcase.  I am sure that this store will work like clockwork because of you”.  I thought for a while, and because I am a little fearless, I accepted the offer.  I went and explained the situation to my boss. “I regret to inform you that I will quit.  Because I became partners in a store and I was promised to Fani Levi”.  I cannot describe to you how sad my boss was.  “My goodness, I loved you so much and I wanted to marry you to my daughter Leyla” he says. “Whatever, I hope everything is for the best.  I will give you the shirts, pijamas and men’s underwear that you need for your store.  And you will do good business”, he said.

After this, I became investment partners with the lady Ester Civre who was the owner of Yildiz store and who sold handbags at the age of 23 or 24 only and we agreed to share the profits 50/50. The store was on Istiklal Street [on the European side, between Taksim and Tunel, the street that is closed to traffic today where in addition to shopping, you can find bars, movie theathres and entertainment centers], close to Tunel, next to the Swedish embassy, at the entrance of the apartment no. 397.  The lady Ester was also married and had children, but unfortunately when I met them, her husband had declared bankruptcy.

With the help of my old boss, I added shirts, underwear, pijamas, along with ties and belts to the store, I rearranged the showcase and we held the opening of the store.  However, for a certain while, this business did not go as I wished it would. So I changed the things I sold, I removed these and instead I bought women’s pantyhose, scarves, my older brother Davit was one of the best glove merchants of the market, I got different assertive colored gloves from him, I got many various colored handbags, I even placed practical hats and fantasy jewelry.  I placed purple colored gloves and a voile purple scarf next to it in the showcase, and next to that, a pink pair of gloves and same colored voile scarf, and I tagged them with a price of 5 liras. Whoever saw the showcase, came in, looked at it and came in. In this way we increased the sales of Yildiz store.