By Richardson Dhalai Thursday, November 19 2009

BORN out of the days when foreign exchange was being strictly regulated with banks stamping how much had been allocated to individual travellers on their passports, an office worker, during a shopping trip to Curacao with one of her sisters decided to invest US$60 for the purchase of female undergarments.

And so was born a business which, although started as a bag business in Marabella, soon moved onto the main shopping centre of San Fernando before finally settling on Coffee Street, where Allison Modeste has transformed a former fast food outlet into one of the southern city’s newest shopping plazas.

Modeste was recently given the San Fernando City Corporation’s, (SFCC), award for excellence on Business at its annual award ceremony at the San Fernando City Hall.

Sitting in her offices at Royalty Plaza, Coffee Street, San Fernando where she operates “Allison’s Variety Store” which specialises in fashion designs for brides and grooms, a dapper Modeste, who recounted her rise from clothes vendor on the streets of Marabella and San Fernando to a business owner, attributed her phenomenal rise to her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

With gospel music blasting from the overhead speakers within the store, Modeste recounted her beginnings in the “suitcase trade” saying her twin sister, Alicia Johnson, had asked her to travel to Curacao so that she would have been able to access the foreign exchange.

“So one day, I asked her if I could go with her to see what it was like and when I went, I was so impressed that I asked her if I could also bring back a few pieces for myself and she agreed and that was the start,” she said.

“So I brought back a few items, bras and other female undergarments and I gave it to my neighbour to sell because at that time I was still working in the government service so that was an eight to four job and my neighbour wasn’t working so she went to Marabella and the next thing you know, within two days everything was gone,” she said.

“So I asked my sister if we could go again and this time we brought back some more and this set also sell out within a few days after about a year, I decided to leave my job and go into this business full time,” she added.

Modeste said at first they would go through the residential areas of Marabella including Battoo Avenue and eventually moved to High Street, San Fernando where she set up a “cot” to continue her trade.

“Business was good. I brought in quality stuff and people recognised that plus there was no overhead or rent to pay only my neighbour who started to work for me so it was only the cot to run with when the police come,” she added.

“But then with business growing and the bags getting bigger, one vendor said she would rent me a spot to keep my bags for when the police come I could just throw the cot on the staircase,” she said.

Modeste said she then decided to approach the owner of the shopping plaza to rent a space however she said her spirits were broken when burglars broke into her shop and stole all of her merchandise.

“I was a young Christian and this really disturbed me and I began to question why this happened to me but I have certain beliefs and I decided to stand upon the principles that I was taught and this enabled me to get through that period,” she said.

Modeste, who was baptised at Faith Centre, San Fernando and now attends Divine Encounter Church, once again attributed God as her inspiration and source of strength saying a meeting with a San Fernando-based attorney enabled her to stumble upon a person from whom she would eventually purchase the property at Coffee Street.

Asked about the secret of her success, Modeste, who has been married for the past 17 years, said God and the support of her family was key to her success with people coming into her store, pointing her out and saying she was their inspiration to start their own business.

“To me, I believe that I was chosen to be an example to show people how you can come from nothing and become somebody. He, (God), promotes us,” she said.

The store is fully equipped to both dress brides and boast a beauty shop where brides can have both pedicures, manicures and their hair done in a professional manner.

The return is inevitable.