PETALING JAYA, June 10 — Seeing the struggles of the community around her newly-opened grocery store, Nithia Devi P. Selvam felt that she had to do something to help out.
The 23-year-old who runs her Kedai Runcit NCS, located in USJ 8, started handing out fresh unused produce to underprivileged customers at the end of every day.
In an interview with Malay Mail, Nithia said that since she opened the store earlier this year she’s tried to help out as many customers as possible, noting the struggles they face on a daily basis — especially with the movement control order (MCO) in effect.
“The people who live here, many of them are foreign workers, who work daily jobs. During the MCO they were really having a hard time, they had no income at all and whatever savings they had they’d send back to their families,” said Nithia.
“They come in counting their coins, asking if they can use it to pay. They ask how many things they can buy with that amount of money. I see this every day and it really makes me sad.”
Since graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Sunway University, Nithia has manned the store every day, alongside her mother Corasel Adorador, and said that she tries to help out different customers each day.
“We don’t give the goods to the same people every day. I can’t go out to give it to them, because I have to be at the store, but we try to help those who can’t afford to get everything they need.
“They take great care when picking what to buy and they can only afford to buy very little at a time, so we just try to give them a little extra if we can.”
Nithia also said that she makes an effort to offer her products at a cheaper price, with low-profit margins, so that her customers can afford to purchase more of what they need.
However, this comes at a cost too, as the MCO also affected her business, with many of her suppliers not in operation during the shutdown period.
“Our business hours were affected and people were afraid to go out and buy things,” said Nithia.
“Our suppliers were also closed for two months. So I had to go to the hypermarkets and wholesale markets to get all the supplies for the store and we had to make a lot of budget cuts as well.
“It’s sad that there is only so much that I can give them because I have to take care of my store financially too.”
Nithia said that she was thrilled to finally open up her very own grocery store three months ago, on March 7, as it has always been a life-long dream of hers.
“One of my uncles runs a mini-mart. I’ve always been helping them out and learning how they manage it. So when the opportunity came to open up my own, I had to take it.”
Located in Subang Perdana Goodyear Court 4, USJ 8, Nithia sells all kinds of household items, goods and cooking ingredients, including fresh vegetables and fruits.
Nithia added that she is extremely thankful for her parents and their support in helping her to realise her ambition, and noted that the store name is a nod to their efforts and contribution.
“I owe all of this to my parents. The ‘N’ stands for my name, while the ‘C’ stands for my mother’s name Cora and ‘S’ for my dad’s name Selvam.”
She said that she hopes that she will be able to grow her business, in order to maintain a low-price range at her store so that she can continue helping those in need.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to get the products off the shelves a bit quicker. With the added business, I can try to maintain a cheap price for the goods at my store.
“Then it will be easier for more of the residents around here to buy the things they need, without having to worry about using up all of their money.”
