Shop-Tetuan attracted customers in the 1970s with hippie products, followed by punk clothing. Today, the store focuses on hip-hop-style clothing and accessories. How on earth has the business stayed up for so long?
Something has been done correctly. Not all clothing stores can handle more than four decades, even in the same place.
Now the movement includes hiphop music. Brothers Samir and Hisam Halhul arrange caps and earrings for stretching.
Shop-Tetuan is a small, slightly hidden clothing boutique on the edge of the Station Tunnel.
Among other things Western Passagemagazine marveled at the long age of a clothing store over 40 in November.
What is the secret of the movement?
In 1970 parents of the brothers Cricket and Abdelazis Halhul got the idea. They set up a shop in the soon-to-be-completed Asematunnel, selling handmade leather accessories such as wallets, bags and handmade jewelry.
After all, they had a business on Hämeentie before. Even on the market, goods had been sold, which, according to the photograph, were once admired even by the president Urho Kekkonen.
President Kekkonen visited the market in Tetouan sometime in the mid-1970s.
Now it was time to try something else.
“They sold all kinds of hippie stuff as the time agreed,” Hisam Halhul says with a laugh.
Abdelazis Halhul sold what sold best in the 1970s: handmade leather accessories.
What does it do if entrepreneurship is in the blood. In Father Halhul’s former home country of Morocco, the family had had businesses for as long as there was enough memory.
Inspired by North Africa, the name of the new boutique was also named. Tetuan is the old hometown of Abdelazis Halhul in northern Morocco, on the Mediterranean coast.
The Helsinki Station Tunnel was completed at the end of the 1960s. Pictured is the Station Tunnel in 1971.
Years rolling, brothers were born.
As Hisam and Samir Halhul grew up, they fought in the Tetuan warehouse, as the brothers sometimes fight. Gradually, they also got to work in a family business.
“Sometimes when I was thirteen I was already selling clothes,” Hisam Halhul recalls.
“It was quite clear that we would continue the company,” says Samir Halhul.
Shop-Tetuan sells products that are not available elsewhere in Finland.
Gradually The style of Shop-Tetuan changed. Fashion trends changed, the world moved on.
From hippie clothing to punk clothing in the 1980s, hip-hop relays for young men began to emerge in the 1990s.
Now the shelves have hoodies, sunglasses, beanies and glittering jewelry. Everything that rappers in American music videos have.
“There has always been youth stuff on sale here that has been on the surface at the time,” says Samir Halhul.
Tetuanine the golden age was the late 1990s, and one youth program is largely praised for its popularity.
With a music program The steepest presenter Joonas Hytönen introduced Asematunnel and Shop-Tetuan to the entire public on television, young people from all over Finland got acquainted with the trade.
The boys of the provinces began to order their punches from a clothing store in the station tunnel through a mail order catalog. People traveled to Shop-Tetuan from Kajaani to shop.
In the best years, Shop-Tetuan has had another store in Kaivopiha, Keskuskatu or Citykä Corridor, but now the business is run by one boutique.
However, young people who are still on a class trip are happy to stop by the shop. In addition, old customers also shop regularly.
“Nostalgic customers come here every day. Some come with their own children and wonder if we are still in the same place, ”says Hisam Halhul.
Santtu Lehto (right) bought himself a new watch. Hisam Halhul helped choose the right one.
And this is where the customer arrives.
Espoo resident Santtu Lehto pops up in Tetuan on his business trip. He has been familiar with the business for years.
“I guess I’ll visit for the first time in 2008.”
This time the watches are of interest to Lehto. Hisam Halhul presents a red wristwatch.
Stores are created. It is not uncommon for stores to be made in a store, although online shopping is an important part of Tetuan’s business today. That has been the case for twenty years.
In the past, there were packages all the way to America and Australia from the Station Tunnel. Entrepreneurs have now limited parcel traffic within Europe, as it became expensive to send clothes to the other side of the world.
Shop-Tetuan is located in a quiet corner of the Station Tunnel, next to the Indian Bazaar. “In our long history, we are a piece of Helsinki’s history. Sometimes it feels like we are underestimated, ”says Samir Halhul.
Read more: The founder of the Indian Bazaar had at its best 27 stores all over Finland
how about Station tunnel? The Halhuls have been following it for a long time, possibly the longest from the same location in the Asematunnel companies.
According to the brothers, the best thing about the station tunnel is its location: the transport connections work and there are a lot of potential customers nearby.
“But there’s peace at times here, too, as the passers-by are sobbing,” Samir Halhul says.
“And the sun never shines here,” Hisam Halhul continues.
According to the men, the tunnel itself has not changed much. It is still shabby and dark, even though renovations have been talked about for ages. The same faces rotate there as they did years ago.
“Improvements are needed,” they say.
Entrepreneurs want at least better lighting for the Station Tunnel, and the roof should be patched. The adjacent escalators do not always work properly either.
The earrings are suitable for hip-hop and rap aesthetics.
Yet one question. How has entrepreneurship affected family relationships?
Abdelazis, the father of Hisam and Samir Halhul, is still involved. Sometimes his father moved to Morocco, but in recent years he has lived in Helsinki again.
While in Finland, the 76-year-old father wants to follow what is happening in the store.
“Blood is pulling here. He is forced to come to advise, ”Hisam Halhul laughs.
“In my opinion, Dad is still the target group for the store’s products,” says Samir Halhul.
But perhaps that’s the secret to long-term action: it’s blown into one coal, discussed and listened to the opinions of others. The company has been run together.
In a family business are beginning to be exciting times. The third generation is at an age that they too could get excited about the clothing business.
“Hopefully, however, Tetuan would be just a hobby for the kids,” says Samir Halhul.
The brothers may have had an exceptionally close relationship because of the deal. The days are spent working together, in the evenings they play football on the same teams.
“We don’t always have the same wavelength. Sometimes we get together verbally, even physically at a young age, ”says Samir Halhul.
“But when it comes to your own brother, you can trust someone completely.”
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