87-year-old Jarmo Siro opened an electrical shop in Helsinki’s Punavuori 45 years ago. Over the years, he has seen the change in electrical equipment. Next week, Siro will sell his last lamps before the store closes.
Forced admit that the sight surprises.
After all, Mr. Siro had already warned on the phone that you would definitely faint, but still: hundreds and hundreds of lamps, cables by the meter, tens of boards, thousands of spare parts and screws and all kinds of electrical equipment from the past four decades have been made to fit in two small rooms.
Smells old. Or traditional, if you want to shape it more beautifully.
And in the middle of all the chaos, lithe like a young feline, jumps Jarmo Siro87, owner of an electrical shop in the heart of Punavuori.
Everything is in order for him.
Siro knows the price and story of each lamp. Remembers in which pile you can find a decades-old boiled egg.
Very soon, already at the beginning of next week, Sähköliike, which has been operating for 45 years, will stop.
It’s time to close the door for good.
“Then I cry.”
Jarmo Siro was born in January 1936 in Tampere. At that time, Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was the president of Finland and there was still no information about the wars looming in the near future. Siro ended up in Helsinki “by mistake”. I’ve been missing Tammerkoski’s beaches ever since.
Siron Sähköliike is located on the edge of Fredrikintori, under the organ of the Methodist church.
When Jarmo Siro founded an electrical shop in Fredrikintori in 1978, he didn’t think that he would be repairing lamps decades later in the same place.
It was already a long way behind a working career at Kesko, Atrima and at the top of the Kauppiasliitto, first in my hometown Tampere and then in Helsinki. A lot of work had to be done, too much.
As a young man, Jarmo Siro (right) presented Atrima’s systems to President Urho Kekkonen. In the picture on the left, Kesko’s Tampere branch manager Armas Vänttinen.
“I worked so hard that I burned out.”
Maybe we could do something else, Siro thought, when a business space in Punavuori was advertised in the newspaper.
The place was absolutely wonderful: In front of it there was grass, trees and bushes. The house was old and beautiful, the architect by Lars Sonck designed by Röper had a bit of a wild reputation, but that didn’t matter.
Installation accessories had previously been sold in the same business premises. Perhaps an electrical shop could be set up, after all, Siro had already been infected by electricity as a child, when he hung onto an electrical outlet as a young chick.
Besides, you could work with electrical equipment with your hands as well as your head, which Siro liked.
“I thought I could be completely at peace here. No one would bother you,” Siro grins wryly.
In recent years, Sähköliike has been more of a hobby than a job for Jarmo Siro. In the store’s window, the opening hours are promised from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but quite often the door is closed.
Now there are people at the door all the time.
A young couple would like a large green table lamp and are considering antique wall lamps. The card doesn’t work, so they go to the machine.
A female customer asks for spare parts and falls in love with a lamp with colorful pictures of children drawn on it.
“This is a real treasure trove,” sighs the man behind the old lamps.
Sale coupons have brought a buzz to the store. Siro’s intention would be to sell the shop as empty as possible, but there is too much stuff: when you get rid of one lamp, another one is found in the warehouse to replace it. Pearls are sold at a ridiculous price.
There is enough to do, so much that Siroa has been a bit tired lately.
Sometimes residents of the neighborhood who have become important to Siro visit the place. I guess it’s because of them that Siro has managed to keep the business going for so long:
“I love everyone here. The people are absolutely incomparable.”
We are asking about rumors, we are told about the doctor’s trip. Philosopher Esa Saarinen Tovi then brought his new book with the dedication “To Mestari Jarmo Siro”.
The neighbor’s Alma dog comes begging for a bun.
“That girlfriend of mine is absolutely demanding,” Siro says and smiles.
On the wall of the electrical shop, there are photos of Siro’s late German Shepherds. There have been six dogs and puppies in total. “There has been Reno, Kimi, Romeo… Oh, that time. The dog always sat so pretty in that doorway. There hasn’t been a dog in over three years. I didn’t want the dog to become an orphan.”
In an electrical shop a lot of household appliances were sold in the beginning. There were refrigerators, stoves and the like, big and expensive.
“Then came IKEA and others who stole the market.”
In Siro’s store, the focus shifted to smaller gadgets and lighting. To coffee makers, toasters and strange hit products that went out of fashion faster than they came in.
As with egg cookers, you can find one from Siro in the shop window. The package would have been on display for thirty years, Siro thinks.
At the moment, there are mostly lamps from past decades on sale. You can find art nouveau, baroque and empire.
“The heart beats fervently for antiquity.”
According to Siro, the industry has changed a lot over the years. Chips and smaller and smaller parts have entered electrical devices, which are impossible to repair. Vikkuttitti have become a disposable item.
In Siro’s opinion, the worst part of the change has been the loss of brick-and-mortar stores. He compares it to a natural roof.
“There have been twenty electrical shops in this area. Now I’m the only one.”
“E-commerce will be missed because people will have to go somewhere in the future to wander around the ring roads. Where will customers find cables from now on?”, Siro ponders.
Damn the troubles of old age.
Siro had planned to work at least until he was 90 years old. Maybe until he was carried from the workplace feet first.
“Now I intend to retire early.”
The right hand doesn’t want to work the way it used to anymore, but Johan played it for a long time. I have certainly carried more refrigerators than my own needs.
A few months ago, Siro complained to the doctor that what now that jogging has become difficult.
It made the doctor smile that someone of that age has a natural brake.
“As long as the hippocampus in the brain remains healthy. I try to keep cell renewal moving,” says Siro.
“The last time I close the door, I cry. No can do. I will miss the area and Rööper’s personality,” says Siro.
I have to still have to ask this. What’s the man up to next? Is it time to get some rest?
“Do you really want to know?” Siro asks slyly.
On a small island located in Päijänte, a man’s hermitage is beckoning. Perhaps electricity could finally be brought there, after all, the electricity pole has been poking around next to it for almost forty years.
“On the island, they laugh that I’m the village madman. I have Sähköliike in Helsinki, but no electricity at the cottage.”
Then Siro smiles. A bit mischievously, too.
“And I already have a plot waiting for me in Tampere at the Kalevankanka cemetery.”
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