A newly refitted Nisa Local store, located on Yokermill Road in Glasgow, has opened to the community after nine months of closure.
The Nisa store offers a vast range of services including fresh and frozen groceries, a Post Office, a dessert parlour, a Costa Coffee machine, and a hot food counter. Carol Monaghan, MP for Glasgow North-West, cut the ribbon to officially open the unit at the end of April 2023.
Arbaaz Hayat, one of the owners of the family-run business, admitted he and his family had a specific vision for the store and have plans for expanding their portfolio in the future should the right opportunity arise.
“The vision with this wasn’t just to open a shop or just to be a convenience store,” said Arbaaz. “The vision was to be a one-stop point for the community and to provide something exciting.
“We wanted to give the community options that aren’t on offer elsewhere, make it a bit of an attraction. I think it’s important to have somewhere where even if you come in feeling not so great, you can leave feeling bright and vibrant. A lot of work went into the design, layout, and lighting of the shop to make sure we created this kind of atmosphere.”
Arbaaz also explained that customer feedback is very important to him and that it has been instrumental in expanding the store’s offering.
“The response has been absolutely incredible, even better than we expected,” Arbaaz added.
"I think because of the way the shop was previously and the improvements that we have made, people really appreciate it.
“It’s about people being able to get everything they need in one place. It’s important to give people somewhere local to get everything they need and to minimise the trips further out.
“Customers have come to us with requests, so we try our best to fulfil them. The launch celebrated all the people that came together to make this happen.”
One of the biggest changes to the Yokermill Road site is the hot food counter which offers sandwiches, burgers, freshly made Samosas – handmade every day – and chips.
Matthew Howie, Retail Development Manager at Nisa, added: “The main difference that this store brings to the community is a huge selection in comparison to what was here before as well as good value. This store is all about community and I’m looking forward to seeing the difference the store can make in the community using Nisa’s Making a Difference Locally charity.
“I’ve been coming here about three times a week for the last six months so it’s great to see the store get to this point.
“There have been some hurdles, but we’ve got there which is the main thing and I’m looking forward to developing more stores with the guys as well because they do have plans to do that.”
