This Couple’s Innovative Store Brings Northeast’s Tastes Right to Your Door Step
Explore a range of indigenous goods, straight from the northeast!
Northeast India, is home to many delights as each of the states have their own uniqueness. However, there is one common element between all the states—they are all breathtakingly beautiful.
Nevertheless, the natural beauty of the Northeast is just one among its many interesting facets. The region is also home to many brilliant people, who leave home and settle in other parts of the country, to make a career.
One such person, Trideep Rabha, who is originally from Shillong, is an avid biker and photographer, and was based in Hyderabad in 2014. During that year, a regulation in the aviation industry curtailed the amount of baggage a passenger could carry.
Faced with a smaller luggage limit, Trideep was flummoxed. How could he, and countless others, enjoy the goodies that they so often brought from home? With a smaller luggage limit, only a few things could be carried, and that is never enough.
So, what do you do, when you finish your small supply of delectable pork pickle?
Well, you bring your home, to where you are!
Trideep and his wife Catherine, are both former employees of Google and decided to bridge the gap and kill the homesickness for countless others like themselves. They set up a platform, where people could buy unique products from the Northeast—no matter where they are.
Like most entrepreneurial ventures, the North East Store addresses a basic problem. It allows the inhabitants of the North Eastern states, to feel close to home, by making indigenous products available on its website. It also seeks to make people from other states aware of the amazing array of products that the Northeast churns out.
These aren’t your typical run-of-the-mill products available on e-commerce websites. These are products that are made by people living in some of the most remote areas of the country and are more often than not handmade.
The North East Store believes in a simple tenet—people love home and miss it terribly when they are away. Even if you go home for the holidays, you still yearn to bring a part of home back with you.
Which you now can, irrespective of luggage restrictions!
Choose from food items, indigenous handloom and handicrafts, unique to the states of the North Eastern region of India. The products showcased on the site are sourced straight from their makers and producers, as well as NGOs, Government groups and others, who directly support local farmers and artisans.
Many people who discover them for the first time, immediately fall in love with the products.
Trideep explains that in the beginning, manufacturers were not sure about hosting their products on an e-commerce platform. It took some convincing on Trideep and Catherine’s part, and today, vendors are more than happy to be associated with them. Thanks to e-commerce, their customer base has widened exponentially.
While the duo now receives several applications from vendors who want their goods in the store, they do their due diligence and ensure that the offerings of the vendors are synonymous with the products already in the store.
The North East Store is currently only a two-member team. Trideep takes care of all technical operations and also takes the beautiful product photos on the website, while his wife Catherine, oversees marketing and customer support. She also takes decisions on the content to be displayed on the website.
When asked about his future plans, Trideep states that profit-making on a large scale is not the objective. What he wants, is to make sure that the unique offerings of the store, spread through the nation.
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Go ahead, and take a look at the store. You will be truly spoilt for choice!
All images courtesy: The North East Store.
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