Drawn Together by Modesty

Denise Al-Shammari has kindly agreed to let me post a goodbye letter from her to her customers. She has been running the Islamic clothing store at AlHediya.com for ten years. Her store was one of the the first Islamic clothing stores I added to Modest Clothing Directory. I will always remember her store as #12. Twelve is the unique number (primary key) my database system assigned to her store entry because hers was the twelfth store I entered into the database. I entered ten Christian stores first, then World of Islam, and then AlHediya.com.

Most of the stores I added in 1999 are out of business now, so it has been a great feat for her to have lasted as long as she did.

I will be particularly bummed about the closing because I order all the abaya, hijab, and prayer garments for my “new Muslim convert gift packs” from her. I don’t relish the thought of trying to find a new supplier. I loved getting her bulging plastic mailing bags in the mail filled with stuff to give away.

Here is her letter:

Assalamu alaikum Dara,

Thanks for the support and kind words.

We have found that over the past couple of years, with small Islamic clothing sites opening up all over the Internet, that our customer base has continually gotten smaller and smaller. I assume it is because customers, especially those in the U.S., would rather get their orders delivered fast, from U.S. vendors, regardless of the quality of the clothing. So, we would rather close the business now than watch it continue to decline. That makes us really sad.

We have really enjoyed serving our customers over the past 10 years. The profits allowed us to contribute to some very worthwhile causes and we met some wonderful people.

We were hoping that, by letting our customers know so far in advance about our closing, this would give them a chance to stock up on their favorite items. I think that we are still about the only site that offers such variety and flexibility in our abaya, jilbob and suit lines.

We will miss you all and thank each and every one of you for a terrific decade. Take care and may Allah bless us all!

Denise Al-Shammari
http://www.alhediya.com