Family-owned business for more than 40 years.
Chirag Dadlani has been in the men’s apparel business for most of his life. His family has owned Looking Good for over 40 years and Dadlani is the second generation to take over the business. He said he was basically raised in his stores growing up, went to Delta State and then took over the family business after school.
“Looking Good is a family-owned business and we have three locations in Mississippi: Cleveland, Greenville and Grenada,” said Dadlani. “We are primarily a men’s clothing store, but we also specialize in school uniforms for over 22 schools in the Mississippi Delta. We have a hair and beauty supply as well. And, I love every aspect of our business.”
Dadlani added his entire family has a little over 40 stores located around nine different states. When the pandemic hit in March, he said while that slowed them down, it actually allowed him time to move back into his current location after some storm damage that had happened earlier.
“We have a 20,000 sq. ft. store in Cleveland,” he said. “My showroom floor is roughly about 13,000 sq. feet, so when Governor Tate Reeves made the announcement that businesses had to be at 50 percent capacity, our 50 percent capacity was still a 170 occupants. I have been full-fledged open since about the third week of April when we moved back to our location. Last summer we had a straight-line wind storm that ripped off our roof and we had to move to another one of our properties for about 10 months. So nine contractors along with myself completely redid our current location at 131 North Street and we reopened when businesses were being allowed to do curbside. So, during the pandemic closures we moved back into our original location without any customer interaction, so we were allowed to do it. And after that, by the grace of God, things have been phenomenal.”
Dadlani has been fascinated with the clothing business since he was very young and used to go to all the market trade shows with his father.
“He would take me with him and I was able to interact with all the sales reps and meet many different owners of companies,” he said. “When I was a senior in high school I was the main buyer for all of our stores. And now, I basically run the entire operation.”
Dadlani said that while they’re predominantly a men’s dress store, their stock is very diverse and varied and their customers are very important to them.
“We carry business, casual suits; we specialize in weddings, church orders; we work with the schools for graduations, homecomings, proms, and we’re also the main supplier in the Mississippi Delta for school uniforms,” Dadlani added. “I carry every color shirt, all sizes, from a child’s size four to a men’s 6x. We are one of the only Big & Tall stores in the Mississippi Delta and we’re one of the few stores that stock size 15 tennis shoes and dress shoes in every style. We cater to all sizes and price ranges. We’re very family-oriented and the customers know us. We’re open six days a week, sometimes seven, and our heart and soul belongs to the Delta and to our customers. And, when we redid our store, we didn’t do the design for ourselves, we did for our customers and to make sure they felt proud to shop at Looking Good in Cleveland. And the feedback we’ve gotten back has been very positive. Our customers have supported us always and we’re here to support them.”
By Angela Rogalski
The Bolivar Bullet