A version of this appeared in the "Simply Chennai" supplement of India Today, dated Jan 21, 08.
In his book “It Happened In India”, iconic Rajah of Retail Kishore Biyani says that in his quest of how to take modern retailing to the next level he found his answer on Ranganathan Street outside Saravana Stores. This was in 2000, after he had started Pantaloon but before he had started Big Bazaar. It was at Saravana that the idea of Big Bazaar was born. Saravana disproved the myth that everything from groceries and utensils to silks and jewelry, could not be sold under one roof, with fast food close at hand. He saw in Saravana a symbol of the real public of India and their capacity to consume. Apparently, everyone who joined Kishore Biyani’s company at that time had to seek homage at Saravana, spending days there with a pencil and book in hand. Shops like these are meant to be crowded, and thrive on what the book says is the “butt and brush effect “ and “organized chaos”. Saravana proved the wonderful consumer philosophy that Indians love to shop as a family, and that it is a social occasion and an outing; and the simple business philosophy of low margin - high turnover. And I know it works when my son tells me that one of his friends got a Nike football at Saravana for half the price that another friend paid for the same ball in a sports shop. In fact, whenever he senses that I’m going to refuse a request for an item, he quickly tells me what price it is available for, at Saravana! Coming out of Saravana and looking at T Nagar, it is easy to believe that it could have India’s highest retail turnover in one locality. Diwali sees more than 8 million shoppers which is more than double of the much publicized Dubai Shopping Festival. Called “The Golden Furlong” this stretch claims to employ as many as 25,000 people.
On the other end of the spectrum, my friends Indu and Malini fall into the “Let’s do coffee at Amethyst” category. Indu says she never buys anything there, but goes to watch Malini buy. This is the place to take colleagues visiting from Mumbai, to show them how posh we are! It’s all about spending time and socialising, ambience and experience turn shopping into a concept, an art form. You actually don’t go to shop at all, but will casually pick up something beautiful and expensive that you just couldn’t resist.
And in between these two ends of the spectrum fall the rest of us.
The Subhiksha Shubhas who know exactly what’s available where, and when, at the best mix of price and quality, and turn shopping into a highly knowledgable act of smartness. Whether it is Sowcarpet or Purasawalkam or the famous Egmore pavement or that small coffee powder grinding shop in Mandavali, they will tell you what’s best in which Nalli, and which rice is best for diabetics and where to buy it.
Then come the Convenience Kalpanas who make do, as I do, in and around Mylapore, where I live: Luz, Tank, Tulsi, Shilpi, Fab India, Kalpadruma, Contemporary Arts, Nilgiris – and of course peeled small onions from Surya and adirasam from Grand Sweets.
And finally, there are the “mall rat” boys and girls: Inox afternoons, whole groups getting together for a birthday bash or spend a whole evening picking up “some junk jewelry and a wallet and stuff”. Young engineering students say they spend Rs 1500 to 2000 a month at malls, checking out the latest… it is a “cool place to hang out and stuff”, meet people and find everything in one place… “clothes, shoes…and stuff”! While Prabha, a young IT professional on holiday in Chennai from New York cherishes the infinite colours here compared to the endless solids and stripes there, the customization and alterations that shops are willing to do and the door delivery of movie tickets. However she feels salesmanship could do with a lot of improvement with more willingness to show and ability to participate with the customer in the decision.
Retailing to women leads trends
In fact, if you think about it, retailing to women has seen more new trends than retailing to men. What sarees, jewelry, accessories, handicrafts, home furniture/ furnishing, home building shops and even groceries have done to the retail scene in Chennai, men’s apparel, sports goods, electronics and even mobile phones have not. The reinvention and trends in sarees in Chennaia actually captures and is representative of the recent trends in retail itself.
Recent trends
* Mixing of western images and Indian formats –the Cindrella pavadai and its aftermath, leading right up to the cell phone pocket in the saree!
* The mixing of north Indian habits and design elements – zardosi, resham and jaal in Canjeevaram, as well as the arrival of North Indian colours, embroidery and designs and this is in men’s wear as well– witness the tamil groom at a reception these days not to mention the now ubiquitous mehendi ceremony with its dress codes. Extend this to food retailing – olives and salad dressings and theplas and rasam powder rubbing shoulders on the same shelves.
* The expanded idea of the saree shop - on the one hand, elaborate accessories and even cosmetics in saree shops, and on the other hand, sarees in art shops. This is best exemplified by what Landmark has become today, going way beyond books.
* Shop design almost as an art form –led originally by Shilpi and Sundari, the mushrooming of women entrepreneurs with a high sense of aesthetics, crafting lovely experiences in sarees, apparel, accessories, jewelry and handicrafts. Shops like Home Center take display to a new level as do some kitchen and bathroom shops and tile displays.
* Speciality shops - like Health and Glow in beauty products. Just parathas, just idlis, just blouses, just bangles, just curtains!
* "Jodi pattu" following unisex salons.
* Consumer participation and innovation – the Jyothika wedding saree.
* Artists as brand ambassadors – Sudha Raghunathan and Sobhana on hoardings.
What next?
Well, I’m not a futurist, but here’s a shot at it. More malls – “other cities have more’ is a constant refrain. Hyper and super markets trying to provide customers with the much touted 3 V’s - Value, Variety and Volume. More discount stores. Personal loans and insurance sellers accosting us in supermarkets. In-shop “Meet the expert” programmes. Speciality shops – music, sports, books - as community spaces. Greater emphasis on store design. More private labels. More designer wear too. More instances of convergence of retail and lifestyle spaces. Men’s products drawing from the lessons of retailing to women and crafting experiences in apparel, accessories, electronics, phones and the like. Slow and steady increase of online ordering. More retailers chasing us with loyalty cards. Customer analytics through use of technology and data capture. Consequently, telecalls for follow ups, feedback and repeat purchase or reminders on the lines of bank telecallers. Pockets of unorganized retailing getting together to become organized.Public private partnership of government retailing.
“Customers demand low prices for basic goods, but pay premiums for products that matter more to them personally. Consequently, those best positioned to grow and succeed will be huge mega retailers on one end of the spectrum and targeted retailers on the other, while undifferentiated companies, lost in the middle, risk fading into irrelevance” says a study from the IBM Institute for Business Value.
Crystal ball gazing further: will we see the packaging of T Nagar a la the Dubai Shopping Festival may be, not to mention our very own Music Season? What would be nice though is the much-awaited multi tier parking lot near Panagal Park; and more imitations of designer items at low prices!
As a blogger in Mouthshut says at the end of a review of Big Bazaar: “As a retailer, their objective is to eat deeper into your wallet. As a consumer, we should be able to protect ourselves from over spending and stay within limits. Money saved is money earned. Hope above information helps you.”
All I want right now is those divine Contemporary Arts blouses to be available at Saravana prices! For everything else, as they say in advertising, there’s Mastercard!
On the other end of the spectrum, my friends Indu and Malini fall into the “Let’s do coffee at Amethyst” category. Indu says she never buys anything there, but goes to watch Malini buy. This is the place to take colleagues visiting from Mumbai, to show them how posh we are! It’s all about spending time and socialising, ambience and experience turn shopping into a concept, an art form. You actually don’t go to shop at all, but will casually pick up something beautiful and expensive that you just couldn’t resist.
And in between these two ends of the spectrum fall the rest of us.
The Subhiksha Shubhas who know exactly what’s available where, and when, at the best mix of price and quality, and turn shopping into a highly knowledgable act of smartness. Whether it is Sowcarpet or Purasawalkam or the famous Egmore pavement or that small coffee powder grinding shop in Mandavali, they will tell you what’s best in which Nalli, and which rice is best for diabetics and where to buy it.
Then come the Convenience Kalpanas who make do, as I do, in and around Mylapore, where I live: Luz, Tank, Tulsi, Shilpi, Fab India, Kalpadruma, Contemporary Arts, Nilgiris – and of course peeled small onions from Surya and adirasam from Grand Sweets.
And finally, there are the “mall rat” boys and girls: Inox afternoons, whole groups getting together for a birthday bash or spend a whole evening picking up “some junk jewelry and a wallet and stuff”. Young engineering students say they spend Rs 1500 to 2000 a month at malls, checking out the latest… it is a “cool place to hang out and stuff”, meet people and find everything in one place… “clothes, shoes…and stuff”! While Prabha, a young IT professional on holiday in Chennai from New York cherishes the infinite colours here compared to the endless solids and stripes there, the customization and alterations that shops are willing to do and the door delivery of movie tickets. However she feels salesmanship could do with a lot of improvement with more willingness to show and ability to participate with the customer in the decision.
Retailing to women leads trends
In fact, if you think about it, retailing to women has seen more new trends than retailing to men. What sarees, jewelry, accessories, handicrafts, home furniture/ furnishing, home building shops and even groceries have done to the retail scene in Chennai, men’s apparel, sports goods, electronics and even mobile phones have not. The reinvention and trends in sarees in Chennaia actually captures and is representative of the recent trends in retail itself.
Recent trends
* Mixing of western images and Indian formats –the Cindrella pavadai and its aftermath, leading right up to the cell phone pocket in the saree!
* The mixing of north Indian habits and design elements – zardosi, resham and jaal in Canjeevaram, as well as the arrival of North Indian colours, embroidery and designs and this is in men’s wear as well– witness the tamil groom at a reception these days not to mention the now ubiquitous mehendi ceremony with its dress codes. Extend this to food retailing – olives and salad dressings and theplas and rasam powder rubbing shoulders on the same shelves.
* The expanded idea of the saree shop - on the one hand, elaborate accessories and even cosmetics in saree shops, and on the other hand, sarees in art shops. This is best exemplified by what Landmark has become today, going way beyond books.
* Shop design almost as an art form –led originally by Shilpi and Sundari, the mushrooming of women entrepreneurs with a high sense of aesthetics, crafting lovely experiences in sarees, apparel, accessories, jewelry and handicrafts. Shops like Home Center take display to a new level as do some kitchen and bathroom shops and tile displays.
* Speciality shops - like Health and Glow in beauty products. Just parathas, just idlis, just blouses, just bangles, just curtains!
* "Jodi pattu" following unisex salons.
* Consumer participation and innovation – the Jyothika wedding saree.
* Artists as brand ambassadors – Sudha Raghunathan and Sobhana on hoardings.
What next?
Well, I’m not a futurist, but here’s a shot at it. More malls – “other cities have more’ is a constant refrain. Hyper and super markets trying to provide customers with the much touted 3 V’s - Value, Variety and Volume. More discount stores. Personal loans and insurance sellers accosting us in supermarkets. In-shop “Meet the expert” programmes. Speciality shops – music, sports, books - as community spaces. Greater emphasis on store design. More private labels. More designer wear too. More instances of convergence of retail and lifestyle spaces. Men’s products drawing from the lessons of retailing to women and crafting experiences in apparel, accessories, electronics, phones and the like. Slow and steady increase of online ordering. More retailers chasing us with loyalty cards. Customer analytics through use of technology and data capture. Consequently, telecalls for follow ups, feedback and repeat purchase or reminders on the lines of bank telecallers. Pockets of unorganized retailing getting together to become organized.Public private partnership of government retailing.
“Customers demand low prices for basic goods, but pay premiums for products that matter more to them personally. Consequently, those best positioned to grow and succeed will be huge mega retailers on one end of the spectrum and targeted retailers on the other, while undifferentiated companies, lost in the middle, risk fading into irrelevance” says a study from the IBM Institute for Business Value.
Crystal ball gazing further: will we see the packaging of T Nagar a la the Dubai Shopping Festival may be, not to mention our very own Music Season? What would be nice though is the much-awaited multi tier parking lot near Panagal Park; and more imitations of designer items at low prices!
As a blogger in Mouthshut says at the end of a review of Big Bazaar: “As a retailer, their objective is to eat deeper into your wallet. As a consumer, we should be able to protect ourselves from over spending and stay within limits. Money saved is money earned. Hope above information helps you.”
All I want right now is those divine Contemporary Arts blouses to be available at Saravana prices! For everything else, as they say in advertising, there’s Mastercard!
See the original article here http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/content_mail.php?option=com_content&name=print&id=3491
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