Modern ಸಂತೆ!

I dont blame it to the growing population or the cropping up trends and the amenities we are falling prey of. A casual lazy Sunday afternoon, Sis and myself set off with the thought of shopping. Girls and shopping are used as a double by most of the guys I know. If I had to reverse this statement it wouldn't mean indifferent anymore. I witnessed the growing numbers in guys coming out on a shopping spree last evening.


What leaves me in a state of shock is the well designed strategies developed by the renowned marketing teams, that are rather benefecial to the organizations than the convinced buyer. They kind of cheat the customers with the inapproprite-fancy-eye catching schemes. The normal tendency of any customer is to buy articles even if it is'nt of much use. Thanks to the discounts that are so beautifully articulated that one bends down to the offer.


Some instances of such offers can be scripted as below.
In a section of a huge store one can see garments placed ,with a board holding the price saying it ranges between 199 to 299 rupees. The discount says "Buy three at the price of two". In this case the probablity of customers buying two garments or more will exponentially raise. Who is profited in return? Customer who needed to buy only a single garment will end up buying three.


Catch line now a days - "Your bill cross 1500/- Rupees , you avail a gift voucher of 250/- for the next purchase." Consider a case where you have entered the store with plans of buying a T-shirt which hardly cost you 700 bucks and now with the tempting offer you end up buying 2 more which actually burns a hole in your pocket without your notice. Simple and easy robbing:)


"Buy 10 Kg sugar and you get one litre of cooking oil free." Dont be astonished when you see the expiry date on the oil can after getting back home.


"Buy one and get the second one absolutely free" on some of the cosmetic products - maybe quality is way below required standards and no one is using it. Therefore you get it FREE!!!


These are a few excerpts only.


Inspite of knowing such idiocity, I am no different. I tumble into a few of these crafted discounts.

Sis and Me stepped into this shopping mall and were striked with great surprise. There were people of all caste, creed and age groups congregated in the area, trying to find something of all the things kept under the single roof. Struggling through the flock of crazy people, managed to get to the section of bedspreads having been lined up so neatly with a nearly personified namaste. While bulk of the branded consumer goods are sold at the MRP, there are quite a few items on sale - that is what I guess, as a consumer you need to track. Don't be fooled. Best part of shopping at such places is that you get almost all of the items you need under one roof. What is annoying is that it is no less than our good old "sante" {ಸಂತೆ - weekly market of ancient times} with the fresh touch of new generation. I remember the "Sante" I used to visit as a child, near Grandma's place. The scene I was catching no wonder was exactly the same but with a modern twist. I could hear the announcer shouting into the mouthpiece the best offers of the day. As I moved around, my eyes captured a few subtle things that goes unnoticed most of the times - a staff was noting down the items clearing out from the shelves, one guy behind the fruits section convincing a consumer of the best grapes in town, a lady explaining the benefits of a wrinkle clearing cream. I could not stop giggling when I overheard a couple discussing about the monthly ration and fighting over a chocolate bar's inclusion into the list.


After a few picks we were done with filling our baskets with a whole lot of items, of course most of them useful. As we head to the billing counter our faces had the disastrous look, not because we had a whole lot of things which shot the price but the queue had nearly 20 ahead of us. There were multiple counters and with our IT brains working smarter than ever,we chose to stand behind different counters waiting for our turn. We stand there waiting and the wait seemed to never end. Am grateful to the huge discounts and exchange programme organized by the marketing teams for this huge a crowd piling up tonnes of articles to carry back home. Gazing at the billing machine, the carts and baskets lying in front of me yet to be billed, thoughts followed. How we as a country, have developed in the recent past to pace up with the other parts of the world. This shopping mall replicated a few I had paid a visit while in the states. This was almost same with a single difference of - so many people. While this was running on my mind I tried to watch if Sis was moving towards the counter and Yes she was next in line. I rushed and handed the basket to her. Finally we were happy that we also made a strategy and that worked.Billing completed after a streneous 15 min wait.

On the way back home Sis suggested I write about the charm of the old Sante and this SuperMall experience i.e the Modern Sante. So I have presented the relation with my perspective. What's your take?


-Ashwini

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice one:)

MALKANGIRI RAVI KUMAR said...

It is good topic to debate ,all these are cheap marketing gimmicks &strategy adopted by mega shopping malls to lure gullible customers, such products lacks quality and also less in quantity,[during raids it was found that malls are resorting to cheap gimmicks like improper weighing& poor quality]It is better approach whole sale /retail merchants/grocery shops/cloth merchants ,at least ,there is no chance of cheating. Save small traders from shopping malls by promoting them.

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

@Ravi Kumar: Thanks for visitng.. you are cent percent correct. Falling for the gimmicks and later repenting. This is what we today's generation is ending at.

sush said...

bengloornalli art santhe kooda idehe..r u aware of it?.valle santhe kathe:-)

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

@Sush: dhanyavaadagaLu. Yeah I have visited the chitra(art) sante held at chitra kala parishat this year. Its an awesome experience. I'd dedicate a separate post on it sometime in future. Thanks for visitng..

chitra said...

:) nice post kanree...mathey aah 35/- and bombay/china bazar sale kuda..naavu channagi bakra aagthivi alwa ..

anatreek said...

so many santhes, so many people, one poor benglooru!

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

@Chitra: hoon ... howdu .... sumne nammanna haLlekke haaktaare.. namgu buddi illa nodi hogi biLtivi..:)

@Ana_treek: ha ha ha:) very very true... Poor bengaluru..

Rajendra Raikwar said...

good one

ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini said...

@Rajendra: :)

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