Tale of Retail

Last few years have seen an emergence of organized retail in India and how! Wherever you go you find new malls coming up and existing ones being made bigger and better however empty they may be! I remember I had gone out for dinner with my family (total of 18 people) and found out that my cousin (who works for a company making mnemonic devices) had forgotten to make reservation! And as one would expect the hotel was packed from the kitchen (which rests at the north-end of the hotel till the south-end where even the security guard’s seat was occupied by my niece who was waiting to get inside. All this happening on a weekday in Ghatkopar! I felt agitated on having to wait outside but at the same time little economist within me told me that despite all the talks of slowdown at least Ghatkopar’s GDP remained unaffected! (Anyways that is not our topic of discussion. Feeling pity for the security guard, I asked my niece, who was behaving as if she had not eaten since last 23 years, that we should go to the nearby mall which had just opened a few days back. She agreed reluctantly.
When we entered we were made to pass through that ubiquitous entrance which rarely works. Then we were encountered by a security guard (weighing around 28 kgs) who frisked us as if they had received some warning regarding some terrorist squad who had infiltrated Ghatkopar’s borders! We were in for the biggest surprise of our life when we discovered that there were very few people inside (only the two of us to be specific!) Then why all this frisking and all?!?! What did they think? That a 24 year old Gujarati was going to blow up the whole mall with the help of his 8 year old niece?! Anyways even this is not our topic of discussion!
Feeling very embarrassed at the thought of being the first two people to enter that mall that day we decided to leave instantly (thank god for not having been frisked on our way out) and instead join our family members outside hotel. However, this is not to say that this form of retail ain’t going to work. The malls are here to stay but only those who’ll give right things at right place at right time with right promotion (sorry couldn’t help but mention the 4Ps concept that I studied!) as it was evident in other malls which were packed to the brim at that very point in time and that too within tantalizingly close distance of the mall that I had gone to!
So finally coming to the central theme of this post, my point here is to support the views of those who believe that organized and mom & pop stores can actually live in harmony with each other and grow as well. Now since it is the small mom & pop stores that have served us since generations, I’ll talk about the things that they are doing to survive as well as prosper. Let’s take an example: we have been buying all our household requirements from a nearby store for years now. And one thing that gives this kind of stores an edge over other stores (read organized stores) is the personalized service that they give. They greet their customers by their name (not by ‘sir’ or ‘madam’), they are aware of their customers requirements as in the owner of the store that we go to knows that every Tuesday and Saturday we buy a narial on our way to temple. So he makes it a point to keep it ready the moment we reach his store and we, in turn, are assured of our daily requirements. There are also other things like home delivery, selling on credit that is peculiar to mom & pop stores. There are times when in case of an emergency the owner would open his store in midnight to serve its customers. These things are very difficult for the malls to implement. But still I feel these things are very common as any local store (which wants to survive) would do this. So what other things that can be done to enhance the level of service?
Well I experienced a couple of those things when I visited my school friend’s newly opened general store. I had gone their with my mother with the intention of getting her introduced to my friend as well his family members who were managing it so that we could that extra discount (typical gujju mentality!) And while I was browsing the store I saw that there was one person dedicated exclusively for the home delivery transactions. Now this may sound simple enough but later I found out, from my friend, the logic behind it. He mentioned as to how people get frustrated when they are asking for something and the person who is serving them, at the same time, also takes the order on phone. This irritates both the customers, one who is on the phone as well as the one who is present at the store (depending on who is being made to wait!) So keeping someone to deal exclusively with home delivery orders leads to a win-win situation for all. Second thing that I found very interesting was that every sales person had been trained to remind customers of the things they could buy: Like a person buying Bread was reminded of things like butter, jam etc. Agreed this is basic, but still not common! And finally third thing which just won me over was that whenever a customer left the store, the sales person who was serving would say “Avajo, ane fari vaar jarur thi avajo!” (Good bye, and do come back next time). Again this may sound basic thing when you say it in English (as we experience this every time we go to Café Coffe Day or McDonald’s), but this could do wonders when said in local language as it instantly connects with the customer as it did when my mother and I left the store.
When I entered the store I entered with the intention of getting that extra bit of discount but when I left I wasn’t thinking of it (nor did I get any!), but I was sure about one thing that the store had added one new & regular customer to its list. Now as we can see even when it comes to buying from mom & pop stores, it won’t take that much time to change loyalty (as in my case). Not because I had problems with the old one but it’s just that I have found one store which is giving that EXTRA bit of service. As we can see this extra bit of service that now we get is not because the store owner has read some marketing book and realized the importance of giving better service. This change is happening because they don’t want to lose their customers to organized retailers. Agreed, organized retail has added to the competition and sometimes small retailers may find it difficult to survive but at the same time small stores who will innovate, like we have seen above, will prosper. In all this, if there is someone who will benefit irrespective of what happens, then its customer!!