The Big Bazaar at Arcot Road, just afer Vadapalani Bus Stop, had been here for the last 1 month or so. But I never had the inclination to visit it, as most of the things advertised were available at a place nearer to my house, almost at the same price. Then, why take all the trouble of travelling to the shop? But the three days dhamaka was really a catch. So I did make the trip along with my wife on 26th, the first day of the discount festival mela.
The crowd at the mall was worse than the ones you see at Saravana Stores or Spencers. People were buying things as if they had never seen them in their life so far. In fact there were two men pulling a jeans pant from either side, claiming that he had put his hands on the pant first. The shop was under-staffed. The visitors were left to fend for themselves and all these were for just peanuts in the final analysis. The brands were very unfamiliar, except for one or two. The long queue in front of the 30 odd billing counters were seen to be believed. What have we come down to? Can a shop afford to sell things below a particular cost, just to get clientele? How do they recover their overhead costs? Or are we paying more for the goods indirectly?
Certain groceries would have been bought for less cost than what it costs outside? But is it worth the scramble?
I would rather like these new generation multi national retail trading companies enter the Indian market through right and honest trading practices rather than playing on the emotions of the people. As an old saying goes, all these discounts are nothing but small baits with a larger future gains as the ultimate aim.
Having fed up with the crowd and unable to stand the way the things were being sold, we were rather the only couple to leave the shop without buying anything!