The domino effect of prospering companies rewarding their employees with burgeoning pay hikes is not difficult to miss. “Money” and “Possessions” have become important incantations and to own the former automatically opens the doors for affording the latter. George Orwell it was, who propounded the concept of “Doublethink” – the ability to hold two opposite beliefs in the mind and accept both to be true.
A good example of this is the strong force of “Consumerism” sweeping across global markets with an all-encompassing drive that grants more alternatives to the discerning customers of the 21st century. Diametrically opposite and to a large extent, quite concerning, is the haphazard exploitation of resources - both natural and man-made. Apart from exacerbating the inequalities in distribution of income and goods, it is creating an unbridgeable chasm between the “Haves” and “Have-nots”. Sorry for the digression, just couldn’t resist some random thoughts from the pen-sieve.
Shoppers Stop. What is it about this Shopping Mall that makes me so allergic? I’m not a “have-not” with a misplaced notion that big malls are only for the rich and famous. I shop there once or twice a year, mainly for my yearly wardrobe enhancement but there’s little else there (but for “Crossword”–Book shop) that would make me a repeat customer on a regular basis. Even my restricted visits are because I can finish my shopping in a single location instead of shop-hopping and that, in the comfort of AC air.
I’ve been to 3 outlets (Bandra & Andheri at Mumbai and the one at Hyderabad) several times and always come out with the same confused thoughts as to what exactly was its positioning in the marketing grid. The layout and infrastructure are impressive no doubt. Cursory window shoppers and methodical serial shoppers who go through the same sections mechanically would “Ooh” & “Aah” depending on their tastes and preferences.
They have 4 (or is it 5?) floors of merchandise. The ground floor is taken up by cosmetics (perfumes, jewelry, watches, etc.) and the other 3 (is it 4?) are distributed between women’s clothing, men’s attires (formals & casuals, shoes, ties, belts and other accessories), kiddie clothing, a book shop, a music shop and a restaurant. The range of brands available is quite good but their quantity is severely restricted.
The accessories section is totally pathetic and that’s putting it too mildly. I went with my brother to buy formal shoes for his reception and a sales guy merrily strutted along with his customary “What can I do for you sir?” look on his mug. He reeled out half a dozen brand names and when we asked him to get some samples, the designs were hopelessly Mesozoic and the prices, shockingly ridiculous. We finally selected one good design from the showcase and when we asked the sales guy to get it, he ran around in circles for 5 minutes to return with a terse reply, “Sorry sir, out of stock”. Hell, what’s the point in having such a big showroom if you don’t stock a single spare pair of what’s on display? Good old “Bata” is better any day.
We moved on to the men’s clothing section to buy him a coat/blazer. Here again the same drill as earlier played itself out. The range was even smaller. If the size was right, the colour was wrong and if the fit was right, the styling was wrong. Not wanting to take a chance with the formals, we moved on to another showroom nearby that stocked all the major brands and did our shopping there. This was at Andheri.
More recently, I visited their Bandra outlet. I had earlier come in with a friend to do his shopping and felt that the formals were more organized and a lot more variegated in designs and hues than the dapper stuff at Andheri. So here I was with 2 friends and went through the same Q&A session of - “This is my waist size and I’m looking for this colour”, can you help me out? (Sales guy, after a quick search), “Sorry sir, but we don’t have that shade in this particular brand and size”. By now, I began to wonder if it was genuinely the fault of customers that they were of a particular size and wanted a particular shade. The expressions on the faces of the salesmen meant to say, “Why don’t you take what you get and scoot from here?”
We were rather tired and as it was the fag end of the day, we proceeded to pick and choose from whatever was available. I selected my trousers and paid through my credit card. The dumb guy at the payment counter was more interested in selling me an idiotic scheme - “First Citizens Club”, than tallying my signature on the transaction slip with that on the back of the credit card (I had not signed on the back of the card). By the time I picked matching shirts, my 2 pals had a bet among themselves. One guy told the other that HE would pay for my new shirts with MY credit card (meaning that he would sign on my behalf) without raising the suspicions of the dumbo at the counter.
As we stood watching, he actually went with my card and shirts, signed on the transaction slip and triumphantly came back. When I took the transaction slip from him and read the signature, we burst out laughing. Guess what he had signed as? “I am a Thief!”.
This is a favourite prank of his whenever he goes to shopping malls, but being the country head of the credit card division of a large Pvt. Sector Bank, he’s justified in doing it to check the security measures adopted at malls. I suggest you NOT to try the same thing.
Thus Spake TiC
I don’t believe in branding or forming opinions based on a single experience unless I’ve had ample scope to try it out several times so that an element of ignorance or bias doesn’t creep in. I’ve visited SS about half a dozen times in the last 3 years and continue to be confounded by the consistency in their inconsistency.
I don’t have much of an idea of the ladies wear but the gents formals are the saving grace apart from Crossword. Planet M, a music outlet, is a big waste of time and space. It resembles the Extension Counter of a nationalised bank and seldom has anything of value. The café/restaurant is more of an oasis for tired feet than a genuine eatery. The price of a simple sandwich is purely dependent on its height from the ground – the higher the restaurant in the building, the “pricier” it is.
Typical of a service industry, the customer service is a mix of good and bad. At no point of time do I ever see the sales women in the jewelry and cosmetics sections being fully employed. A first time visitor could be excused for mistaking that there are more “living non-entities” (sales people) than “non-living entities” (mannequins) in the mall.
SS is just about an average shopping experience and is a classic case of “All that glitters is not gold”. It falls way below expectations on several fronts. Ideal for window shoppers and for those looking for a respite from the scorching sun. I rest my case…
PS: The credit for the title...is Maddy’s ;-)