Yeh Dil Maange “More”.. Aahha..!!! - Imran Ariff (FT13138)

In the quite township of Bhartiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam (“Bhavini”) at Kalpakkam, 3 Kms from our institute, I was introduced to the Aditya Birla Group “More” Store by a group of friends with the common interest of grocery and snack shopping as we began our term at Great Lakes.

The excitement and delight to see the only Organised Retail store after seeing a number of kirana stores is short of expressing in words.  Away from the hustle and bustle of the city or any town, this store was located in the midst of literally a Village. The only store indicating a monopolistic situation.

This post is after my 3 visits to the store.

Visit 1

I was there at around 7:30 P.M. and there were a substantial number of people in the store.

As I entered the store, I noticed the store shelf plan was excellently executed to grab the attention of the customers. The store had Coco Cola as well as Pepsi products along with a number of other juices to beat the heat well placed as soon as one enters the store.

The shelf lines were demarcated based on the category of the products. The FMCG snacks and chocolates were at easiest access.  Something very unusual that I found was that this was the only retail store that I had visited over the years that sold sachets of shampoo.

There were offer banners all around the store with a number of offers attracting the customers. There was ample variety of products under various categories not much expected in a remotely located store. The store had in-house products such as More pulses, More grains, More room fresheners, More hand washes, etc.

To get to the main groceries the customers would have to pass through the biscuits/ juices lane or the snacks/chocolates lane which induces impulsive buying behaviour. The store has been planned very well understanding the buying behaviour.

To understand the billing process, I bought a few products and to my good or bad luck I was billed wrongly (Good because it helped me understand the error management).  On verifying the bill, when I brought to the notice at the counter, they accepted the error and asked me to buy something of the different value.

Visit 2

My visit to the store was at 6:30 P.M.

From this visit, I wanted to now understand from the customers as to why they preferred this store.  A few inputs of the review were as follows:

Mrs Santosh Jain  from Mumbai – Resident of Bhavini Township since 1 year

On discussing with her, She told me that she came to the store because she found everything under one roof and the stock of all items was fresh. When I inquired from her about the running offers at the store she told that she does not come there for the offers. She said that despite the offers, the products were expensive and it does make any difference. She found that the fruits were of average quality and more expensive than the local market and that the vegetables were not good.

What she was extremely displeased with was that there was no availability of bread at the store, the A/C was not functioning despite telling the store staff many a times and the store did not sell 5 litres Saffola Oil cans.

As she finished her billing, she returned back to me extremely pleased because she had got a tiffin free on purchase of apples and said in hindi, “ Beta A/C and bread ka please likna”.

Anil Kumar from Orissa – Working at the Kalpakkam Atomics Research Plant

Anil liked the variety available at the store which he felt that the local Kirana stores lacked. He is often attracted by the offers and it does influence his purchase decision. He said that the all the good at the store were extremely fresh and he has never had any issue. He said that the biscuit variety at the store was very good. He mentioned that the he bought his major household groceries from the Atomic Research Co-operative store, where the products are cheaper than MRP.

He also indicated his displeasure towards the non-functioning A/C and the high pricing of the fruits. He further said that the supermarket was extremely neat, clean and well maintained. Another strong point he mentioned that the customer support staff was very helpful and he would converse with them in English and they obliged which is not the case with the local kirana stores.

Anand from Tamil Nadu – Visitor at his relatives staying in the locality

Anand was at the store to purchase soap but the display at the store made him do a lot of more purchases.

Mrs. Usha Sen from Haryana – Resident since 12 years

The variety at one store where she could see and buy at ease unlike the situation at the kirana store brought Mrs. Sen to More. She said that the at the kirana store she did not have much choice and she would have to buy what the store would offer. She was extremely glad that the More store started a few years ago since now she is not at the mercy of the kirana shops.

She mentioned that the price of the food grain was higher at More as compared to the other small stores and the Co-operative store. Further she indicated that the fruit and vegetables were also more expensive at More store and preferred to buy that from the market.

Another important feature she told me about the store was the customer advertisement board at the store from where she got details of a tuition teacher for her son.

Community Notice Board

Narendra from Bihar - Working at the Kalpakkam Atomics Research Plant

Mr. Narendra insisted that I speak to him in hindi only. This was a completely dissatisfied customer. He told me that by charging exorbitant prices, Aditya Birla became rich and the common man is suffering. He told that the pricing was much better at the Co-operative store and the choice was also much better.

He told that the prices at More even after the offers are nowhere close to the prices at the co-operative stores. He had a Garnier Men’s deodorant in his hand priced at `150/- . He told me that the same item would be available at `135 at the co-operative store.

Since I reached the store only by 6:30, the store manager had already left. His timings were from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.

I also checked the various biscuit brands available at the store which attracted most of the customers which were as follows:

• Britania
• Unibic
• Mangaram
• Cadbury Oreo
• Sunfeast
• McVities

Visit 3

This visit was at 2:30 P.M.

I returned to meet the store manager, Mr. Gopinath from Pondicherry who was working at a More store in Pondicherry and had now been transferred to this particular outlet since 2 months.

Mr. Gopinath being new to the store, took help from his assistant and provided the following information:

Year in which the store was opened: 2008

Average Customer footfall per week: 260 - 275

Area of supermarket: 1500 sq feet

Landlord details: Government owned

Rent Amount: `25,000

Fastest moving Product: Biscuits & Snacks

Slowest Moving product: Plastic items

Store Format

The store format was decided by the head office. The shelving and the placement of the products is as per the decision of the Marketing manager from head office.

Unlike many other stores this store did not have a shelf of chocolates at the cash counter. When inquired, I was told that there were a few thefts but however they have decided to have a shelf put back in its place soon.

Stock Supply Management

Further, on enquiry as to how the stock supply chain was managed since the store was remotely located and the store had to deal with many suppliers, I was told that the stock was organised at a central unit in Chennai from various suppliers and distributed to the stores around Tamil Nadu.

The stock at the store was managed wide a database which provided the details of stock movement to the Regional Office (“RO”) based out of Chennai  and the  RO would monitor the same and replenish the stock as required. The stock is sent to the store within 1 week.

In case of urgent requirement of certain stock, the RO is called and the goods are sent from Chennai. Further the store does not have any supplier interaction.

Products not available

·        

• The store did not stock any frozen meat products from Godrej, Venky’s and others. 

• The store did not stock any expensive chocolates like Galaxy since these chocolates barely sell.

Customer Base

I was told that most of the customers were from Kalpakkam, Bhavini and Anupuram.

Offers

• The supermarket had on-going offers which included the following: 

• 5% off on the MRP; 

• Shopping vouchers of `500 on purchase of `799 and above; 

• 30% off on certain goods (these goods were displayed near the cash counter). These were goods which were not fast moving and the discount was to get rid of these goods. Some of the goods included olive oil, Loreal colour shampoo, Heinz ketchup, Lux purple soap etc.; &

• More Membership discounts.

The staff of the store would go door to door in the nearby locality and distribute phamplets with offers to lure customers.

 

Payment Methods

Approximately five customers per day used credit/debit cards for their purchases during the weekdays, however the number went up to 20 customers during weekends.

The store accepted Sodexo & Edenred Ticket coupons only for food products and 25% of the sales were by the coupons.

Work Timings

The store is open all days of the week from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. through the year.

Employees Details

There are a total of 9 staff at the store who reside at Annupuram, Manamai, Kunnathur and Chengalpettu. 

The staff were recruited at the office at Chengalpattu and sent to Chennai for training after which they join the store.

The employees got a day off in a week and were given sick leaves when required. There was no casual leave for the employees.

The staff were able to understand English at bare minimal level as much as it would help the customers.

Free Home Delivery

The supermarket provides free home delivery for amount exceeding ` 750 upto 5 Kms.

Sale Value

The supermarket made of sales of ` 25000 to ` 30000 per day and the annual sale was approximately ` 14 lakhs.

Return policy

There is a return policy mentioned at the entrance of the store which reads that the products can be exchanged within 14 days from the date of purchase. However, the manager informed me that the goods would have to be returned within 7 days. The goods received were further sent to the RO in case of any defect.

MORE Products

Based on my observation, I enquired from the store manager about the specific More branded products at the store and more specifically, “More Cola” and “More Artica”. I was told that these products were much cheaper than their counterparts. More Cola tasted like coca Cola and More Artica tasted like 7UP. These drinks were priced at ` 40 for 2 litres unlike ` 65 as its counterparts.

The demand for these products was high and people often bought bulk of it for parties and functions.

Security Measures

The expensive products are kept at crucial junctions at the store within the visible vicinity so as to prevent any theft. Further, there is sales staff stationed at different parts of the store watching customer movement.

Further as the conversation went ahead, I asked the manager about the A/Cs for which most of the customers I had interviewed had an issue, for which I was told that the the A/cs’ were not functioning and new ones were required.

Lessons learnt from the experience

This store was ideally located in the midst of the Bhavini township and was very close the park thereby attracting all the women shoppers who came to the park for a jog or with their children. Another very important observation I made was that More was a landmark in the area and all the shared autos on the high way knew about the store.

The store had done an excellent marketing strategy whereby a significant number of customers came to the store inspite of the Co-operative store. The plain walls of the store were filled with offers and the shelve racks indicated the savings on each product.

With excellent service and good quality products, the More store had made a mark and is expected to grow further in lieu of the upcoming buildings in the locality.