A cool experience at Mansoor Coolbar

Shop: Mansoor General Stores and Cool bar

Location: ECR road, Pudupattinam

The day is hot, the mouth dry and the drive hectic. Ask any one on the East Coast Road and 8 out of 10 people shall give you the above response.

My condition was no different. It had been a long drive and I was cursing every single driver who overtook rashly, the Government for making such a narrow road and at times even myself, for no reason. But then, after Kunnathur village, on the way to Pondicherry, near a village called Pudupattinam, came to my rescue a person by name Mansoor and his shop Mansoor cool bar.

It was not a planned decision to stop at his shop, but it turned out to be a wise one. The very sight of tender coconuts, all brands of soft drinks, flavoured milk, chips packets and the small TV was a relief in itself.

The session started with a tender coconut. Frankly speaking, it was probably the sweetest coconut water I had ever had. It was just priced at Rs15 which is half the price of a tender coconut in Chennai. This brought about a question, how does Mansoor manage to sell it at such prices. The answer was he got those coconuts from his own farm. I was thinking to myself Rs15 on each coconut.

Now that I was done with tender coconuts I bought a few bottles of coke and a few biscuit and chips packets. I was about to pay Mansoor and leave when he asked me if I would like to have lassi. Now that was an irresistible offer. So he got me a big glass of lassi. It was perfect, like the ones that you get in northern parts of the country. In the meantime, the conversation got a lot friendlier and I asked him about his business and trust me I was surprised. There was so much to learn from this small shop. Below is a small list of items and the margins that he makes on them:

Product	Cost Price	Selling Price	Profits
Pan Parag	Pack of 50 – Rs 160	Rs 180 for 50 packets	Rs 20
Cigarettes	Pack – Rs 60	Rs 65 – 70 for the pack	Approx. Rs 5
Water Packets	150 Packets - Rs50	150 Packets - Rs100	Rs 50
Rasna small packets	Rs 1.50 per packet	Rs 3 per packet	Rs 1.50 per packet
Barfi packets	10 piece packet - Rs 10	10 piece packet - Rs 15	Rs 5
Chikki	12 piece packet -  Rs 10	12 piece packet - Rs 12	Rs 2
Soft Drinks	Rs 14 per bottle	Rs 15 per bottle	Rs 1 per bottle
Water Bottle	Rs 14 or Rs 15 per bottle	Rs 15 or Rs 16 per bottle	Rs 1 per bottle
Biscuits	Rs 8 per packet	Rs 10 per packet	Rs 2 per packet
Chips packets	Rs 7 per packet	Rs 8 or Rs 9  per packet	Rs 2 per packet
Butter Milk, one big container, about 400 glasses	Curd Rs 70 per big packet + Ginger and other things Rs 30 = Rs 100	Rs 4 per glass ==> rs 4 * 100 = 400	Approx Rs 300 per container.

This is over and above the profits on tender coconuts which can be considered as the entire Rs 15 per coconut. There were a lot of other business facts that he mentioned but I shall keep it for some other day.

As per Mansoor, in a day, he makes about Rs 1000 – Rs 1500 depending on the number of people visiting his store, though sometimes it could be way less.

After finishing the lassi, it was photo session time. Due to customers waiting, he gave me a quick pose and proceeded with his work.

I never thought a small pit stop on a highway could turn out to be such a learning experience about the margins and the functioning of a store. All in all, a good experience, both in terms of education and as a person.