In Decennial Year of Service - Ganesh Juice Shop

The idea of observing the business cycle of “Ganesh Juice Shop” in Mahabalipuram struck me when I was surveying the customers for the Marketing Management Group Project. After few days, I visited this shop around 4:00 PM and started noticing the setup around.

The shop under observation is one of the oldest juice shops in the town; started 10 years back by Ganapathy.S(Age: 45 Years) and is open from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM every day.  The shop is around 8 * 10 feet in measure, leaving enough space for every item to be kept in the shop, with a small portico for customers to stand. Portico had a fan running to relax the customers while they were having juice and to drive away the houseflies. The board of the shop was large enough to be viewed from a bit far and the various juices that he sold were Lemon, Badam Milk, Mixed Fruit Juice, Rose Milk, all prepared by the shop owner at home.

I noticed that the customers even went on having 2-3 glasses of juice, especially the teenagers, which meant that the customers did consider “Ganesh Juice Shop” as a very good option for juices.

These juices are priced at Rs 10 a glass.

Basic Setup used to run this juice shop included:

•   A cooler to keep the juices cool.
•   A fridge to hold stock of juices.

Survey Data in figures:

Frequency was around 20 customers in 12 mins during peak time.

Peak Time: 11: 00 AM to 5:00 PM

Peak Period: Feb-Mar, June-July

Maximum no of Consumers were college students & school students. College students were mostly from nearby colleges such as “Dhanalakshmi Engg College” and “Royal Engg College”.

Preferred juice of most customers: Mixed Fruit Juice

Various methods used by the Shop Owner to attract, satisfy and retain customers are

•  Selling of Lays and water bottle. Idea behind this move is to sell these to women who come to have juice. Women would be tempted to buy Lays for their children.
•   Music was being played to satisfy the customers beyond the actual purpose of serving good quality and tasty juice.
• Shop owner always picked up conversation with new customers asking them feedback about the juice (tried to build relationship) or started asking personal welfare with his loyal customers(Aims at long-term relationship). Long-time customers did respond very well to his questions.
• Selling of soft drinks such as Coke, Pepsi to keep customers interested in his shop, although he earns maximum profits on the juices that he sells. He said that he just makes a profit of Rs 1 when he sells a half-litre Coke or Pepsi bottle.
•  Importance of cleanliness is focused on a large extent in this juice shop. He kept on wiping his coolers with wet cloth, washed the used glasses as soon as the customer had his juice, set up a dustbin for the customers to throw the plastic glasses once used.
• The shop is famous for the tasty juices it serves.
• Planted a tree 10 years back when he first started his shop to provide some shade, fresh air to his customers. 
•  Striking feature is the ban on smoking in his shop. Logic he gave was that smoking would turn off the women who visited his shop.
• Table, juices, soft drinks, lays etc were arranged really well so that all of the products he sold were very visible to the customers.
• Mr.Ganapathy had the knack to crack jokes with kids and switch to mature talk when conversing with adults. Basic aim is to satisfy and retain the customers.
•  Shop Owner adds that many people know his shop because of the quality and the tasty juice that he provides.  This is the basic reason for his success when there are 10 other juice shops in the vicinity. “Word Of Mouth” helped him to establish a good image of his juice shop on the customer’s mind. 
•  Mr.Ganapathy politely says “Visit Again” when the customer had enjoyed his juice and is about to leave the shop.
•  Mr.Ganapathy is helped by his son Mr.Vallavan(Age:21 Years) who runs the shop in the evenings after coming back from college.  Mr.Ganapathy conveys that his son tries new things with the juice and brings out new taste. His son adds seasonal fruits in the mixed fruit juice to give new taste.

From my observation of this happening shop and the interaction with Mr.Ganapathy , I could sense that he treats “Customers as King”. He has also understood the importance of diversity of his customers in women, college students, their preferences and the need for new flavors.

After, noting down these points, I did have a delicious mixed fruit juice to experience the magic of “Ganesh Juice Shop”.