Search For Slippers

Sunday 3June 2012
Gaurav Varshney--FT13127

Starting again my college journey , the most important thing which I was missing daily in the morning was my own attached bathroom.with change in habits also called to change my slippers for the whole new wet floor of shared bathroom.

So in search of slippers I ended up in Mahabalipuram.I started my search from shops near to beach.Vendors on the road side were asking for a very high price because of which  I ended up in a shop which was not much in a good condition.With the help of my Tamil friend I was able to convey shopkeeper what I was looking for.But I got totally disappointed when shopkeeper showed me only one  local brand and above all only one piece.I was not  quiet happy but still I asked him for price and giving a shock he told me the price of that pair of slippers more than any famous brand.Even after negotiating for 10 mins  shopkeeper came  down to 200Rs for that local brand.After saying ‘nandri’ to shopkeeper I moved forward with my search and in last found a Bata shop.To my surprise shopowner was able to chat in Hindi.He  was running that shop with his daughter.Shop was a little bit small as compared to shops in city but still they had enough variety.Only 2-3 customer can enter in shop at a time.Shop had combinations of both branded and local products.Most of the items were slippers.He showed me 2-3 variety and in last I finalised one pair of slippers.He charged me marked price.I tried  to negotiate but its of no use.I asked him most time of year Bata products have sale,which I have noticed in city.To my question he replied he don’t have any knowledge about this and he never had any sale in his shop.I even noticed that he was charging marked price to other customer who was speaking Tamil but I think he was a tourist.From the shopowner I came to know that he take his supplies from Chennai and by sales point of view November and December are  important months,as  those are the high time for tourist visit because of good weather.Mainly people ask for slippers only, as beach is near to shop.

From all of my search what I learned that market of a small town is different  from a city in many ways:

1.First its very difficult to find branded product in a shop

2.If place is tourist place, shopkeeper ask sky high price even for a local product.

3.Stock in shop was little bit old.

4.For any branded shop you will not find any discount as  shopowners know they will not have loyal customers,people just visit only once and thats also only in emergency.

5.Packaging is not important in small town.I got my slippers in simple polybag while in a city salesman will pack your item in a good carton box then will provide you polybag having some brands ad.