What is the need regarding MRP!

A few days ago I saw a quarter page advertisement highlighting MRP (the maximum retail price) and how complaints can be lodged, etc. etc., as you can see on the picture above.

I have always propagated doing away from MRP as the context has changed in India whether it is in urban or rural markets. MRP is no longer adhered to or relevant and the links to my other posts are as follows for reference.

- Do we need MRP?

- The MRP scam!

Now consider the following –

• In most places they charge more for soft drinks and claim it is for cooling! When most consumers are aware of this and pay up I wonder why no one from the Department of Consumer Affairs is aware of this reality.
• The same is the case in any monopolistic market context. Be it a multiplex, Hill Station, Tourist spots, etc. If you want something you end up paying whatever is named as the price. I wonder if the fact is that officials of this department are so hard working, they never frequent such places and are therefore unaware of such practices.
• Most of the overcharging happens in the vast network of railway stations and many airports. These are government run institutions. I wonder why no one has happened to notice this open disregard for the MRP?

I guess these Shop Keepers/ Retailers know the fact about market driven economy better than the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Especially in the Indian Context where filing complaints is easy but getting redressal or a solution is hardly if ever to be found, what is the purpose of such advertisements? Just blow up public money because it was allocated to this department in the budget???

In that context let me share a personal experience. For some weird reason voter id cards have been given to everyone in our apartment excepting our household. Multiple complaints to the local corporation and election commissioner’s cell did not have any result. Finally I filed an online complaint. All I have to show for all this is a nice pre printed post card saying that my complaint has been received and will be addressed soon by the corporation commissioner from the Chief Minister’s special cell. This came in 2009 and I am still waiting!!

Articles about Consumer Behavior

Two more articles of mine about being a Smart Shopper in The Hindu Retail Plus and the links are as follows.

- What is impulse shopping
- Perception Vs Reality

Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them for all of you.

My Fascination with Innovative Mobile Delivery Options

Mobile Retail Delivery is as old as Retail itself and hence my fascination with that delivery model with regard to all the innovation that can be tried out out in this space to leverage the same. India already boasts of 12 or 14 million retail outlets depending on which consultant’s report you are referring to. Also, what is not clear is whether this number includes the hawkers AKA mobile retail. Anyways, lets forget this Akbar-and-Birbal method of trying to measure Indian Retail.

Mobile Retail or mobile vending has been there in various forms from ancient times be it the street hawkers, the boat peddlers of Dal Lake, Floating market of Bangkok or more recently the floating supermarket in Kerala. However, one peculiarity barring the floating supermarket is the self limitation that these entrepreneurs impose on themselves as also the fact that the evolving Indian Retail Market seems to completely ignore it’s enormous potential.

Since 2009 I have been lamenting the fact that that this segment represents an enormous potential and had written a detailed article in The Hindu Business Line.

Article about Innovative mobile delivery models

A cartoon in The Hindu

 Ironically, The Hindu published this cartoon a few months later which epitomizes my construct. Till now this was a thought, a concept, something in the air. Today I saw this is in action and want to share this with my readers.

This picture is that of a normal neighbourhood iron man who does laundry and pressing.

Now watch an innovative mobile retailer has done.

- Put a shed and used it to advertise other services

He has done this a few months ago since he and his friends got this idea. He parks the cart in a safe spot during the night and operates from here during the day. I would not be surprised if he started selling various small essential products.

The difference between the earlier iron man and the second person is all about inititive and drive about which I have written in this post as also earlier ones. When will this become a mass movement?

Imagine if a Retail chain were to leverage this enormous potential of mobile Retail! Brand such carts, offer small, high margin and often used SKUs, so on and so forth.

Some food for thought ???

Store Walk - Does this exist nowadays?

Training and teaching sessions are great learning experiences. It exposes some realities of a market or industry which one would never get to know as a corporate person. Simply put, during interactions the participants share so many interesting insights and the reality on the ground.

One such is about store walk.

This seems to be a dying art form!

Over the past few sessions when I have asked whether people do store walk daily, everyone enthusiastically raises their hand. The next query is about how long you would take to do a store walk of a store of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 Sq. Ft. And, the answer varies from 15 minutes to 30 minutes at the most.

From my perspective, this is not a store walk. It is rather a short walk inside the store!

I was taught ‘Store walk’ by veterans in the field who have spent their entire lives in Retail most often starting off as baggers or temporary staff and were at CEO levels when they shared and taught me the practice of store walk.

It is a bit difficult to share the nuances of this key operational discipline in a post. Let me at least attempt to mention the highlights.

First, a store walk starts from outside the store to check the frontage, signage, etc. and ends with the back office, staff area and more importantly the toilets!

Second, a store walk is like a scan of the store. So, one needs to train his eyes, ears, nose, etc., to detect the smallest of deviations.

Third is the reality that no detail is too small to check. For example, how much of dust has gathered beneath the doormat. This gives you an idea of when it was cleaned last!

Lastly, consistency is the key. Doing a store walk once in a way when you are bored is of no use. Regular and repeated routine ensures discipline.

The downside to this is that when one gets used to doing store walks, most probably people at your home will hate you!!! Because you can judge when the home was cleaned properly, what was moved, so on and so forth. Your observation skills get into an auto pilot mode.

Whether you like it or not, you note and observe things which will help you correct things which need correction.

Press Review of "The INDIAN reTALEs"

I am very happy to share with you the detailed press review of "The INDIAN reTALEs" in the Brand Line supplement of The Hindu's Business Line. The link is as follows -


- Business Line Review of "The INDIAN reTALEs"

Please do take time out to read the same as also forward this to all your friends.

Using social networking sites

When one speaks of the internet in the context of Retail the immediate association is with online shopping. However, there is a very powerful use of the internet that shoppers can leverage to become smart shoppers and getting more value for their value.

I had written about this for The Hindu Retail Plus and the link to that article is as follows -

Using social networking and the internet

An unexplored idea – Mobile Retail

As mentioned in my book and a few earlier articles, the vast majority of street hawkers is a massive and undiscovered Retail opportunity. Their network and relationships are strong foundations upon which corporate Retailers as also manufacturers can build sustainable distribution networks. I wonder why no one wants to do this.

Have written about this wonderful potential yet again for The Hindu Retail Plus and the URL for that is as follows –

They bring Retail to you!

Ownership of the Customer starts with ownership of the store

During a series of recent training programs for Retail Operations people, I was highlighting the importance of taking ownership of the store and hence the customer. In that context the standard question to the audience would be how many of you take ownership of the store and hence the customers.

 

Predictably almost everyone’s hand would go up. Great; everyone is taking ownership of the store and hence the customer.

 

End of the story? Hardly, it is the beginning.

 

The next question would relate to old, slow moving or dead stocks. Regardless of the format the fact of the matter is that any store has a certain percentage of stocks which are non-moving. These are dead investments and only block up the working capital.

 

So, next I would ask how many have such stocks in their respective stores. Be it 1% or 5% or 10%, etc. There would be an enthusiastic response that, yes there are such stocks.

 

Now my next question; If this was your OWN store and your working capital was tied up would you allow this to happen or would you return the stocks or sell it off at a discount and clear the same.

 

At this point, the crux of the ownership issue will come out.

 

• I don’t have approval from HO to do this. If it was my own store, I don’t need that.
• I informed the merchandising team and they have done nothing.

So on and so forth.

 

Beneath these excuses lies a sad story of helplessness. Under the pretext of control and standardization the Corporate Retail of India today has depowered the store. But, on the other hand they are told that they are the face of the Retailer and they need to own the store and customer. What a dichotomy!

 

Having said that, I am also aware of store managers who had the freedom to act and therefore misused it by putting products on discount to reduce stock, at prices below the cost price.

 

The point is that a happy medium is needed and needed soon. The operations team needs to know their boundaries of the game while the boundaries should be large enough to motivate them to take ownership of the store or customers.

 

Otherwise, ownership of the store and customers will increasingly become empty words spouted during meetings and training programs where participants will enthusiastically raise hands to claim ownership, enjoy some good food and then go back to status quo.