take a look at the teeming, milling crowds on the streets.
all doing just one thing.
shopping.
and the maximum crowds i see are at the pavement stalls and the "khokaas" selling shoes and clothes at rock bottom rates. almost always to women.
nice, kitschy stuff with assorted glittery thingummies. all at prices that don't burn a hole in the pocket. quality of course is pretty suspect. but as long as it lasts a couple of months, no sweat.
and a bit of bargaining proves irresistible. even though deep down we all know that even after supposedly bullying the shopkeeper down by a few bucks he is STILL making his pound of flesh from us..who cares ? we have got what WE wanted, right ??
makes me wonder in the midst of our so-called retail revolution and hypermarkets et.al., when will anyone come up with a chain of pavement stalls ? a brand of pavement stalls around the country. offering the same kind of products at the same prices and the same experience, everywhere ?
a chain of pavement stalls selling designer knock-offs at knock off prices - would be a smash hit, methinks.
we guys are great at fake stuff. so merhcandise shouldn't be a problem. stalls selling fakes abound, but lack credibility. and quality is always suspect.
so may be a chain of pavement shops selling QUALITY designer knock-offs and tom-tomming that fact would give that credibility stamp perhaps ? i think the crowds would attack in droves.
the west has made a virtue of designer fakes ...perfumes, clothes, sunglasses, shoes.
no reason that it can't happen here ?
well ??
p.s. - delhi has this cute-in-pink "chota" shop chain called "impulse". where you pick up baubles, beads, bags and shoes. and get nail art done. almost always crowded.
then a long while ago, a foodie friend who had his own chain of fast-food reastaurants serving kebaabs, had decided to innovate and take his kebaabs to the masses at office complexes. branded "kongo" (short for kebaab-on-the-go), the idea was to have a uniformed seller with his own tray of kongos ( kebaabs in roomalis with chutney and onion rings, foilwrapped and packed in cartons a la mcdonald's ), much like the food-sellers you see walking about in the west, during soccer and cricket matches.
replenishments could come from a nearby storage source or a central kitchen.
willing to bet this would work like a dream....
3 comments:
LOL ! taking off from where u left these pavement chain could be called 'Patpong' !! I havent seen better fakes anywhere else in the world.
Seriously speaking, the biggest issue with the pavement is that its not legal. At Basant Lok every once in two months the cops descend and wipe out all the pavement shops ( mostly trinkets, export surplus and momos !) and they all come back flat in one week. I am sure the reconstruction is part of their operational costs by now !! Doing all this as part of organised retail is awefully difficult. I tried opening a few kiosks just like these paanwallahs spring up on the fanciest of real estate but the rules of the game are tougher if you are sitting in an air conditioned office ! The paanwallah gets away with a Rs 2000 bribe while for us it would mean a couple of zeros more..come think oif it, why not a chain of branded paan shops ? Have you noticed the Yamoo Churan/Supari kiosks at all Haldirams ? There is so much possibility in retail and we are just on the tip of the iceberg !
before i leave my 'pug marks' i am going to do a little more reading. so far so good. intellignetly written and i like the insights. a new way of seeing and all that sort of thing, you know darling?
yes. have heard of yamu's, gw..but while your point on the illegality of these pavement shops is valid, it can be turned in to a legal entity as well. am sure. i mean the fashion street hasnt gone any where has it ??
and then i have heard of this food street in lahore that springs up on the pavements every night...and caters to HUGE crowds....
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