The tendency to stray!

Dear Anandchitra
Talking of bargain sales, I very often see that wholesalers of textile goods from North swarm Chennai. They rent a marriage hall and go on an advertising spree. They even take a quarter page in The Hindu which costs a lot of money. They say things like they are forced to sell their goods at throwaway prices because of a glut in the export market. The offer price is Rs 80 per saree against its listed price of Rs 800 per saree! And to boot, a saree free for every two purchased! And when you go to the Mandapam, you find heaps of sarees and what have you in a well-lit hall and not a soul around to buy them! You find the owner in a corner sipping a pensive cup of tea. How does the economics work in such cases is something I have never been able to fathom!
Sri

 

Dear Chithra
Dont tell me you missed the humour in my current post! I now realise the danger of overfeeding. You provide one more proof for the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility besides the examples of consuming an overdoze of Jilebis!

You wont believe it but I am yet to step into Chennai Trade Center. Somehow these multiplexes do not interest me. The way the boys and gils exhibit their intimacy in such public places make me very angry that I am not one of them! :mrgreen:

You are right about the cute salesgirls proving a great diversion from the monotony of shopping. In fact they provide such great diversion, I forget what I want to buy and come home with something totally different from my shopping list!
Sri

 

Dear Malathi
It's indeed interesting to hear that you do a lot of market research before shopping for expensive items. I think you should share your findings with other ILites in order that they can overcome their indecisiveness!
That experience of wasing machine is only too familiar to all of us. When it comes to products of multinationals, the chances are that they may not be fit for Indian conditions and hence may prove a failure. The basic product may be very economically priced but where they make up is through AMCs and spare parts!

The ads for consumer durabes can be as misleading as matrimonial ads. The features that are advertised in both cases are not what they are endowed with. If all the girls and boys are as good as they are advertised, there wont be so many hiccups in marital relationships!

As regards branded shirts, I used to buy always a Charagdin shirt whenever I visited Mumbai not because I liked them but their only showroom happened to be in Wodehouse Street in Colaba! Can you beat it? Yes, I am so crazy about Wodehouse
Sri

 

Dear Pushpavalli Srinivasan
As long as possession of branded articles continues as a status symbol, the habit of wasting money on them will continue. I find this true particularly in people chosing their cars. When a Maruti can effectively transport you around in the crowded streets, why go in for limousines at mindboggling prices? And when they get dented by an autorickshaw, it sets you back by a few thousand rupees whereas in Maruthi you can ignore those dents!

And in the matter of garments, the more you pay for them the longer you tend to use thm. If a man pays five times the cost of a normal underwear for a branded one, he may use it even after it stops performing its allotted task!
Sri

 

Dear Sowmya
You have really hit the nail on its head about shopping in supermarkets! I have sometimes gone to them wanting to buy bread and powdered asafoetida but came back with a bag full of goodies which I hardly used! The problem is that the attractive packages even for things like tamarind make you succumb to them. I spend more time browsing through the write-ups on these packages than I do in a book shop. I wonder if the salesgirls whisper to weach other on seeing me, 'Vanduttanya' in Vadivelu style! I am particularly crazy about the write-ups on Health food!
Sri

 

Dear TDU
I wouldn't mind exchanging my head too seeing that you seem to have a much younger one sittin on your shoulder! And a distinguished one too!
Sri