The glorified flea market

I visited the much-glorified Saravana stores for the first time. It’s the shop, or rather, the middle class mall that generates footfalls which could easily be one of highest in India. And what can I say about my visit? Its nothing like any store that I've ever visited. No, I'm neither glorifying nor pulling it down. All I say is its very, very different.

Swarming with people - crying babies, shouting men, ogling boys and curious women, the shop is full of buzz that never seems to die down. Every section is full of 'hot' selling items suited to the mass. The implicit message seemed to be: If something isn't attracting crowds, and that in hundreds, or perhaps thousands, it’s off the shelf. Ten minutes into the shop, I was tired of being pushed around and constantly bombarding into people. It really is a flea market with marbled floor, Air Conditioning and lots of decks containing merchandise.

For all the volume of the crowd that throngs the place, it’s surprising to see not much of checks anywhere. Except for sparsely positioned personnel who scan the crowd, probably with the intention of finding people with a mischievous, impish face, there was no sign of metal detectors, frisking, or even video cameras [I might be mistaken here coz I didn't really going around searching for cameras]. Wonder how the whole security apparatus works. It would've been a totally different story had it been in some other city.

With so much going against it, how does the business tick? It didn't take me long to figure it out. Prices. I had obviously heard you get things at a low price here, but the reality is you get things very cheap. This store seems to have taken 'Everyday low prices' to a level that would wake up Sam Walton from his lumber. A sample check. The price of a Sony Ericsson Walkman mobile w550i was quoted as Rs. 10,800 whereabouts in a Viveks store that was around the corner. An online store listing gives a Rs. 10,600 quote. And Saravana stores quoted Rs. 9,900 whereabouts.

But then, after all this, there isn't anything remotely close to a shopping experience inside. You might have to squeeze through people, shout on top of your volume to reach the store guy, and if you are at the front of the queue, and surviving, you might get something at a low price. A very low price, mind you. There is no doubt I'd go there once in a while to check the prices and the market pulse and retailer margins and perhaps buy things cheap, but shopping certainly wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe the experience.