Wednesday, January 30, 2002
Last night, I went shopping at Globus. Four-storeys of air-conditioned, music-filled, granite-floored clothing nirvana.
In the good old days I used to take exactly 10 minutes to shop for clothes. Then Shoppers Stop happened. The retail revolution which spawned a new generation of superstores has left me feeling completely out of place. Nowadays, I take nothing less than a hour to buy one pair of decent clothes.
The whole experience is so similar to going to a dawat, and being so boggled by the variety on the buffet table, that you manage to eat very little...
What struck me most at Globus was the mass 'similarisation' of clothing. There was such an amazing quantity of wares, but so little to tell between them.
There were too other noteworthy things that happened. As I paid my bill, the cashier handed me a complimentary copy of the latest Outlook magazine. I noticed in one corner a huge pile of copies of Outlook's last issue. Did Globus overestimate the footfalls? Or did they overbuy the magazine?
As I stepped out to the parking lot to retrieve my car, I was shocked to find that the security people had taken possession of my keys. I asked the securityman why they felt that was necessary. He said it was standard practice. I asked him why it was standard practice. "Because non-shoppers use it as a parking lot." Well, all I can say is Globus will have to find better ways of ensuring that doesn't happen. And I could show them more ways than one... As for taking my keys, well, that's just not on...
In the good old days I used to take exactly 10 minutes to shop for clothes. Then Shoppers Stop happened. The retail revolution which spawned a new generation of superstores has left me feeling completely out of place. Nowadays, I take nothing less than a hour to buy one pair of decent clothes.
The whole experience is so similar to going to a dawat, and being so boggled by the variety on the buffet table, that you manage to eat very little...
What struck me most at Globus was the mass 'similarisation' of clothing. There was such an amazing quantity of wares, but so little to tell between them.
There were too other noteworthy things that happened. As I paid my bill, the cashier handed me a complimentary copy of the latest Outlook magazine. I noticed in one corner a huge pile of copies of Outlook's last issue. Did Globus overestimate the footfalls? Or did they overbuy the magazine?
As I stepped out to the parking lot to retrieve my car, I was shocked to find that the security people had taken possession of my keys. I asked the securityman why they felt that was necessary. He said it was standard practice. I asked him why it was standard practice. "Because non-shoppers use it as a parking lot." Well, all I can say is Globus will have to find better ways of ensuring that doesn't happen. And I could show them more ways than one... As for taking my keys, well, that's just not on...
# posted by Ashok @ 10:40 PM 
