Mall mania
Is there a word for shopping-trolley-induced-injury? I’ll tell you where that came from…I spent a large part of my last Sunday afternoon in a mall where one buys usual day-to-day stuff. In retrospect it was a stupid thing to do. Not that I did not know that, but I needed some stuff and thought I will manage to slip-in and slip-out without being caught.
Caught in what, you say! Ah, so we haven’t been to a mall of late, have we? The Great Indian Consumer chooses the weekend to carry on his carnage. And it not just atta-dal-namak for Missesji, POLICE-goggles-at-thousand-rupees-only for Misterji, it is also bilkul-barbie-jaisa-doll for Pinky and Krrish-made-in-China for Paplu. Not to forget Puja-ka-mandir for Maaji.
What I mean is the madness I saw seemed to have no beginning or end, and definitely, no meaning. Huge fat uncles and aunties, pushing shopping carts bigger than themselves, loaded so high that they cannot themselves see where they are going which means there is every chance of you being run down should you happen to cross their way.
And what is it that they buy? Anything that is for sale. And the best way of studying their buying behavior is by standing near the counters. There are many interesting things to note, only if you make sure that you are safely out of the way of one of the trolleys. Like, did you know that a uncleji bought at least twelve 400gm packs of glucose biscuits. Either he runs his own mid-day meal scheme or he has one very very hungry family to feed. And bottles of cola. Oh, I could go on and on about how people buy their cola...cartons of them... one lady picked up cartons and cartons of cola. In fact that is all that her trolley held. I’m convinced she bathes in them.
The actual competition is not merely about taking in as much as possible. But about taking up as much as possible, as fast as possible. Because you see, no matter how big a store is, things do get over. And when everyone believes in taking up as much as possible, someone has to play fastest-finger-first.
And then begins the rush to the finish... the check out counters. And that is where it happened. One momentum driven aunty, one hapless me, and the wham-bam.
Thank you, ma'am.
Now I’m more scared of malls on weekends than Mumbai locals on weekdays.
Caught in what, you say! Ah, so we haven’t been to a mall of late, have we? The Great Indian Consumer chooses the weekend to carry on his carnage. And it not just atta-dal-namak for Missesji, POLICE-goggles-at-thousand-rupees-only for Misterji, it is also bilkul-barbie-jaisa-doll for Pinky and Krrish-made-in-China for Paplu. Not to forget Puja-ka-mandir for Maaji.
What I mean is the madness I saw seemed to have no beginning or end, and definitely, no meaning. Huge fat uncles and aunties, pushing shopping carts bigger than themselves, loaded so high that they cannot themselves see where they are going which means there is every chance of you being run down should you happen to cross their way.
And what is it that they buy? Anything that is for sale. And the best way of studying their buying behavior is by standing near the counters. There are many interesting things to note, only if you make sure that you are safely out of the way of one of the trolleys. Like, did you know that a uncleji bought at least twelve 400gm packs of glucose biscuits. Either he runs his own mid-day meal scheme or he has one very very hungry family to feed. And bottles of cola. Oh, I could go on and on about how people buy their cola...cartons of them... one lady picked up cartons and cartons of cola. In fact that is all that her trolley held. I’m convinced she bathes in them.
The actual competition is not merely about taking in as much as possible. But about taking up as much as possible, as fast as possible. Because you see, no matter how big a store is, things do get over. And when everyone believes in taking up as much as possible, someone has to play fastest-finger-first.
And then begins the rush to the finish... the check out counters. And that is where it happened. One momentum driven aunty, one hapless me, and the wham-bam.
Thank you, ma'am.
Now I’m more scared of malls on weekends than Mumbai locals on weekdays.
there is a place here called `mustafa'... i think its more popular than the city itself... u have to see the way people shop here to believe it...the stuff u re talking about is child's play...
Posted by
Nisha |
August 30, 2006 11:14 AM
hmm after a long time... ya,i jus landed here in a different world and went to the nearby mall..and throughly saw it for almost an hour that i cud remember the dimensions..and bought a pillow for my self!thats it...the rates are sky high..and my convertions from dollars to rupees is not going to end...but people do come to buy nothing in the malls here...i was one among them.
Posted by
J-O-S-H (My Bench !) |
August 31, 2006 8:58 PM
great to see you are still as funny (at least on paper) as ever:) i almost rolled off the chair reading it
clearly the Indian middle classes have joined the `esteemed' rank of the global consumer. every now and than, i catch short segments here on cnbc-asia, all hailing the arrival of the Indian consumer.
most likely people are not only buying excessively and obsessively but buying junk as well. while in line at the grocery store here, we seem to be the only family with heaps of vegetables that look green (if not always fresh) and do not appear out of plastic bags or metal cans with an array of chemicals added to them...
oh....and don't even get me started on the mountains of coke they buy
chordi
Posted by
Anonymous |
September 05, 2006 2:07 AM
Oh you poor thing!!! You should have checked with me before going to Big bazar on a Sunday. Just last Sunday, there was this family of four, who seemed to have bought everything from a large suitacase to 3 dustbins( why would anyone need 3 dustbins at one go!!??) to a range of utensils, to plastic flowers to 12 packs of some wannabe Pringles pack to 10 packs of Tropicana juice to a teddy bear type thing!!! They had some 6 trolleys between them. It was aweinspiring I tell you. The obese unhealthy appearance of the kids made a lot of sense once I had seen the contents of the trolleys!!!
Posted by
Ron |
September 08, 2006 6:34 PM
hey...why are you silent for such a lng time? have u taken a sabbatical?
Posted by
Anonymous |
November 13, 2006 12:11 AM
Hi,
malls suffocate me ...and I often feellike throwing up inside one ..
merry X mas to you..nothing like a quiet holiday at home or in the hills
Posted by
backpakker |
December 25, 2006 1:01 PM