Note: This was not my first time at this or any supermarket in Delhi; I have been around!
Around 8 pm tonight I realized we had run out of a bunch of basic grocery items. So I head down to the nearest supermarket/grocery store called More to buy stuff - you know milk, fruit, etc. With great disdain I pick a basket to carry the 6-7 items in my hands. Disdain, why one may ask? Well the sporty orange baskets were very dirty - they had black grime on all of them at the base and the handles had some sort of black greasy patches - and yes my hands were dirty after I used the basket!
With the few things in my basket, I headed to the front of the store to pay for my items. I had to scratch my brains to figure out where to stand. 2 of the 3 counters were staffed. At counter 1 (far left) there was a family of 3 being helped followed by a couple waiting in tow. Counter 3 (far right) was a sight worth beholding - first there was an elderly couple who had paid for but still had not received all their bags, then there was a woman and 2 noisy kids who were being helped, with a single woman waiting on the left of the counter (i guess she was hedging her bets on which counter would be available first) and 2 women waiting on the right of the counter. In effect, counter 3 had a semi-circle of people around it - no line....Still trying to think which counter to focus on I was standing exactly in the middle (at the unattended counter 2) behind the couple at counter 1. Suddenly from behind me came a haughty and well endowed Punjabi woman - 2 kids in tow, 2 packs of milk in one hand and tiny (compared to her size) purse in the other hand. She directly went to counter 1 ahead of me and the couple before me and in the face of the family currently being helped and the store representative. Noticing the meek demeanor of the couple before me, I tapped the woman's shoulder and said - there is a line at this counter, we were here before. She gently said - "Oh I see!", continued standing there and as soon as the attendant was available put down her 2 packets, turned around and said "its only 2 packets, will only take a minute". I did nothing in response! I wanted to save myself an argument and yes she was right she needed an express lane. But where are the express lanes? In fact where are the lanes? To conserve space, the way checkout counters are designed in modern stores in India is pathetic - they are right near the entrance with no distance between counters, in fact they are connected and do nothing to reduce crowding of users around it! Thats not an excuse for rowdy users as I just described but hey if there were properly designed lane style counters shot gunning spots would really be hard!
As I zipped back in my small car to my apartment, I noticed 500 meters from the store the elderly couple in their late 70s walking down the road - each of them holding one handle of a large cloth bag full of groceries! The bag was swinging between them as their hands buckled under the weight from time to time....The bag was like a child swinging off its parents arms...I was disheartened!! Safeway is what came to mind immediately - my regular grocery store regardless of where I lived in California was so good about customer service. Many a times when I had the push cart full of groceries the checkout clerk would ask "Would like someone to assist you to load your car in the parking lot?" - I rarely said yes, but hey many people used the assistance. I know that my local store More has phone order/delivery service. Did the checkout clerk ever mention it to the elderly couple? I doubt it. I only found out about it when I inquired couple of weeks ago. Since the store does provide home delivery and I did see a few of those delivery guys hanging outside the store - "Would it have killed the clerk to inform the couple that the delivery guy would accompany/follow them to their house with the bag??"
No such thing happens here in India. Why? Customer is not King?? I once heard the head of customer relations at a major telco say "We don't care for customer retention, with 80% of 1 Billion to target who needs loyal customers!" I was shocked at his sentiment. Perhaps, many services are still in its nasceant stages and customer service quality is not a value that most Indian users would pay for. The onus here is on the customer to be well informed - an informed user is King. However, no producer/company will do much to inform the customer. A dumb customer is far better to them!!! Same goes for a dumab voter - highly valued compared to an educated voter by Indian politicians :)
grandma's words
the world is yours till such time as u r energetic and high...when u r down and low u r on ur own!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
