Suman K Sharma
Speedy-Alluring-Lavish-Economical – the hype about SALE. Festivals bring sales. And sales bring colour to festivals. Look at the excited faces of shoppers and the permanently pasted smiles of the shop-walas; the profusion of the stuff being sold and the colourful bags in which it is carried away; the hasty pace of those heading for festooned sales venues and the swiftness with which cash changes into kind.
The morning paper brings you tens of handbills announcing sales in various parts of the city. Local TV channels bombard sales ads during every 15-minute break. Billboards on important road crossings scream out ‘Sale! Sale! Sale!’ Pampered and prompted, you make a beeline to your favourite shopping street on a public holiday, only to find that the particular garment shop is already crowded with shoppers keen to strike a bargain. The shop owner gives you a nod which you could interpret as that of easy familiarity and trusted friendship. And why not? It is not the first time you have come here. Buying in bulk for weddings, choosing that something special to arouse admiration and envy in equal measure in the circle of your friends and copy-cats of the mohalla, or even a gift for your heart-throb….The shop owner has seldom failed you. He knows your requirements and the constraints of your purse. You trust him and his dictum: no bargaining with us please, we don’t indulge hagglers. If he says an item costs Rs 510/-, it does cost that much – not a rupee less.
On this festive occasion, the shop is offering 50 percent rebate. You indulge yourself in the luxury of assessing – aided and assisted of course by the knowledgeable salesperson on the counter – a whole lot of colours, designs and textures before settling down for one sari. Its quoted value is Rs 1100/- and you have it for Rs.550/-. Carrying your purchase in a gaily printed plastic bag you come home mighty pleased with yourself. But wait. What is this? In your wardrobe you already have a sari precisely of the same colour that you had got from the shop the last season. You blame not your trusted shop but only yourself for getting carried away.
‘Best way to sell something,’ says Rand Fishkin, CEO and Founder, SEOmoz – a reputed software company, ‘don’t sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect and trust of those who might buy.’ Easier said than done. For it requires much more than retailer’s own effort and character to win the trust and respect of his clientele. A keen sense of enterprise, depth of human knowledge, a genuine feeling for the fellow humans and a reliable staff who share the proprietor’s enthusiasm and to some extent his demeanour are some of the essentials that go to make sales a success. Luck and location also play an important part as they do in any other human endeavour, but only so much.
It would be interesting to see how the retailers allow discount on the asking prices. You have guessed it aright. Shorn of all the jargon, it simply means that the retailer sets the price high enough to extract his own margin of profit after catering for the actual price he has to pay, the overheads and of course the rebate he declares on any article. Take the example of the sari you just purchased for 550 rupees. Let’s say that a single piece costs him Rs 500 after providing for the price he has paid to the manufacturer or the bulk supplier, the wages of the staff, sales promotion, and sundry expenses like rent, transport, electricity et cetera. Considering the general profile of his customers and intent upon getting maximum footfalls on a festival, he decides to have a profit of 10 percent and sell it at Rs.550/-. The next step is to fix a ‘rebate’. So why not mark Rs.1100/- as the sale price, offer a whopping cut of 50% and make the whole thing unputdownable? It can as well be advertised as ‘buy-one-get-one-free’!
‘Sales’, however, are not always a make belief. Retail chains the world over apply this tactics to dispose of the stock which has become less saleable for one reason or the other. It is not uncommon to land a genuine bargain on such occasions. Institutions such as Gandhi Bhavans also have a month long sale, coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi anniversaries where the customers are given a genuine rebate. Then there are the turn-of-the-season sales when the unsold stuff is sold off at lower rates to make way for new arrivals.
All said, he will be a dud retailer who sells at a loss to himself. So have no illusions about making a killing. Buy only what you need and don’t allow any salesman’s gimmicks to saddle you with excess baggage just because it is made out to be cheaper by a few rupees. Remember the sari that you purchased last year and did not have the mind to wear as yet. While buying leather goods, look out for their manufacturing date, for they have a limited shelf-life. Going for cosmetics and toiletries can be a little tricky since you would be risking yourself with sub standard stuff. So leave them alone. Best buys? Garments, bed sheets and of course, books. And now the last word: for a shopcoholic, ‘sales’ often means an event when more could mean less.
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