DELHI’S DUKAN WALLAHS

Why are Momos such a rage in Delhi and why do most of these have the same taste across Delhi?  Why most of the Indian small retailers will thrive on despite the onslaught of the organized retail chains? Some lessons in survival that can be learnt from the small retailers of New Delhi.

Vinod Bhasin is a slight man, not very tall, about 5’5”. He has salt and pepper hair; actually it’s mostly salt as there is very little pepper left. I have a feeling he must be around 60 years or so. A very ordinary pair of spectacles rests on his nose bridge ostensibly to help him cope with his hyperopia. He has however, also perfected the art of taking them off slowly but deftly while talking and uses this act to ensure maximum impact when he makes a point. A slight polite smile on his face and his thin body bowed to the front and hands almost folded together give him the demeanor of a person who is extremely respectful and ready to serve. He is surprisingly agile and alert for his age.

Bhasin runs a small but profitable retail business of crockery and kitchen use items. He has been running this business out of his rather well located shop in the Hans Raj Gupta road in Kalkaji, New Delhi. Well located because even though it is not on the main road, it is visible from the main traffic roundabout just about 30 meters away, so as to accord it some kind of exclusivity from the market which is otherwise a highly organized mess.

Shops of all sizes, shapes and colors line up both sides of the road. Handcarts selling fruits and small food booths line the dusty area underneath the shady green trees between the shops and the road. Cars parked on either side of the road coupled with completely haphazard traffic lend a sense of chaotic and hurried ambience to the road. You can spot little signboards tacked to trees and everywhere else, peddling right from home grown digestive pills to GRE/GMAT/IELTS tests preparation coaching promising perfect scores.

To the untrained Westerners used to consistency the place surely promises to be quite an experience, innumerable colors, structures, designs, aromas and haphazard traffic: and yet a sense of ‘Disorganized organization’ , because everything works, surprisingly with clockwork perfection!

The Food items being sold by the street vendors include momos or steamed dumplings that are a rage across Delhi. What is interesting about these momos is that across Delhi you are likely to get the same yummy taste in most of the Momo vends. Strange isn’t it? This was noticed and brought to my attention by a foodie architect friend of mine. Later, I would be completely flabbergasted each time when I would get the same taste in my momos from across most Momo vends in Delhi in a very obviously completely unrelated and fragmented market. And each one would claim to make his own momos and after all did he not just take the momos out of the steamer and you could see the steam and the food was cooking right there in front of you.

And how could they price it so uniformly and low?! After all at Rs. 30 for 12 pieces of hot steaming and succulent momos are a steal. So while getting some momos packed for home, I often thought as to why did the momos taste the same and how was the price uniform and so low across Delhi almost as if the market were organized?  

Hardly a kilometer from Bhasin’s shop across the crowded and messy market is a recently renovated shop belonging to a Sikh gentleman. Mr. Singh who is in his late forties wears a well tied turban over his heavily bearded face and can be found sitting at the cash counters prompting the helpers from his perch to assist the customers to find the appropriate items in his newly designed departmental shop kind of self help setup. His square broad shoulders and straight posture give away his origin from one of the most respected warrior races of the world.  However his immediate battle field is the Grocery shop he runs along with his brother!

This gentleman’s claim to fame is not ordinary, for he has figured on the cover of Images Retail, a much respected national magazine within the Retail trade of India. I thought he did well to represent the face of the Indian retailer. Of course after the issue had hit the stands his walk had become lighter and springier, there was a perpetual smile on his face for the next few months just upon the mere mention of the magazine cover. I think he blushes even now when you bring it up.

Another thing that widens his grin even further is the mention of his next door neighbor, another retailer who proved to be quite a handful even for this valiant Sikh retail warrior, but recently decided to close his shop and rent it out in hopes of making some quick and easy money.

Rentals are almost prohibitive in New Delhi’s commercially approved roads and areas. Singh recently renovated his shop after his next door neighbor bit the dust and when he saw retail chains taking business away. And the business grew back suddenly, and the smile is back on his face.

However, across the road about a hundred meters away one of the retail chains’ outlet has a few customers but strangely none of them are actually looking happy with the quality of vegetables that they are getting and one can see a few disgruntled faces including those of employees. They still do not have an answer for why the store still does not have soya sauce for the last 3 weeks. And, “Sir, please come between 7 and 8.30 AM in the morning if you want a choice of fresh vegetables!” does not help either. This Store was set up a few years back when the retail onslaught began. The Branding attracted a lot of people and Singh did lose a lot of clients. The shopping experience at this retail outlet was far superior to that of Singh’s cluttered store back then. And what the heck, you could buy vegetables as well in these new places! But slowly absence of merchandise began to tick the consumers who had never stood in queues to pay for what they had purchased and were used to Free Home Deliveries. So some of the consumers chose to buy tit bits from Singh and they would do serious shopping at the Retail chain store. It did make sense after all it was a tad cheaper than Singh’s store and Singh was not known for offering discounts without being pursued!

Next to this outlet is a telecom retail shop that appears to favor Nokia and Blackberry but sells Samsung, LG and all other mobile phone brands you could think of apart from selling mobile prepaid cards, post paid connections and a host of other telecom related products and services. This business used to be run from two shops earlier, one was an exclusive Telecom Service Provider Store and the other was a leading mobile handset company exclusive dealership. Both these were owned by DJ, a short and fair Sikh. Always color coordinated, stylish and flamboyant, DJ loves big cars and perhaps would have been a film star had his height not been an impediment. DJ is an energetic feller always looking at closing deals and you will find him mostly on his phone trying to crack some deal or the other. He does not mind dabbling in a bit of property dealing once in a while and is quite clearly a survivor. He is also what you’d call a true pitch man who is most excited when he sells solutions to you. However when he is negotiating the final prices pre-purchase, do not be fooled by his helpless indifference. It’s just a ploy that he has perfected to disarm the customer and that look always comes only when he knows that he has hit the home run while making the pitch.

However, like any other businessman DJ too has seen ups and downs in the past. He was thrown out of the TSP dealership for voicing concerns against the management and ‘taking it a bit too far’ when he got ‘personal’ without realizing it. The middle management of the TSP took offence and did the rest rather easily, mechanically and ruthlessly. After all, they had to set an example to the other franchisees.

DJ stayed upset and clueless for many moons. Of course it did help that he had vacated his main shop that ran the Handset business and rented it to a larger corporation in a similar multi-brand handset business. The margins of the handsets were going down and the competition was breathing down his neck. At the same time, the company was in no mood to review profits of DJ and the other exclusive shop owners. So a few months before the TSP episode and understandably he gave up his own lucrative hand set business and settled for a well paying rental with a national mobile handset multi-brand retailer.

This was perhaps also one of the contributing reasons of his over confidence in dealing with the TSP’s Management.  “What the heck? Let them go away. Soon they will realize their folly as it’s their loss as well and they will come back to me. I’ll make good those earnings within a few months with the new rental flows! And next year the rentals will go up by the agreed 10%”, he had thought to himself.

He was satisfied with the supplemental income from the high rentals the other Mobile Phone store was paying out. Satisfied until that fateful day a few weeks later when he received a notice from the new lessee demanding that either he lowered the rental by 25% in line with the recessionary rental trends or they would have to serve a termination notice and take up one of the now many options available including Mr. Singh’s neighbor. Also almost weirdly coinciding with this, the handset brand that DJ had folded up his business with, finally increased the margins of the exclusive stores by a whopping net 8% as the company realized that the trend that DJ started could create an unmanageable situation for them in the near future. DJ felt indignant but there was little he could do to mend the situation.

A few kilometers towards South Extension from Kalkaji and opposite to the posh Greater Kailash area lays the neighborhood of East of Kailash where three retail chain outlets opened up within an area of 2.5 square kilometers about 3 years back. And why not, this area has the potential of addressing, EOK, GK I, CR Park and Kailash colony that would be an estimated 30,000 affluent families. These were stores which are well planned and their merchandise carefully selected and displayed according to the audience they address. They were also backed by adequate financial resources and were gung-ho about their ability to wipe out the local competition and capture the markets with ease and élan. After all what could a motley crew of retailers who pardon me, but could not ‘tell the difference between their rears and elbows’ when it came to retailing, do to stop them from gobbling up this delicious and creamy piece of cake?

So predictably, of course in a very Black Swan kind of way, one of these is closed as the chain is out of business. Another is barely limping and does not know if it got hit by a lightning and its most loyal consumers do visit once a week to ensure that the store is still not stocked. But the steady supply of these actively loyal consumers is dwindling by the dozen. Who knows, by the time you get to read this the shop would have become a mere statistic! So Wisdom is slowly but surely creeping up on this one! The third one is doing rather well and its staff is high on morale and the store is well stocked. But they have gone through their private hell in between years one and two. However even as of now, you will have to wait for that elusive soya sauce here as well and if you do want your vegetables fresh, being a morning person will certainly help!

Quite clearly Bhasin realizes the trends of the market rather well and if you scan his simplistic but adequately and unobtrusively lighted display with a retailer’s eyes, you can clearly make out that about 70% of the stuff he sells is safe, meaning they are fast movers, value for money and classics. About 25% of the merchandize could qualify to be premium but still safe to stock as they should be relatively easy to sell. The balance 5% is clearly aspirational and is expensive but I’m certain that he sells these off as well. Here is a guy who understands the importance of stocks and the investments behind them. I do not know for sure but I do not think he has ever used any Bank finance. He is a person who follows the trends in the market well, not through formal market research but by talking to and observing his customers and understanding their needs. I suppose that is how he selects the upper end of his merchandise.

A lady walks in to Bhasin’s store as I watch from a few feet away. Instantly, his smile gets warmer and he welcomes the lady eagerly and asks about how she is doing. Clearly encouraged by his convivial approach, she says with a smile, “Just looking for a nice vacuum flask that can hold water cold for longer hours.” He surprises me by saying, “Do you want it for your daughter? How’s her new job coming along?” The lady nods in the affirmative, proceeds to discuss the new job and then rest of the conversation almost as if by default veers on to the damned heat in Delhi, an excellent backdrop when one is intent on selling a vacuum flask.

When she can’t quite make her mind up, he simply tells her that the stainless steel one is better according to him for purely aesthetic reasons and she could do well pick up the plastic body as that also has steel inside. She asks if there is a better one available with him and he light heartedly informs her that she may have to walk across the street to the Jewelers to find a better one. They share a laugh while I watch with rapt attention this master pitchman in action. Then he goes this one step further, he offers that she could take both the models home and show to her daughter and make the choice and he would have the other one collected by the shop boy whenever she was done. Expectedly he closes the sale of the steel vacuum flask with a generous smile and the lady walks out content with and flaunting her proud purchase.  

Incidentally, the 2 liter stainless steel flask that the lady took was priced at Rs.1200 and she got a special price of Rs.940 after a huge 20% discount which was hers without asking. The plastic covered one liter variety that she did not take is priced at Rs.286 and after discount could have been hers for Rs.228.

In contrast, I have seldom seen Singh or his brother ever vacate the cash counter. I have never seen them make any direct pitch to the Customer. It does not surprise me as theirs is a grocery store which stocks FMCG. But with the competition around, I would have thought he would do well to move around the shop and mix with the customers and maybe make a pitch or two every now and then. But opinions can beat a hasty retreat when confronted with brutal facts. And the fact is that Singh does some brisk business. While I think of how he does it, in walks a group of 3 exasperated young ladies looking for Chocó pies- 50 packets of them. Now no retailer worth his chocolate will ever stock 50 packets of this item, well, definitely not the chain outlets as one can make out of their animated conversation! He says that he can organize the said quantity in an hour and he would be happy to deliver them where they want, provided they were to make some the payment in advance right now. So out walk 3 happy ladies and Mr. Singh after counting and pocketing the cash makes an urgent call to the local distributor asking him to make a rather important delivery against immediate cash payment. And sure enough, the transaction is completed to every one’s satisfaction.

Momo seller Ram Bahadur greets me with a warm smile and asks if I would like to eat there or would prefer a take away. I ask for a takeaway of 5 portions of chicken Momos and he gives me an apologetic look, mutters something about waiting a minute and sprints across the street and collects a few packets of momos from the seller on the opposite side. I glance at my watch and see that it’s barely 7 PM and he is already out of chicken momos. I watch him with marvel as he negotiates the haphazardly dangerous traffic with practiced ease of a Cheetah making its way through the hordes of buffaloes focusing on that solitary prey but at some level not unmindful of the others around and subconsciously avoiding any unwanted collisions. While he is on his mini traffic safari, I try to see what equipment support this small entrepreneur has. He is fully equipped with a gas cylinder which is clearly not marked for commercial use and a tiny two layered wooden shelve that houses some tomato dip packets and some more in a container. On the upper shelf, is a tiny gas stove on which rests a steamer where he makes his Momos! I ask him how well he knows the other guy and was it a regular practice to borrow from each other. He proudly smiles and says all the 4 vends a few hundred meters apart are owned by him and all those people are his relatives. Now, that’s one smart move! Apart from being popular by providing employment to his relatives, Ram Bahadur also captures that tiny customer base in the area that he monopolizes!

Years ago when Momos had just about made an entry into Delhi’s otherwise fiery cuisine, you could find them in Chanakya Cinema, Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar and University area markets and this was primarily the domain of Tibetan and Nepalese inhabitants of Delhi who did look every bit authentic while dispensing these delights. Nobody would have thought that the bland item would ever be a success story in New Delhi. And not surprisingly, the Momos didn’t really take off for a few years. So what tipped it for the Momos? Initially the Momos were offered with a bland soup- almost tasting like boiled rice water which was a little salty, and perhaps it was spiked with some chicken stock as well!

Soon some of the Momo vendors realized the issue and introduced a really fiery chilly tomato dip, served with the Momos and out went the bland soup. This worked wonders! Delhi took on to the unique taste that the momos offered. The momos’ primary taste had a high degree of the Umami because of the Chicken and the MSG, but now, there was an option of managing just how fiery or bitter or Plain you wanted it to be as you could choose the quantity of the tomato based chilly dip that also partly enhanced and partly contrasted the Umami. A bit of salt and pepper added zest and Delhi was eating it’s momos like never before and the otherwise edgy Delhites would patiently wait for their turns to place the order. And most of the Momo shops would close down early because they would run out of stocks. This also added to their equity by creating a tiny demand supply gap which prompted consumers to make quicker purchases after they had missed the bus a few times.

While the momos were made popular by youngsters and couples who wanted to have a good time without feeling the pinch in their pockets, the habitual alcoholics also found Momos to be perfectly packaged and easy to ingest. They could now have their fill without messing their hands and the interiors of the car, where they routinely imbibed their daily poison, either while parked in discreet dark corners or while driving home in the evenings. In fact it blended pretty well with the alcoholics who are perhaps single handedly responsible for a lot of success stories for these small food outlets of Delhi who churn extremely spicy and chilly food. If I were to judge the taste of most of what these sell, I would rate them just about ordinary and in many cases sub standard.

Picture the context of joint families that are vegetarian and wherein our intoxicated friends do not wish to be caught or questioned about either meat or alcohol, before we closely inspect the drinking habits of the typical Delhi alcoholic. One will note that they always approach the food stalls usually after they have had a few quick drinks at the first instance after they leave office. With this assault of the quick alcohol swigs their taste buds are suitably numbed and the only taste that they can perhaps taste is the extreme spice and chilly. Most of the small street food vendors understand and comply with the requirements and as a result all other tastes are completely drowned in chilly and bitter. The extreme chilly and spices also help mask the odor of the leftover food which suits these small vendors fine. The alcoholic after a few drinks is generally satisfied, hungry and in an obvious hurry to get back home in time for dinner; so that the family does not complain. He does not mind much as long as the food is cheap and quick.

Now because the larger consumers for most street food in Delhi comprised of the alcoholics, the rest are also forced to eat the chilly, spicy and messy food. Young couples did not quite find it very comfortable to have this food as a quick snack as well. And who wants to have messed hands when you are enroute to say a movie and you do not have the luxury of soaps and wash basins around you to clean the grease. Also remember those days hand sanitizers were not prevalent at all. Think of the parents whose young kids would not eat spicy food and the parents would feel guilty at not being able to share the same with the kids, besides having to locate suitable food for them.

The Momos empowered them to control and play with the taste. You could play with the tastes and could make it range right from bland to fiery; depending upon the amount of dip you scooped up with your Momo. And since the Momo vends were selling all that they could produce, the stuff was fresh and prepared daily which however was not a guarantee with the other food vendors.

Another peculiar feature that developed along was the advent of unscrupulous Momo vends who would make the covering big but the filling inside would be conspicuously lesser. Some of the shrewder ones substituted a percentage of the chicken with pork fat that gave volume and softness to the momos at the expense of the taste and they would be made at a lesser cost and most consumers would not notice. Unfortunately this is true in a lot of vends today also. Despite these nasty lots, momos still took off because of the inherent advantages. And then came forward the enterprising lot and Momos were all set to rule the roost as the most popular fast food in Delhi.

Bhasin was once visited by an ageing smart and obviously prosperous lady who looked pretty confident and spoke with a certain authority that you are supposed to listen to, understand and comply. She wanted to buy a gift which would cost around Rs. 250 only. Bhasin could sense a dichotomy; after all, the lady did look affluent to buy such an inexpensive a gift. Nevertheless, as usual Bhasin made sure that he found something to interest her. The result, an order for 200 pieces at Rs.250 each amounting to Rs.50000. Soon a uniformed chauffeur drove to the shop entrance, in a smart BMW and they drove away after paying the full amount and leaving her mobile phone number and an instruction to Bhasin to hand over the merchandise when the driver came in later. This was of course complied with and the sale was closed to everyone’s satisfaction. The lady then kept dropping in more often and picking up stuff for her own, mind you the best variety and in the process they became familiar with each other.

A few months after the first big purchase, in walked the lady again, and Bhasin had more information about the lady this time and was very happy to see her as she had come in to purchase Diwali gifts. So the sale amounted to Rs.125000 this time and similar instructions were given to him and the driver came and collected the stuff the next day after they were gift wrapped. The tiny difference this time around was that the payment had not been made and no mention was made for the same. A week later Bhasin panicked at realizing, “I only have the lady’s mobile number! I do not know where she stays and what if she simply switched off her mobile?! Or worse, if the number were a fake!? That’d surely qualify as a disaster!”

With Diwali merely a day away, he decided to call her and wish her on the D-day. She promptly picked up the phone and they greeted each other on the festival. After some small talk, Bhasin did not bring up the payments and they disconnected. The next day morning, the chauffeur stepped in to Bhasin’s shop and hander over a gift wrapped package and a box of sweets. After he left, Bhasin opened the gift to be amazed by what he saw; a set of four tall fine-looking pure silver glasses arranged in a beautiful box lined with blue velvet! And needless to say that the sweets were the best money could buy in New Delhi. But, there was still no discussion on the money. Bhasin mentally set a date for early next week when he would discuss the payments. He had a cost of capital to contend with as well. Of course he did give her a call to thank her for the lovely gift.

Next morning, as soon as he had opened his shop and had barely got attuned to the morning he saw the chauffeur walking in with a packet. He handed the packet over to Bhasin and asked him to speak with Madam. The lady said she was not sure of the amount so she had sent a round figure, so he should just take the money and they could do the accounting later. After the Chauffeur had left, Bhasin opened the packet and to his surprise the amount was a few thousand extra!

One thing that was eating him away was that why did the lady not send the payment the day before when the chauffeur had come in to deliver the gift. Obviously it had nothing to do with availability of cash or sensitivity to it- after all hadn’t she sent the extra few thousand?! And he did feel a tad guilty about receiving a gift from her, when as per the accepted New Delhi norms on account of being a vendor he should have been the one to send a gift across. So he called her and told her about the extra money and asked how he could return it to her at the soonest and for the first time asked her address. She said,” There is no hurry Bhasin! Do not come to return the cash, I’ll have it collected.” and proceeded to give him the address anyway- a fairly posh neighborhood in South Delhi. Sure enough the chauffeur dropped in and collected the extra a few days later.

Soon it was Christmas and Bhasin saw an opportunity of absolving himself of his guilt on the gift he had received. So precisely a day before Christmas he landed at the lady’s address and saw a sprawling modern house built in a thousand square yards on the main road in the posh neighborhood. The guards ushered him in and he was welcomed by the lady who called in her grand children and introduced him and they wished him and acted as if they knew him. Then she called for her daughter in law and when she had arrived, she said laughing out and much to the young lady’s embarrassment, “This is Mr. Bhasin from the Crockery shop! Remember our little wager that you lost when you bet that he would surely ask for the money before Diwali. Well, Mr. Bhasin, now you know why I delayed the payment!” Bhasin couldn’t help but notice the twinkle in her eyes. Bhasin also learnt that day that the lady was the Founder and CEO for an IT company which employed over 300 people.

A few months later after an unsuccessful attempt at start an ice-cream parlor in the shop vacated by the TSP, DJ realized that his competence was telecom and services and shifted his ice-cream business after substantially downsizing it to a 300 sq. ft basement shop that he owned and that was left over from the rented premises and that he used for as a miscellaneous storage. He then started a combined multi-brand shop for telecom handsets and services. Soon, his regular customers started to come back. Today he is a happy man after having consolidated his businesses into one shop and renting out the other, so he has lesser work to do, his revenues have gone up and so has his profitability. He has also subsequently palmed off his ice-cream business to his brother.

Singh, on the other hand is fairly satisfied with the performance of his new store and now passes discounts (which was unheard of in his last avatar) to consumers who are loyal to him to the extent he can. For Bhasin, it is profitable business as usual. Ram Bahadur, our mini capitalist, suitable backed by a robust supply chain has added three more vends in the nearby markets and is getting more popular amongst his newly employed relatives.

 The success of Momos in New Delhi inspired many entrepreneurs to join the Momo business and some of them decided to tweak it into a wholesale model. A few of these unknown small businessmen started mass production of Momos and started selling them to existing vends. They also created further distribution by encouraging more people to start vending Momos. So the vends get precooked momos in the afternoons in packed containers as per their orders that are booked the previous evenings and all they have to do is put up their steamers, steam the momos and sell them along with the dip that is also supplied by the manufacturer. Needless to say that this resulted in the same taste across majority of Momo vends across the city and a uniform low pricing! Of course there are vends that sell momos cooked individually, some are good and some downright bad. But that’s clearly a diminishing tribe.

Organized businesses can perhaps, despite the best CRM, not create an environment that Bhasin can with one smile! Bhasin has a lot of other tricks in his repertory. He has great opening skills and is super at ice breaking. He truly knows his customers and has built engaging relationships with them over many years. He uses mirroring to the fullest; remember when he offers to the customer that they can take the merchandise home and take a decision later, he is in fact showing them that he trusts them completely and they subliminally reciprocate the same and end up completely trusting him. His body language of a person ready to serve you completely also adds to the mirroring effect by making the prospect more malleable to his pitch.  Bhasin is extremely good at drawing parallels and benchmarking products that he is selling with similar products. Bhasin realizes that he is not selling a product but actually delivering an experience while creating a solution for the customer. That would explain the quality time he spends with each customer personally. The fact that he is not financed by any bank or financial institution lends him the independence to take his own decisions and he is always watching his cash flows and stocks with a hawk’s eyes.

Retail chains can never be so agile in booking orders and changing the normal rules in obtaining the merchandise on demand like Singh. Normally when he would order the Chocó pies, he would ask for a trade credit. But he knew that the distributor would realize his predicament and that there was no reason to play around given the time was a constraint, he just changed the set of usual rules to procure merchandise to close the sale. Singh also learned to keep a step ahead of the chain stores that encourage self service by duplicating the ambience of these stores and trying to create a similar perception of his store, except that he employed helpers who would pick and carry your stuff while you walked and shopped around the shop. He adapted to the trend of offering discounts to the consumers in line with the retail chain stores and hence countering that one advantage that they had over him. By adding on services like home delivery, carrying goods till the car he has managed to differentiate on service and enhance his reputation. So in effect he has created a departmental store look and feel but retained the convenience shopping concept! Such adaptability ensures survival even in tough times.

Can the best run retail chains be as tactical as DJ to the business response and can they think of taking risks like he does? Do they know at what point to withdraw? I am reminded of an experimental game designed by ­­­­­­­­J. Keith Murnighan of Kellogg School of Management and introduced to me by Prof. Neil Bearden of INSEAD, where an auction scenario was created and people bid for a $20 bill. The bids require an increase by a dollar each time. The bids start at $ 1 and go rapidly through $2, 3, 4 etc., but things slowed down when the bids of $15-16 were achieved and only two people were left bidding. After a long pause at $ 20, the bid incremented to $ 21, 22, 23….and reached $ 70. And the bidding group was neither bidding for charity nor were the participants insane. There was this small tweak to the auction that the top two bidders both pay what they bid but only the top bidder gets to keep the $20 bill. The Bargaining Seminars conducted by Prof. Murnighan for top executives has groups regularly bidding over $ 50 and sometimes over $ 100.  The point I’m making here is that all of us make irrational decisions in our lives and businesses. The smartness is in realizing early like DJ and moving out of this vicious trap and not committing oneself to Hubris to support those irrational decisions, which is the reason behind many a fallen organizations.

Many will argue, why are we comparing Apples and Oranges? Precisely because these Apples have to compete with Oranges for wallet share in the market place which can be so mean and unforgiving! Ask the chain that went out of business!!

I would like to view the context similar to the Romans and the Gauls in the famous comics’ series of Asterix, where the little village that holds out against the Romans is our very own Indian retail. And they have not one but a potent combination of many potions!