CONT'D...

What is the day to day activity that generates inside a retail store apart from selling? Many assume inside a retail store you only need to sell merchandise to a customer who enters your store. Is there anything more into it? If yes what is it? Sometimes I feel it’s suspense to a layman and I need to open this Pandora’s Box to them. There are many things that a person needs to know and understand about retail store operations. If you’ll open the box you will find inside it various activities like selling, customer service, warehousing, systems, sop’s, security, merchandising, layouts, stock take, cashiering, stock planning, placing fixtures, human resources functioning, report generation, schemes, events, housekeeping, target planning, end of season sale, buying, negotiating, servicing, managing people, the list is endless. Imagine so many activities under one roof. This it-self makes operation more interesting. Let’s take every aspect one by one to understand each activity more clearly.

One needs to first and foremost understand the format of the store, whether it’s a lifestyle format or a value format. In a lifestyle format to ensure quality service the ambience within the store is very pleasant, all the merchandise is well placed, and quality of merchandise is maintained, availability is not in abundance, the visuals are very specific to the concept of merchandise, the sales associates are provided with the skills required to assist customers, infrastructure within the store is beautiful. To maintain these service standards the price of merchandise available here is high. Discounts are not available at such stores often, except during an end of season sale or clearance sale. All departmental stores are lifestyle formats. Compared to this a value format store is similar to a supermarket where the ambience is similar to a market. Here the availability of merchandise is in abundant and at all times they are either put on discounts or some offer or scheme is available. Hence service provided is compromised. The infrastructure is very simple and not similar to the one within a lifestyle format. Personal customer assistance is not ensured, merchandise displayed will not be very expensive and of high range quality. Basically value formats target volume business and for the mass.

I had received an interview call from Pantaloons. Their corporate office is situated in Jogeshwari, near Majas bus depot. It was situated in an area surrounded with lots of huge trees. Those days it was termed The Knowledge House. It is a huge building with glass façade facing the entrance. As you enter the office the reception counter is situated just in front. To its right at one corner is a very beautiful idol of Lord Ganesh, neatly seated and well decorated. Near to it was the seating lounge. All around on the walls were various inspirational quotes, the vision and mission of the company neatly and colourfully displayed. The receptionist directed me to the first floor where I was to meet Rakesh Biyani and Nikhil. RB was one of the directors of Pantaloons and also was a cousin of Kishore Biyani. Compared to KB he was very fair in complexion and soft spoken. Nikhil was a short man with an average height, a bit stout and carrying a French beard. My interview went fine. They gave me an option to either join Pantaloons in Ahmedabad or Big Bazaar at Lower Parel situated in south Mumbai. I preferred to be in Mumbai as I was not keen to go to Ahmedabad.
My joining date was 15th August, the day India got its independence, the day observed as a national holiday, and celebrated in full swing, each citizen bringing out his patriotism to his country in full swing. I had to report at Big Bazaar-Lower Parel at 10 am in the morning.. Being a public holiday the store was completely jam packed with customers. I had no clue as to what was happening inside the store. It was a huge mall constructed on a plot where a mill used to operate earlier. Since the inception of this mall the area around thrived. More small shops and stores came into being, and gradually the entire complex was named High Street Phoenix, named after the mill. It is one of the well known malls in Mumbai. The store is approximately sixty thousand square feet in area and boasts of offering everything that a consumer needs under one roof. There was a huge rush inside the store. I had never in my life seen such a crowded store. I could literally see customers pushing each other to get in one of the sections. All the shopping trolleys were full with merchandise and were being pushed by the customers towards the cash counters. There were long queue in front of every cash counter. I could hear the loud announcements of offers and staff announcements coming out of every speaker at regular intervals. At every corner on the floor, and below every fixture that my eyes could take I could see merchandises dropped, getting either damaged or soiled. Even if I wished to, I could not do anything to save these merchandise. There was utter chaos inside this store. Being the first day in this store I somehow felt lost. Why the hell did they want me to join today? Who am I supposed to contact? Where is the back office situated? These were the many questions lingering in my mind. I somehow managed to reach the first floor. The store had one mezzanine floor apart from the first floor. To one end of the floor I noticed a small board with a message “STAFF ONLY” I assumed it was the door to the back office. I literally had to make my way to reach the other end of the floor. I noticed one security guard stationed near the door. He was a thin guy, in his twenties, wearing a greyish blue uniform, a scarf on the neck, wearing a cap which was tilted to one side, and an old worn out shoe which were not polished. When I requested him to let me in so as I can meet the HR manager he gave me a disoriented look. At first he did not understand as to who I was looking for. He then asked for my visiting card, which is a usual practise which these security guards have whenever any visitor approaches them. I feel this is a part of their mechanical training programme which is imparted to them. As I did not have one he told me to wait outside, opened the door halfway peeped inside and then looked at me once again. He then told me to go in. I was a bit surprised at his behaviour. Once inside I met Sarika, the HR executive of the store. Sarika and I eventually turned out to become good friends. She explained to me the reason for the chaos inside the store. The store had just newly opened some two months back, and everybody was still settling down. Here I had joined as an assistant store manager. As it was a busy day I did not do much on my day one in the store.