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Inox mall was situated very near to Pune railway station. It was a small, but a well known mall, and was a prime hangout joint for most of the student population and young crowd. The mall was situated around 50 meters away from the main road. A small connecting road from the main road was linked towards the mall entrance. It was just opposite a vacant huge piece of land which was closely guarded by a fence and a locked gate. There were huge trees covering partially the face of the mall. To the right of the mall was a well known five star hotel. The glass façade of the mall was huge, and the exterior of the mall was also very elegant to see, especially at night when it used to be illuminated with halogen lamps and blue spot lights. It was a very well maintained mall, with marble polished floor tiles and escalators on both sides to move up if one wanted to go up to watch a movie, as this mall consisted of three screen multiplex. The crowd puller was the multiplex which used to screen all the latest hit Hindi and English movies. As you enter the mall a small atrium is located, again with white smooth shining floor tiles, wherein one could look at his image clearly. To the right side was Mc’ Donald’s and to the left side was Barista, the coffee shop. Pantaloons store was situated just in the middle. It was a one storied complete shop consisting of Men’s-wear, Ladies-wear and Kids apparels. It was a very attractive shop with elegant interiors. As compared to Big Bazaar where the flooring was made of normal basic grey tiles, here the flooring was made of marble tiles which gave a very elegant look to the overall store. The fixtures used here were also very elegant especially, the shelves which were made mostly of glass, as compared to the wooden shelves used in Big Bazaar. The gondolas and browsers were also made of stainless steel material. The spot lights used here gave the store a very bright look. Overall the store was looking fabulous and stood out separately from the rest of the two neighbouring stores inside the mall. The front portion of the store was entirely made of glass wall panel, with beautiful display of the latest collections dressed on the mannequins placed on the window panels just besides the entrance to the store. The store had three entrances with huge glass doors with heavy silver metal borders. The main door at the centre was kept open for customers to walk in while the other two doors were kept closed. As you enter the store from this door just to the right side the two main cash counters were situated. Attached to itself was the customer service desk. To the left side the cosmetics and perfume counters were situated. Behind this counter was the kids section. As you turn towards the kids section to its right side was the ladies casuals section. Between the kids section and the ladies casuals section there was a door which was the entrance to the back office and the stock room. The men’s casual section occupied around forty percent of the entire store area. It was situated just in front of the store as you enter and extended to the right side completely. The area behind the cash counter was utilised by the men’s formal wear section. To the left side of the men’s casual section as one enters the store the ladies formal wear section was situated which extended further down to link with the ladies casual section.

The store had twenty one employees with two Department managers and three Assistant department managers initially. Vishal, one of the DM’s was in charge of the ladies and kids department. Vishal had a good physique, well built shoulders and broad eyes. He was a very active staff and was ever ready to take up any job assigned. He personally took care of the visual merchandising and marketing of the store. Vinod, was in charge of the men’s department. Being a veteran in the store he knew in and out about the store. He also was very efficient and smart when it came to all security matters and loss prevention activities within the store. Both were equally responsible for the cash counters, and other store operational activities. Vinay, a short man with curly rough hair was in-charge of the warehouse. He was very efficient in his role. He was very particular about all the activities related to the warehouse and assured that any material movements from the warehouse to the shop floor or to the central warehouse takes place under his nose. He used to not allow anyone to take a call related to warehouse as he felt only he could handle it very systematically, and was worried that others would disturb all the good process he had created within the warehouse.

Within few days I got to know all the staffs and also the store thoroughly. As Sadashiv had updated me about this store my main priority was to list out the various reasons for the store’s current performance. I was not happy with the layout of the store and the way it was merchandised. The staffs were also not very motivated, and did not seem to involve in their jobs. The department managers were not seen leading the team and were used to following instructions given to them from the category team at head office. They used to not take any initiatives related to improving the lay-out of the store and merchandising the store. The various day to day operational processes also had to be changed.

The store used to open daily at eleven in the morning and close for trading at nine in the evening. This it self was a concern for me because the mall used to open for business early in the morning at nine for the first show. Even Barista and McDonald used to open for trading by ten in the morning. There were a good number of customer walk-ins to the mall in the morning. Even in the evenings after nine there still used to be lot of customers inside the mall as the last show used to be at eleven in the evening.