Over the past few years, I have tried to devote a day in each week to my family. It gets difficult often, but I have tried hard to do that.
Usually, we either go out for a long drive, or head out to a mall for a day of unrestrained fun. Or it is a mix of the two. For me personally, going to a mall is very enjoyable, as I observe everything carefully, and try validating it with my personal management learnings.
So today we were at a mall, and had a great time. Some observations, learnings & ruminations
- The mall-culture is a parallel culture that's strongly getting embedded in lives of a significant percentage of our urban population. It's about glitz, glamour, people, warmth and retail-therapy.
- India is surely a nation of the young. At least 60% plus of the crowd one sees at a big mall in a city is of the age-group 15-35 years.
The "acceptable" mores in society, especially for women, seem to have evolved substantially. There is a lot of visible freedom for women. Good news.- Lots of young people are taking lots of things for granted. For me, these constitute novelty. When I was 15, the best we had in Indore was a '56 Shops' (string of eating-out joints and miscellany) and that too was considered too modern for boys of my age to visit frequently! How times have changed.*
- What's fun for us, is tiresome for many. The tens of parking staff and security guards in the basement minus two level parking have a harrowing task spending the whole day without natural sunlight or maybe even a view of the outside for many hours straight. Even the air is not good to breathe (fumes, oh deadly vehicle fumes). We surely are lucky to have job-descriptions qualitatively better than that.
- The shiniest of branded stores often hide odious truths behind the glitzy facade. The staff room of one such big home shopping brands I visited was dungeon-like and dirty, & that must make the staff feel like they are in a ghetto. Maybe management does not want staff to spend a lot of time during lunch. But this is hardly the way to treat them. Use the simple acid test : the MD of the company must be able to use the staff toilet that he allots his people.**
- There are citizens from all strata of society who visit. I am sure children drive their parents most of the times. I really appreciate the grace with which several parents manage and control the never-ending and costly demands of their children at such places. It's an education.
- High value purchases are generally rarer than they ought to be, to sustain a drama like the high-street malls. Many brands learn this fast, and evolve variants to suit local tastes, to drive traffic.
- Games constitute a big draw for the young. Lots of spending happens in the GameZones.***
- Fast food is the way to go. Interestingly, lot of the taste across menus is driven by common elements (almost the same spices and butter, etc.)
- People do not wash hands or mouth after meals at such locations! Very few go to the washrooms.
- There is almost no discipline while using the Lift. Those who push hard and brash, get the pride of place. Unless a Q-manager is forced on people, there is no queue ever. As a society, we need to learn these manners fast.
- Movies are such a big draw! And there are so many nicely crafted and interesting movies being made now-a-days. Indian cinema has truly come of age.
- Lots of cross promotions happen. You can win more ice-creams than you can eat, if you play well in the GameZone.
- The Mall Promoters must be perpetually thinking of "drive consumtion harder, harder". At times, I truly find that amazing. We have seen the American consumer now thinking seriously of reversing her spending habits. What happens here will be interesting to watch.
- Malls are generally not child-friendly (just visit the washrooms to understand what I mean).
- I often find people who find me, and want to strike a conversation (maybe to get some business interest served). Despite clear signals, they do not understand that a mall is not the best place to pursue someone who is with the family, and not in a mood to talk business with almost strangers. Today some NLP trainer found me and despite my repeated insistence that he mail me, he persisted and sent his business card to my mobile (for which I had to volunteer my number). Guess what I did with that sms!
* the jaded-youth-syndrome of the West will surely hit the youth in India too. When too much luxury and choice is apparently within reach, the mind just gives way.
** at my office and campus locations, senior staff are instructed to ensure neatness and cleanliness in toilets. We succeed often. At least we sincerely try.
*** Alongwith my son, I have steadily practised PaintBall shooting, Bowling, Net Cricket and Mini BasketBall over past few weeks. We win lots of bonus overs and ice-creams now! Performance is at an all-time high :)
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9 comments:
Sir,
This was an interesting article to read,i can surely relate myself with this article,but one thing i am still not able to understand why malls are not child friendly as i have visited malls washroom and i was not able to validate this point
please if you can clearify me this point.
thanks Manoj for reading. Well, this whole concept of design that's demographic-friendly is new to India.
For a child, it is important to have smaller basins, at lower heights, and other facilities also scaled down. Practically, if a child is without parents (while using the washrooms), she/he needs to really be good at it to manage it. Just try visiting a washroom/restroom at a good pre-school or junior school to see what I mean.
Respected Sir,
The malls have indeed changed our lifestyles which was simple,but then everything changes with change of time,today i saw you at Treasure island mall where you were playing bowling with your kids and i saw they were really happy,can you please tell me that after a certain phase in life do we seek our happiness in making others happy.
Sir,
I must say that it's a very minute and fact observation.Even I also made few but same observations in the mall.
Good morning Sir,
It was amazingly inspiring to read such penetrating observations which seem to flow in all directions from rays-like structure emnating from you.
I went to Treasure Island today, for a short span of time and returned with a bag of assorted thoughts:
How would it feel to stand at the entrance for 12 hours, checking the bag of every lady who foots in?
How does it feel to stand there with a pile of forms and convince every person to register for Tata crucible Business Quiz?
What will happen if an elderly woman who can't judge where to place the foot on the escalator, loses balance? ( Where was the guard?)
Why do customer care executives have scarce knowledge of what the store sells?
How wonderful it would be to rise in limitness of needs, like thin water strings of the fountain!
Looking down at hair on floor while having a hair cut, I thought what is it that we tend for months and years and then let go in a minute?
...and suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by the chuckle of a little girl.
The radiance of malls is clearly reflected on the faces of children.
A mall, is indeed, an experience, heterogeneous in nature, but relevant only to that particular stage at which it happens. I still have childhood memories of spending holidays amid Nature. What I remember about malls after coming back, is, the beautiful decore, the fragrance of coffee beans and freshly baked bread.
Thank you Sir
Sincere regards,
Proton Nidhi Agarwal
While the death of sport in urban India preceded the mushrooming of the malls and has nothing to do with it, it still offers an interesting contrast in the evolution of social activities.
Another thing that strikes me about malls in Gurgaon is how slow they have been to adjust their offerings to target the real middle class (or the "middle-minus class" - I read this term somewhere last week and liked it). Since 2007 I have been seeing in one shop window a small simple 15 inch white plastic/resin chandelier-type light fixture imported from Europe... selling for Rs. 35,000!! I think it will still be there in 2011.
thanks Anurag, Abhishek, Nidhi, and Manas for reading.
Well, making others' happy is surely part of what makes us happy, but with our own kids, it assumes a special meaning. There are values and principles only parents can teach their children. Playing with them is the best way of teaching them simple things.
Nidhi, try your hand at poetry, you seem to be good at it.
Manans, my vote is for 2015.
Good morning Sir,
Thank you for reading the thoughts and also for the advice 'trying hand at poetry.'
Sir, I have written in past a few poetry, with the most recent one recited during 14th August celebrations.
Sincere regards
Proton Nidhi Agarwal
Respected Sir,
Your this post shows that how the things are changing.The concept of malls is contributing to the retail market to a greater extend.
What i feel is the malls are for the people.The glitz is by the people .But people are not taking it as their own property.We can see many activities around which are ruining the culture of mall.The perception never changes and is the case with few people.
One more thing I learnt from this post is how to analyse, notice the things around you and come up with specific points.
Thanks Sir.
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