“Tea powder got over. You need to buy today” my wife
announced this last evening. If anything else, I would have postponed. Tea cannot
wait. If I don’t drink a cup of tea early in the morning, lots of stuff would
have to wait then!! So I rushed out on my bike.
My first destination was Reliance Fresh mart - not my usual
shop, to get something fresh. At the entry, the security guard gave me a dirty
look, why are you here types !!! I wanted to keep my helmet somewhere, he told
me “no place, take it inside”. It did not start ominously.
I managed to locate the shelf where tea was kept. After
going through so many items and shelves, discount boards, loyalty program
displays et al, and equally large crowd inside. Hitting inadvertently some of
them with my helmet !! But I could not find the 250gms pack there. They had
only stocked family pack – that too joint family packs – a joint family of
moderate size would take a couple of months to finish its contents. Even if all
of them are heavy tea drinkers, who consume tea five times a day!
So dejected I tried to get out of the exit door. I was
lucky. The queue waiting for billing was so long. Even if I had waited and
eventually managed to buy the tea from there, I would have definitely reached home.
But it would have been too close to my morning tea time !!
It started drizzling as I set off on my bike. So I stopped at
the very next shop on the way, though I had never done that in my life earlier.
It was a residential house, front portion converted into a provision store. That
shop looked more spacious, primarily because it had very few items to offer. A person
with below average IQ could count and memorize what all there in that shop in
20 minutes. Because of the fear of a heavy downpour on the anvil, I decided to
venture!
The shop keeper, the only person in that shop came in the
front with lots of inertia. My hunch is that, he had converted the front potion
of his house into a shop and sat there with a few items. Because he did not
have anything better to do in his life !!
Luckily he had the pack I was looking for. Close to expiry
date but still I decided to buy. MRP was rupees 102. I picked up a 100 rupee
note from my pocket and handed it over to him. He accepted it, but did not
retract his hand. He stood his ground motionless, holding his hand firm,
looking anxiously for that remaining 2 rupees. Not that I ever dreamt that he
would waive those 2 rupees off. But still, I had tried but failed. I picked up
all coins in my pocket. There was one 2 rupee coin and another two 5 rupee
coins. While accepting the 2 rupee coin, he noticed those 5 rupee coins in my
hand. “Can you give me those coins, I will give you a 10 rupee note”! he was
demanding. I gave a nasty look at him, picked up my packet and vanished from
the site after completing my first and last visit to that shop !!!
Not that all shops or shop keepers are like that – obviously
all customers are also not like me!!. But still ! I will tell you about Ganesh and his stores
- just to prove that a good shopkeeper-customer
relationship need no pre-conditions !
I go to Ganesh stores, may be once a month. To buy that lamp
wick for my wife to light the evening lamp. It costs twenty rupees and he may
get a margin of hardly 5 rupees. Don’t underestimate that he is small time fellow.
Though he has a small shop of may be 12 feet by 12 feet, but he sells pooja
items, he sells numerous things, the list is endless. And always customers will
be around him.
Ganesh would greet me with a broad smile, though there will be at
least four or five customers already in front of him. He would pick up those
wicks from nowhere within no time, among from those hundreds and hundreds of
items stacked up in every inch of that shop remaining after the space his huge
body occupies! And he would know the price of every item, he does not have to
refer anywhere, not even at the the MRP printed on the pack!
Unfortunately, Ganesh does not sell tea powder. Else, I
would have gone there to get it. Irrespective of whether it rains or not,
whether discount is there or not, whether I have exact change to tender or not.
Because Ganesh knows what a customer needs. And I know, I will never return unhappy,
whether I could buy or not something from him.
