|
 If someone cares to compile a left-hand dictionary of the curious words that are in currency in the Chennaite's active vocabulary, one can for sure find the entry 'Spencer rate' in it and the definition would read,' high and unaffordable prices for ordinary items.' Interestingly, and quite intriguingly too, the crowd with which its corridors, escalators and the area that surrounds the complex is large enough to cause a traffic jam at any given point of time.
 One is naturally tempted to think that the shops in the Spencer Plaza are doing a raging business despite the price tag that is strong enough to push the customer who takes one step forwards, three steps backwards. Here came our friend
Baghiradhi. She is so very fond of frequenting the corridors of Spencer Plaza along with her grandma. She comes in style in her car at 5.00 pm sharp on all days of the week - excepting on Saturdays and Sundays when the crowd is extraordinarily high - parks her car, picks up a pack of popcorn and a bottle of Pepsi and wanders around up and down aimlessly till about 8.00 pm. This is her routine. Window-shopping, is what you would call it. But she does buy something like a T-shirt or a few cosmetics occasionally. 'Anything more than that would cause a hole in your wallet,' she laughs. Mind you, she comes in a car and obviously belongs to the upper middleclass.
 Yusuff owns a shop measuring 8' by 8' where he sells leather goods, in the Plaza. He pays a rent of Rs.5,000/- for this shop, the size of a child's nostrils. 'My monthly revenue is not sufficient even to enable me to pay the rent,' laments
Yusuff. 'I am compelled to collect a higher price from the customer - if at all he decides to buy from my shop. That is the only way that I can get some decent income,' he says.
 'It is only during October-November and on festive seasons that we are able to earn something decent,' he continues. 'Tourists and college students are among our major clientele and none can expect that they would be visiting our shops regularly for purchases. We are fully aware that the high-prices are a deterrent that keeps the prospective customers away. But we have no other go. Apart from astronomical rent that we have to pay, there are the maintenance charges and other expenses that push our running cost much higher. Only if the administration comes forward to reduce the rent will we be able to reduce the prices and earn a decent amount.'
 But the crowd that throngs the complex is extraordinary and a quick survey soon revealed the truth. Most of the people come there to spend their evenings, enjoying the ambience rather than for shopping. Some of them suddenly walk into the shops, pick up this item and that, rummage through the wares and walk away, purchasing nothing. 'They turn the shop upside down,' lamented
Alim, who owns a readymade garments showroom. 'We are fully aware that they wouldn't buy a thing. But nevertheless we can't say anything. After pulling a whole showcase down, they would walk coolly out without buying a single item, wearing our patience out.'
 That it has become an everyday occurrence has spoilt the mood of the vendors who in most cases maintain a nonchalant attitude. 'I know you are not going to buy. This is the price. Buy if you wish or simply walk out,' is what their tones suggest when they answer the customers. High prices and no respect of the customers combine to create ambience of another kind. The interior decoration and the grand get up of Spencer Plaza helps to pull a very big crowd to it. But unfortunately, the crowd stops satisfied with window-shopping.
Keep
Reading
|
