Retail Menaces

A lady came from England and ignited Amdavadis to hit the cleanliness campaign. I shouldn’t let this hour pass without appreciating the effort from Ahmedabad Mirror and the people who gathered for the task. Bravo!

 

Let’s get more issues in light and let’s clean our own Ahmedabad thoroughly! Let’s clean the dust, rubbish, plastic, papers and importantly corruption and retail menaces. I am trying to buy an ink-pot and no joy from last few days. There are some cases I want to share!

 

Case 1

 

State Transport: Koba circle to Vadaj Terminus

 

This one is a little off the track from retail sector but it’s again about tricking the customers in a cleaner way! I was travelling from Koba circle in an ST Bus and as soon as I got on the bus, I asked for the ticket to Vadaj. Front-seated conductor released a ticket from a gadget he had for generating tickets and said, “Chhutta 7 rupiya aapo!” (Give me the change of 7 rupees!) His sentence struck me at the very moment, but I gave him Rs. 10 note believing it is a fair change I am giving and not a 100 rupees note. He said that he doesn’t have 3 rupees change.

 

Now, isn’t it ridiculous that they don’t have change for the passengers. It is their duty to keep enough change for the passengers because ad-hoc passengers wouldn’t carry the change always.

  

Case 2

 

Retailer: Vidhyarthi Book Depot, Stadium Five Roads

 

I wanted an ink pot of 60 ml. I handed over 20 rupees as the MRP was Rs. 12. Sales person said “You will have to buy a pen worth Rs. 3 because we don’t have change!”

 

I bailed out, “I don’t want to buy anything!”And got my money back! Why should I be obliged to buy something which I don’t need? And to keep and to give change is the responsibility of the retailer.

  

Case 3

 

Retailer: Krunal Stationers and Xerox, 6, Corporate House, Opp. Pakvan-2 , Judges Bungalow Road. Name: Shaileshbhai Shah (40027042/9428580125)

 

I have mentioned more details because I think everyone should know who the person is and should we really buy anything from him.

 

As I said, I am trying to buy an ink-pot and it hasn’t happened yet ideally. I sent my office help Vipul to get me this ink-pot. He got me this 60ml ink-pot and he paid Rs. 15. As you can see in the images, the MRP is covered with black marker and hand written price appears on the top (Rs. 15/-). I went back to the shop and asked why it is so? “Etla j laie chhie, amne posatu nathi!” That’s what Shaileshbhai had to say about this. So what is the need of putting an MRP on any product? 

 

It was just a matter of 3 odd rupees, but it doesn’t end there. You would definitely think, what is the fuss about just a few coins? There is a lot of fuss about it, because it begins only there. There was a young guy working in the same shop and presumably he was the son of Mr. Shah. He would follow and may use better tricks than his father. I could have paid 3 rupees more and got my ink-pot but I asked for the refund and did not buy it! It is up to you to decide how much you want to allow these people to do whatever they want. There might be more serious cases but I hope this was exemplary to understand such situations.

 

“JAAGO GRAHAK JAAGO!”

How retailers make a fool out of you!

Guns & Roses – Part 2

Roses – Immobilized Khaki

 

‘Thola’ or ‘Kaka’ – that’s what we call our traffic police officers. ‘White & Khaki’ has never been respected enough in our society. We lie, we bribe, we misuse political connections, we use names, we flee, we run away but we DO NOT obey! Exceeding traffic, increasing number of cars and also two wheelers and parking chaos are making each day tougher than the previous for the traffic department. How can we ignore the dug roads, blocked junctions, diversions and many other repair and construction work going on in city? It is becoming excruciating because these works have altered traffic patterns at many places in city since long and have not been restored to normal. It’s a nightmare! Managing these cattle on wheels is not at all an easy job anymore. There are noise, smoke, crowd and rushing vehicles from everywhere.

 

In such a situation, we are only obliged to cooperate with the self discipline as much as we can. We have to start from somewhere. The following incident is a usual one of many, which shows how stubborn and indiscipline we are! (“I insist on using ‘We’ as we all are a part of it, one way or the other. Using ‘You’ would have excluded me!”)

 

A cyclist is already standing 10 feet further from the stopping line in an evening rush hour. (“I doubt if there’s any line we, humans have left to cross be it morals, discipline, corruption, violence, conspiracies and so on.”) An irritated traffic officer, shouted at the cyclist to go back and not to move further. That obstinate cyclist shouted back and was not willing to go back by an inch. Another officer got angry seeing the rider being hostile! The officer acted furiously to send the cyclist back and tried to deflate cycle’s tyre. The rider then started abusing, took out his mobile phone and started threatening the officer that he would call someone to harm that officer in any way. They continued to shout at each other, but the rider neither moved back nor did he stop abusing. I had to move on, so I could not witness how the clash was ended. Although very little, it’s a very serious thing, that how the guardians of law on the roads are affronted and let down. They are vulnerable to verbal and physical assault too. Are they our enemies, aren’t they the part of our own society? Are they stopping us or fining us for any personal contention? It may be argued that they are corrupted and eat bribes! Only we are supplying our helping hand to encourage corruption. We do not want to pay the full amount of the penalty. Have we also thought of the reasons behind it? There must not be any reason to advocate any kind of corruption but the society is leading towards horrific inequalities and imbalance. Rich and poor are at the North Pole and the South Pole respectively. This is another burning and huge issue which cannot be accommodated within the current discussion.

 

 

Let’s be in our all senses, while driving or while behaving with cops or any other public entity. We are only isolating them more and more by not adhering to the norms and offering bribes to them. It was published few weeks before in a daily tabloid that traffic officers distributed roses to the drivers in Vadodara city for illustrating that ‘We all belong to the same society. Please cooperate.’ I would say who actually need to be retained and given ‘Roses’ are these traffic officers. Obeying rules and behaving in discipline will be more than roses to them!

 

Related Articles:
Guns & Roses – Part 1: Guns – Memo No. 1!
Guns & Roses – In Continuation: Where to Look? Inside Us!