Diwali Dhamaka

From my childhood days I associate Diwali with lots of sweets, new dress and of course, Crackers. After growing up a little I understood the concept of discount and why Diwali is a good time to shop for the entire year and not just Diwali. When I started earning, it made excellent economic sense as well. There was a lot of discount on dresses and big ticket items. However, smaller gifts, sweets were priced higher to capitalize on the seasonal surge of demand.

This Diwali, our team set out to the nearest market to check out the discounts and to do some shopping for ourselves. The market here in Lucknow - Kapoorthala and Fun Republic.  

Except for the everyday discount retailer like Koutons every other cloth retailer had discount on a bulk purchase and not a flat discount. Such discounts are aimed at gaining maximum share of wallet from the customer (making his entire family shop at one place). However, we felt the amount of shopping required for a "single" person (like a college kid who is away from home) was too much in order to get a discount. It just irritated that person and brought us to the question - "Should there be different slabs for students?" Especially in a place like Lucknow and in a showroom like Spykar, Levis', India Terrain etc. (specialty stores which is not a 'family' shopping spot like a shoppers stop)

At the Kapoorthala market, though, a pleasant surprise awaited us at the grocery stores. We wanted to check out if FMCG firms also capitalize on this frenzy called Diwali Shopping. We were expecting discounts/bundling offer on oil, Sugar, Flour etc... which are the major ingredients for making sweets. But what greeted us was something quite different. Snacks, sweets, chocolates, cookies, juices everything that you can eat has been bundled into bigger "celebrations" packs. We believe this was pioneered by Cadbury and now adopted by MNCs, like Ferroro Rocher, Pepsi, and Indian firms, like Britannia, Haldirams, alike.

Some of the retailers had an extension counter in front of their stores, just to increase the impulse purchase. In an era where smaller packs are beautiful and when we were wondering what the already smaller packs do, I think we have an answer. These packs makes sense in a country like India which celebrates at the drop of a hat.