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Discounts
galore!
“What
irks you the most in the textile trade?” asked a participant
during an interactive session with me at a recent seminar on ‘Making
India the trend setter in garment trade’.
“Cheating
discounts,” I said.
Yes, it is disgusting to project the textile trade as a discount
trade. But, that is how this trade has allowed itself to flourish,
particularly during the busy festival seasons. Right now, all over
Tamil Nadu, for instance, including the smaller towns, almost all
the textile shops are offering discounts of various levels for the
forthcoming Pongal festival season. Only now, the discounts for
Onam, Dussera, Aadi, Diwali, Christmas, New Year and Ramzan have
ended. While these festivals have come and gone, the discounts continue.
After Pongal, the discounts will continue for Telugu New Year’s
day, Kannada New Year’s day (Ugadi), Malayalam New Year’s
day (Vishu) and Tamil New year’s day. In other words, until
mid-April, discounts will continue to be offered by textile traders.
Discounts, as an incentive, stand highlighted in almost all shops,
including the government and co-operative showrooms. Thus, the Co-optex,
the government-run showroom in Tamil Nadu, specialising in handlooms
and the Priyadarshini, the Karnataka government-run showrooms, excel
in offering discounts. The discounts range from 20-50 per cent depending
on the cloth. For some old dothis, the discount at Co-optex is as
high as 60 per cent. Basically, the discounts offered by these government
departments are genuine. Their principal idea is to boost sales
of materials which have been stagnating in the shelves for long.
And, these goods are stagnating, not necessarily because of low
quality, but because of the absence of a business-like approach
by the concerned bureaucrats. Where the quality has come down, the
discount is much higher. So, in principle, a discount of the government
showroom type is not bad. It does good for the management to liquidate
the excess stock and simultaneously, help the people go for quality
materials at really good offers during the festival season. In any
case, in a market filled with discounts, it becomes difficult for
the government-run showrooms to promote sales without seemingly
offering discounts.
But, such genuine discounts are not the order of the day in the
open market. Here, the prices are known to be hiked before showing
a discount. Some established showrooms are known to be running the
sales for at least two months before the festival season at a high
price - higher than what is considered to be the necessary or reasonable.
People who have to buy some clothes, say for marriage commitments
or gifts, will pick up the materials at the high price. But, as
the festival season dawns, these showrooms will flaunt big banners
announcing a massive discount. The discounted price is the true
sale price, but people do not recognise the trick. These shops are
able to offer discounts from 20-50 per cent. It fails comprehension
as to how any cloth could be sold for half the normal price and
still a profit be made !
By and large, these discounts are offered for those materials which
are not of established brands. So, either there is no marked price
on them or the price shown is convenient for discount. Likewise,
discounts of varying types are offered for generic brands - not
specific brands. Merchants travel from town to town hiring Kalyana
mandaps for sale of Surat, Banares or Kanchipuram silk saris at
unbelievable discounts. The principal route for escapism for these
merchants is that there is nothing to prove the genuineness of these
saris. They are not from any specific shop. So, even as they re
sold as premium generic saris, they are offered at a cheating discount.
Yet another form of this tactic is to reduce the length or width
of the saris. Recently, I bought a Banares silk sari at an exclusive
exhibition in Mangalore, paying a good price after the discount.
But the sari was found to be less than five metres in length. Similarly,
there are offers of ‘One for One’, which means, if you
buy one sari, pant, shirt, etc, you get another free. Here, the
price is higher than for one piece, but lower than for two pieces.
In respect of saris, the width becomes a problem. And, a shop in
the Sai Baba colony of Coimbatore announced: ‘Exchange your
old sari in whatever form for a new one’. Just as the exchange
offer for consumer durables like TVs. In all such cases, the discounts
are not at all genuine. They are intended to sell clothes of relatively
inferior variety, but with a lie, clearly exploiting the weakness
of the people to get attracted through discounts.
Some discounts offered by the dealers of branded products are genuine.
Recently, I bought a Peter England shirt from a regular dealer’s
showroom in Matunga in Mumbai at a five per cent discount over the
marked price, where the discount was offered by the dealer from
his margin in appreciation of some other facts. Another dealer in
Fort, Mumbai, did a free alteration, without affecting the style,
to Cambridge pants. Any effort to treat textiles as a discounted,
rather than a premium, product is self lowering the image for the
industry and trade.
- P S Sundar
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