Saturday, January 03, 2009
Indian MRP
Image via Wikipedia
Years later, I still happen to see the same MRP everywhere. Whether years back it was in a tourist spot, the same is there in interiors of Rajasthan to the suburbs of Kochi, through the metropolitan lifestyles of Kolkata! This is not a matter of a small time shop keeper keeping an exorbitant price to loot his customer. Rather this is the VAT system being followed by the chain which starts from the companies named before. The shop keeper in picture has to have the profit which will allow him "serve chilled" coke/five star and to keep his family in shape. Is this the fate of a shop keeper or of the multitude of them teeming the highways and M.G. Roads of Indian cities. I shall refrain from putting an affirmative end to this particular conversation. To answer why which might come to at least few of my patient readers, I will narrate a rather amusing story.
My father is a salaried employee of GIC. That means he belongs to the so called “well to do” upper middle class. After slogging for 20 years in service to his company he decided to build a house, all this after hearing a million tirades from my mother(and relatives, though never in face) for not taking an initiative. I would rather put it now that he did it at his time rather than at time when others will have it. Now back to the story. A house to be build after so long deliberation will obviously have to be grand, or so it will seem to all the others already mentioned a while before. So my father took all opinions. Imported tiles, Rajasthan marbles – pink, white, black, brown, and all others. Just as we were going to appoint an architect to design our home, we were seeing every house as a model structure. One such house came to my mothers notice. It was a Semi luxury house, not that grand from outside but a quite rich feel which will evoke an “Ah!” from onlooker. All four of us went and knocked at the door(and interrupted an unknown family's siesta). A very nice lady came, speaking a very typical Trichur Christian dialect, and told us about her home. She was very happy to get a comment from us. The inside of the house was – grand. In short, it was beyond my father. Now for the crux – the house belonged to a shopkeeper at our local market. The same market where every Sunday my father goes and buys grocery. Is this the Indian MRP effect?
Here again I will refrain from making a direct connection between the MRP and the grandeur of lifestyles.
In question is not the MRP which is put in the label or which is put by the hawker or by the shopkeeper, but rather it is the question of why the MRP is not maintained.
Is a coke which costs penny to make really costing a pound. Isn't the wholesaler getting enough profit from the price given by Coca cola company that he has to pass on the loading to the retailer who then again pass on that to the customer.
Is the government so blinded that it is not helping the poor vendors at tourist places(only those where seasonal tourism is there) to sustain their families the whole year round.
Are the public so much rich so as to sustain the 20-30% loading on the MRP during each trip across the highways of our country.
Is the mineral water of our country so much costly that a liter will cost 13-16 rupees.(to make a particular note of this, almost all the water available in our country contains mineral, TDS is usually high)
I am not questioning my government only, neither am I questioning my fellow countrymen at the inability to put a full stop to this MRP effect. Rather I am questioning my own inability to raise my voice. It is true, the cry of Halla Bol is to be the ring word of the educated class of the fast growing India, but the contrary is the cry of the hour. I would rather open my rather feeble voice and say this is my right, but the shopkeeper reserves the right to entertain me or not. So where will I go for a glass of water!
And still this conversation will not end in the near future.
Labels: India, Middle class, The Coca-Cola Company, Travel and Tourism
