This is a story of a salesman who started his business in Kopar Khairane in 1995 which was not fully developed at that time. He opened up a book store and also stationery cum gifts shop. Initially he kept only books in his store. Later on he kept stationery items as well as gift articles in his store depending on the demands of the customers.

I have been visiting this store from my school days and buying stuff like books and stationery from this store. This store is located near a school, as the target customers are students. He is the owner who also acts as the salesman when required. Initially he and his brother use to work in the store and interact with the customers. Later on as his business expanded, he has employed now four salesmen.

When I interviewed him for this exercise, I first clicked his photograph. He was very happy that someone is interested in knowing his story. He was also excited when I told him that I will be publishing this article on the blog. He doesn’t have any problems related to sales. He has all books, from school to graduation and as he is the only retailer in that sector for books. The shop doesn’t do so well for stationery and gift articles as he has to face a very strong competition from retailer D-Mart, which is located exactly opposite to this store.

He has a margin of around 15-20% on books, 20- 30% on stationery and more than 30% on gift articles. Salesmen who work in his store are given a salary of 8-10K. He has invested a capital of 60-70 lakhs and has a turnover of about 70-80 lakhs in a year. My family has always been the regular customers of this store, so he was not reluctant in sharing the information with me. The frequency of customers visiting this store is higher during the morning and evening hours, as school students visit the store at that time.

I had visited the store during the evening, so there were many customers coming to the store. The kind of interaction he has with his customers is purely transaction based. People come to his store, buy stuff they need and leave the store. There was a customer who wanted to buy a book of author Kumbhojkar for Maths. The book was not available so he assured the customer that he will get the book in 2-3 days and was even ready to notify him as soon as the book was available in his store. He took his cell phone number so that he can inform him. For few customers who are the loyal customers of his store, he has built a relationship with them.

POOJA THAKUR
RMM 17