Description
It’s that time of year again when the festive season comes marching upon us. The period has traditionally enjoyed a very strong and deep connection with the culture of gifting. For retailers and brands, the season is marked by a huge surge in demand for food products that offer a mark of exclusivity and uniqueness when it comes to gifting.
In fact, the gifting theme has now permeated across all food categories. Read our Festive Gifting story (pages 38-43) on how retailers and brands come out with unique and innovative gift packs and gift hampers and valuefor- money products that are beautifully packaged to meet diverse choices for family and corporate gifting.
Our cover story in this issue (pages 24-34) shines the spotlight on north- Maharashtra’s oldest and most emblematic food and grocery retailer. Jalgaon-based Navjeevan chain of stores has been in the business for over 75 years now, starting off as a modest 25 sq.ft. store in 1946. It transitionedto being a modern supermarket in 1993 at a time when the modern trade concept was a novelty even in the bigger cities like Mumbai and Pune. Today, the chain has nine stores under the Navjeevan banner, with 26,000 sq.ft. of retailing area and Rs. 110 crore of annual revenue.
In our story on retail location (pages 36-37), we take a dive into the business psychology in play that influences this location strategy. Are retailers subconsciously following the Nash Equilibrium theory propounded by American mathematician John Nash, which states that for retailers, being near their competitors means more potential customers around, and moving away could mean missing out on these customers. Or are retailers just following their gut sense borne out of years of experience and observation?
