Bargains, the season's bait

Aadi... it's that time of the year when the general sales is down. But now, a new phenomenon has caught on in the city, and several stores offer huge discounts to lure customers. KAMALA RAMAKRISHNAN writes...

AADI KONDATTAM, Aadi Bonanza, Aadi thallupadi, Aadi discounts...

Words that stare at us from the print and the visual media. Words that entice us to indulge in spree of extravagant consumerism, for like all discount sales it subtly suggests that by spending we are in fact saving.

For retailers, discount sales have, over the years, evolved as a foolproof way of liquidating unsold stock and releasing much needed storage space for more popular merchandise or new designs. To the retailers of Tamil Nadu, discount sales have also evolved as the best possible way to break the taboo of an Aadi purchase.

In India, a moment, an hour or a month is not just a mere division of time but holds immense capacity to make all the difference between success and failure. The vernacular almanac does not just provide the merits and demerits of the day but each competes with the other in giving detailed descriptions of hourly activities that could prove successful.

To an average Tamilian who bases his daily activities on astral help, the month of Aadi that falls between July 15 and August 15, is a period in which no new venture or new acquisition is planned.

Indeed one wonders how Aadi has come to signify a month in which nothing very auspicious is done though Aadi is in all respects a very sacred month. It is considered almost on par with Margazhi in terms of being devoted to spiritualism.

This possibly explains why no social activities like marriages were encouraged in Aadi and Margazhi. These were months in which the right-minded were meant to remain preoccupied with their spiritual pursuits. All social ceremonies would take away concentration from their higher goals and bring thoughts down to a mundane level.

If the religiously inclined viewed Aadi as a time for the celebration of the self, the farmer of Tamil Nadu too saw the month as a time for celebration, for his goddess, the river Cauvery, would be in spate and the farmer can begin preparations for his next crop.

On Aadi Peruku which falls on the 18th day of Aadi, women cook different forms of rice as an offering and go to see the gush of the first waters of the river pounding against the embankments.

Aadi also ushers in the festival season, for in the month of Avani, which follows, all the important festivals begin. Hence the phrase - Aadi azaikirathu.

But somewhere over the years, Aadi seems to have taken on other hues and the average consumer of Tamil Nadu has developed a mental block against any big purchase during the month. Hence the need to nudge him to spend. The phenomenon of offering attractive discounts in the month of Aadi on such a large scale has been a recent development in the metro. It is as if those offering consumer goods seemed to have suddenly discovered the magic means of offsetting the generally low sales during Aadi.

"It was actually the textile merchants who first showed us this way", confesses B.C.Kishore Kumar, associate vice president of Viveks, which is advertising its Aadi sales in a big way. Kishore Kumar while explaining this, felt that "for dealers like us who can advertise, Aadi sales is also a way of managing publicity. If a company was suddenly to offer discounts, the average consumer would suspect the cause. But with a legitimate reason like Aadi, it would be more acceptable."

A view that was echoed by Shanker, the Area Sales manager for TVS Suzuki.

Says he, "Earlier, we just had zero per cent hire purchase scheme but now with more players in the field, more supply and a growing recession, our marketing is getting more aggressive. There is a greater need for visibility and Aadi gives us an excellent reason for special advertisements. It also helps prevent stocks from accumulating."

"These discounts and other incentive-backed schemes have actually pushed up our sales to levels better than other months," opines R. Ramakrishnan, a TVS Suzuki dealer of North Arcot. "We have proved that consumer resistance can be broken down with imaginative marketing", he claims quoting his sales figures to back this up.

To the textile retailers, Aadi is a month in which to liquidate as much stock as possible so that space is assured for the huge stocks that will have to be built up before the festival season begins. In the process, outdated designs also get sold.

Most textile dealers are willing to give credit to Pothy's, the textile shop in T. Nagar, for the sudden interest in Chennai about Aadi sales.

Pothy's managing partner, S. Ramesh accepts this. "For three generations, we have done this in our shops in Tirunelveli and Srivilliputtur". So we just continued to do so in Chennai and in the process earned some publicity too", he says citing the huge hoardings that advertise Pothy's Aadi sale.

To give these massive discounts, they put pressure on their suppliers all over the country to supply at lower rates and also cut their margins to give their customers the huge discounts. Sundari Silks, the relatively recent silk store in town, has also been offering discounts in the last two years and this is made possible by the weavers lowering the prices.

Publicity seems to be a strong motivation in this case too. RASI, another textile shop, known for its silk sarees has tried a novel technique.

Between July 16 and 23, they were offering to exchange old sarees for new. The idea proved so popular that they might revive it before Aadi ends.

Indeed a quick look at the classified ads in the papers point to the increasing number of those who are using Aadi as a great marketing device.

Since the final result seems satisfactory to all concerned, Aadi sales seem set to catch on in Chennai in a much bigger way in the future. Happy shopping hours, indeed!

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