Employee the Creator of the

Ultimate Shopping Experience

A case of Indian Retailing
Case study
Reference no 508-011-1

This case was written by Seema Mehta, Anuradha Nagar, Vijay Kumar Pandey
and Nitin Arora, under the direction of Dr SS Bhakar, Prestige Institute of
Management, Gwalior, India. It is intended to be used as the basis for class
discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a
management situation. The case was made possible by the co-operation of an
organisation that wishes to remain anonymous.
2008, Prestige Institute of Management, Gwalior, India.
No part of this publication may be copied, stored, transmitted, reproduced
or distributed in any form or medium whatsoever without the permission
of the copyright owner.

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508-011-1

Employee the Creator of the Ultimate Shopping Experience:

A Case of Indian Retailing
Seema Mehta*
Anuradha Nagar**
Vijay kumar Pandey***
Nitin Arora***
Shrijee Oils Foods Ltd. and S.S. OILS LTD, Gwalior, M.P promoted Star Retail Link Pvt. Ltd
(SRLP) established in Oct 2006. The promoters were the market leaders of the edible oil market
of Madhya Pradesh (State of India). The major line of their activities were edible oils (mustard
oil, and flours etc), marketed under the brand name of Khusbu. The promoter company covers
M.P., Chattisgarh , U.P. and Uttaranchal states. SRLP launched five retail outlets under the brand
name of Anand Bazar in Gwalior city. Mr. Mohan Agarwal, Chairman, SRLP was expecting
annual sales growth rate of 30-40%. The objective was to attract and retain the new breed of
customer in B and C grade cities of MP, Chattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. The Company faced

with the daunting challenge of seeking and hiring localized skilled talents for supporting
their operations in the retail business.
After surveying the readiness of Gwalior market; SRLP launched five retail outlets with
the brand name of Anand Bazar in Gwalior city. The retail outlets of Hyper, Super and
Value markets were floated after considering the important parameters like income level
of consumers and convenient locations for the retail outlets.

The case was developed in the 6th Case Writing Workshop organized by Prestige Institute
of Management, Gwalior during December 13-15, 2006.
* Lecturer, Prestige Institute of Management, Gwalior(M.P.),India
** Lecturer,prestige Institute of Management,Gwalior(M.P.), India
*** Lecture,prestige Iinstitute of Management,Gwalior(M.P.), India
**** Lecture,Rayat Institute of Management, NawaShahar(Punjab),India
There was one Hyper and four Value market stores launched at the different locations in
the city to cater for the requirements of different income groups. The outlets offered

508-011-1
7,777 products, of major Indian brands in the segments of groceries, stationary, plastic
wares, fruits and vegetables, snacks and Namkeens, Oil and ghee, soaps and detergents,
skin care, gift and novelties, toys and games under one roof. The product mix was same
for Hyper and Value outlets but the number of items offered differed based on the type of
outlet (Hyper/Super/value).
The Company identified their USP to provide products in a hygienic and chic
environment. Simultaneously, the company wanted to give international shopping,
experience to the city people who were unexposed to the idea of retail shopping. The
Anand Bazar outlets were also focused on developing in-store services by competent
work force who were capable of making shopping consumer friendly. The image of the
retail chain was communicated as one roof under which a consumer could have easy
access; more choice; good service; better price with the motto of Shopping is Pleasure.
The Company realized that the retail business was not growing at the rate the company
expected it to grow in the first few months of retail operations. Mr. Mohan wanted to
know the reasons for the slow growth and asked Mr. Raj to convene a meeting of all the
senior executives engaged in retail business with an agenda to find out the growth of the
five outlets in terms of effectiveness of schemes launched and the day-to-day operations
of the retail outlets.
The General Manager opened the meeting by pointing the actual sales figures to be much
below expected sales in spite of heavy advertising expenditures. The General Manger
asked all the departmental heads if they had any initial observations to make.
Mr. Satish, the store manager of Hypermarket : Well, I know despite our initial huge
expenditures on advertising to ensure repeated bulk buying & visits of the consumers, the
promotional schemes had not achieved the expected goals both in sales volume and
retention of consumers. Instead consumers were just coming to the stores to do window
shopping.
The Marketing Manager put forth the view we had decided to focus on the upper and
higher middle class as our target segment. With this target segment in mind we decided

508-011-1
to offer free gifts, discounts, gift vouchers and customer value cards (CVC) to attract the
consumers who were still loyal to unorganized retailers. For instance we launched Raddi
Do Rashan Lo (Give your newspaper, plastic scraps and old clothes and take away food
supplies and other festive offers. Under this scheme, the stores were asked to buy paper,
plastics and clothes scraps from the customers for Rs 10/kg, 15/kg and 20/ kg
respectively and exchange the amount with the discount vouchers. These vouchers were
to be enchased in near future against purchase of goods from our stores only for a prefixed amount. To my surprise, one man came along with 2 kgs of paper scrap thinking to
get Rs.20/- from the store. Though our schemes were directed towards increasing the
sales volume and enhancing the footfalls of consumers in upper and middle income
levels, it instead attracted the customers in lower level. Another point of serious concern
for us to ponder is that the customers perceive that majority of our prices are on the
higher side.
G.M. : True, I am also very much concerned about customers feedback and have come to
know that few of our employees are not behaving in a professional manner with the
consumers, leading to hopping of customers to the traditional retailers.
The HR Manager responded Sir we have hired the local employees and most of them
lack in specialized knowledge of retail operations. He elaborated that If the stores
employees were well trained, customer retention would have been higher leading to
increased sales volume.
The G.M. reported the opinions and issues raised at the meeting to the Chairman. The
Chairman wanted to open 200 retail outlets in the other States. Now he was giving a
second thought to his expansion plans. He was not satisfied with the current performance
level and quality of employees. He was worried and was skeptic about the success of
future expansion projects in other States.

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Questions
Q.1 What opportunities and threats did SRLP face in establishing the brand Anand
Bazar? How could they promote the brand more effectively?
Q.2 How could Anand Bazar enhance customer loyalty and higher amount purchases
made per

visit of costumer?

Q.3 Analyze the expectations of consumers from Anand Bazar. Was there any gap in
their promises and offerings? Comment
Q.4 How the employees could be trained in retail operations to improve the consumers
buying experience?
Q.5 How could ANAND BAZAR with the huge training expenditure requirements
sustain in the market in the initial years?