This weekend I learned about a new type of commerce. The 'guilt
commerce'. Living in Dehradun and having a daughter in a boarding school
this weekend was a revelation.
Wherever in Doon we went this Saturday and Sunday the place was teeming with boarders and their parents. Stationery and gift shops, eating joints, malls, cinema, the cash registers were jingling everywhere and the businessmen couldn't hide their glee.
Let me explain. All boarding schools have a monthly off wherein the parents can take their wards away over a weekend. Typically the student can go out on Friday evening and be back at the boarding on Sunday evening or Monday morning, before school. So lot of outside parents come to town on a particular weekend. They check into hotels or friends' or relative places and then they get into indulging their children. Shopping for school stuff, boarding house requirements are par for the course. And then comes 'guilt shopping'. Dining at favourite restaurants, shopping for the odd indulgence, buying of goodies, watching cinema, ice creams.....
Thankfully my daughter had a simple wish list...a few canvasses, colours, brushes and books. All which I agreed with. And then she asked for a loom kit. I had no clue what it was. But she not only knew everything about it but also knew where to buy it. So we proceeded to a gift shop type of a place and I was bowled over by the number and variety of boarders. I think I saw almost all types of school dress and designs. ( Some schools allow children on a day pass in school dress). And while standing in a queue to pay I noticed some interesting buying behaviour and parent reactions.
One young chap insisted he wanted the 'Blood capsule.' I had no clue what it was and neither had the poor mother. But remember the phrase 'guilt shopping'? Well the mother succumbed to it. Another mom was chiding her son for buying 4 pens as according to her he hates writing. At this my daughter mumbled in my ears ' oh he must be buying it to play pen fight'. I was learning new things. And of course there was the usual. An 8-9 year old insisting on the new Barbie, with a little help from the shopkeeper and getting away with it.
I chatted with the shopkeeper when my turn came. While furiously punching his calculator he told me, 'sir once in a month we face bonanza. And this time with rakhi over a weekend, we are having a windfall'. So there were parents from Punjab in their Audis, from UP in their Fortunners, from Haryana in their Dusters and from Uttarakhand in their Dezires. All justifying their child's stay at a boarding house with their wallets.
At the mall the food court didn't have an inch of space. At the ice cream parlour, the chocolates and caramels were running out of stock and at the stationery shops there was a run on the pens.
Cities like Dehradun thrive on guilt commerce. There is a tourist season and a guilt commerce season. Tourist season is for a few months but guilt commerce is a monthly phenomena.
I did my own calculation. Guilt commerce had cost me almost five grand. Now multiply this conservative figure by more than 5000. Not bad eh!
Wherever in Doon we went this Saturday and Sunday the place was teeming with boarders and their parents. Stationery and gift shops, eating joints, malls, cinema, the cash registers were jingling everywhere and the businessmen couldn't hide their glee.
Let me explain. All boarding schools have a monthly off wherein the parents can take their wards away over a weekend. Typically the student can go out on Friday evening and be back at the boarding on Sunday evening or Monday morning, before school. So lot of outside parents come to town on a particular weekend. They check into hotels or friends' or relative places and then they get into indulging their children. Shopping for school stuff, boarding house requirements are par for the course. And then comes 'guilt shopping'. Dining at favourite restaurants, shopping for the odd indulgence, buying of goodies, watching cinema, ice creams.....
Thankfully my daughter had a simple wish list...a few canvasses, colours, brushes and books. All which I agreed with. And then she asked for a loom kit. I had no clue what it was. But she not only knew everything about it but also knew where to buy it. So we proceeded to a gift shop type of a place and I was bowled over by the number and variety of boarders. I think I saw almost all types of school dress and designs. ( Some schools allow children on a day pass in school dress). And while standing in a queue to pay I noticed some interesting buying behaviour and parent reactions.
One young chap insisted he wanted the 'Blood capsule.' I had no clue what it was and neither had the poor mother. But remember the phrase 'guilt shopping'? Well the mother succumbed to it. Another mom was chiding her son for buying 4 pens as according to her he hates writing. At this my daughter mumbled in my ears ' oh he must be buying it to play pen fight'. I was learning new things. And of course there was the usual. An 8-9 year old insisting on the new Barbie, with a little help from the shopkeeper and getting away with it.
I chatted with the shopkeeper when my turn came. While furiously punching his calculator he told me, 'sir once in a month we face bonanza. And this time with rakhi over a weekend, we are having a windfall'. So there were parents from Punjab in their Audis, from UP in their Fortunners, from Haryana in their Dusters and from Uttarakhand in their Dezires. All justifying their child's stay at a boarding house with their wallets.
At the mall the food court didn't have an inch of space. At the ice cream parlour, the chocolates and caramels were running out of stock and at the stationery shops there was a run on the pens.
Cities like Dehradun thrive on guilt commerce. There is a tourist season and a guilt commerce season. Tourist season is for a few months but guilt commerce is a monthly phenomena.
I did my own calculation. Guilt commerce had cost me almost five grand. Now multiply this conservative figure by more than 5000. Not bad eh!
No comments:
Post a Comment