The Personal Touch while buying Vegetables
Personal touch is something that has been disappearing over the past years in our daily buysof vegetables or grocery. The whole process has become very organized and mechanical to an extent. You get in to the shop, pick your basket and pick up what you think looks fresh and nice . Off you go to the multiple billing counters, you get billed , no free kothamalli , pay the bill and out. No recommendations , no discussions . A very plain experience. Rare interactions with the shop people or the people at the billing counter.
I recall the days where this activity used to be exciting. It used to be the vegetable market and you had multiple vendors and each of them specializing in two to three varieties of vegetables. And you could pick the vendor that has the most fresh arrivals. As you go around , the vendors knew you personally , would enquire about your well-being and make recommendations. To an extent , they knew what was being cooked at your home and what would you buy depending on the day of the week ( if it was New moon , the kaccha banana vendor would be interested in you ) ! They would do the picking themselves with great care or sometimes would allow you as well depending on how many customers they have to attend , weigh it , haggle a bit about the price but the deal would end with lot of smiling faces and then the freebies would come up on top of the bag. Kothamalli / Karuveppalai and sometimes inji ( ginger ) and Pachai Milagai ( green Chilies ). The final stop in the process would be the guy selling Tomatoes and that would be stack up right on top of the Cloth bag.
I got a small but very similar experience last week end. My wife and myself set out to buy just one vegetable that was needed and for that decided to go the nearest small vegetable shop rather than the Chain of Vegetable stores that we frequent. This one is decent, new , well stacked and the Proprietor pretty much runs the business. My wife picked up that one vegetable we wanted and we were ready to bill. The owners mother( must be in her early sixties ) started the chat. She offered to get us Okra . She said it was fresh and we would love it. Our silence was taken as consent and she picked it carefully for us throwing away ripe ones. She kept asking us in a very nice , smiling manner about other picks. We found it really hard to say NO. She was genuine in her efforts . Along with the vegetables she recommended few recipes as well for the vegetables. In the next five minutes , she had literally picked vegetables for us for the week. I liked the way she entered in to conversation , the elderly touch , the smile etc., We paid with lot of happiness , got freebies and walked out very happy but with a heavy bag ! Both of us really loved the experience.
I write this because this is something that we find it very difficult to get these days – a good shopping experience that has personal touch , care and is concerned about YOU !
I recall the days where this activity used to be exciting. It used to be the vegetable market and you had multiple vendors and each of them specializing in two to three varieties of vegetables. And you could pick the vendor that has the most fresh arrivals. As you go around , the vendors knew you personally , would enquire about your well-being and make recommendations. To an extent , they knew what was being cooked at your home and what would you buy depending on the day of the week ( if it was New moon , the kaccha banana vendor would be interested in you ) ! They would do the picking themselves with great care or sometimes would allow you as well depending on how many customers they have to attend , weigh it , haggle a bit about the price but the deal would end with lot of smiling faces and then the freebies would come up on top of the bag. Kothamalli / Karuveppalai and sometimes inji ( ginger ) and Pachai Milagai ( green Chilies ). The final stop in the process would be the guy selling Tomatoes and that would be stack up right on top of the Cloth bag.
I got a small but very similar experience last week end. My wife and myself set out to buy just one vegetable that was needed and for that decided to go the nearest small vegetable shop rather than the Chain of Vegetable stores that we frequent. This one is decent, new , well stacked and the Proprietor pretty much runs the business. My wife picked up that one vegetable we wanted and we were ready to bill. The owners mother( must be in her early sixties ) started the chat. She offered to get us Okra . She said it was fresh and we would love it. Our silence was taken as consent and she picked it carefully for us throwing away ripe ones. She kept asking us in a very nice , smiling manner about other picks. We found it really hard to say NO. She was genuine in her efforts . Along with the vegetables she recommended few recipes as well for the vegetables. In the next five minutes , she had literally picked vegetables for us for the week. I liked the way she entered in to conversation , the elderly touch , the smile etc., We paid with lot of happiness , got freebies and walked out very happy but with a heavy bag ! Both of us really loved the experience.
I write this because this is something that we find it very difficult to get these days – a good shopping experience that has personal touch , care and is concerned about YOU !
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