The unheard story of India Gate Inc.

Posted on February 7, 2013 by iipmeducation

You buy coffee from Starbucks, crispy chicken from Wendy’s, buritos from Taco, and ice cream from… India Gate?!? Unbelievably, India Gate is the largest single selling point of ice creams in India; B&E presents a soft story on the men managing the show – the vendors. by Pawan Chabra

It was not surprising for Rajat Singh to shell out more than the MRP for an ice-cream, soft drink and even for a bottle of mineral water at one of the most popular, non-commercial ‘hangout’ places around the capital region, India Gate at the centre of New Delhi. He was not even surprised that not one of the many vendors present in that small perimeter was ready to reduce the prices. He paid Rs.17, happily, for his wife’s favourite mango ice-cream that had a price tag of Rs.15 only. And that, in general, is the perception of other consumers too, who stop by the legacy monolith structure to spend a few good moments, and are none the worse paying a premium price for standard products delivered on time.

Given the fact that India Gate is the country’s single largest point for selling ice-creams (followed by Chennai’s Marina Beach and Mumbai’s Gateway of India), B&E decided to undertake a snapshot seat of the pants’ review of how the value chain actually works, especially for the most critical links – the vendors. “The difference in price is more because of the extra charges that we have to bear for operating in the India Gate circle. Normally, the parking charge/day ranges between Rs.20 and Rs.30, along with a handful of other charges,” explained Naresh, a Mother Dairy ice-cream vendor standing at the Shahjahan Road area, fifty metres southwest to the Gate. But more than the price, what’s eye catching is the fact that a company like Mother Dairy banks nearly 20% of its summer ice-cream sales from vendors operating around the India Gate area.

And how many vendors manage this show for Mother Dairy and all other ice cream firms? 200! That’s it! As summer enters Delhi, these 200-odd tanned pushcart vendors (each with a valid MCD vending license) gear up to become the hottest (or coolest) propositions for almost everyone who is a part of the mad rush at India Gate. Under these circumstances, when a vendor charges Rs.2 extra for every single unit of ice-cream sold, then one can easily imagine the kind of revenue that gets generated. The case is the same with soft drinks and water. Be it the vendors providing refreshments or the ones selling toys, there is serious business activity taking place around this monument from the Imperial era that was designed at one end of Rajpath by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the memory of over 90,000 soldiers who lost their lives in World War I.

One can understand how lucrative a business could be after meeting Meera (age 13) who sells any fancy thing around the place. She reaches India Gate sharp at 6 pm to help her mother manage their booming business during the weekends. Key rings, mobile bands, fancy beads with names engraved on it, anything that sells, is sold, even mehndi, a local ethnic body additive that is applied mostly on hair and is used also in body tattoos. Meera attends school like other kids, but at the same time she never forgets to reach the national monument area on time. She makes around Rs.400-500/day on an average in those 5 hours she spends there every weekend. “The kind of business that we get from foreign tourists is nothing as compared to what we are able to garner from the local people visiting India Gate,” she added.

Read more…….

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a comment