a Mall for home interiors

The Future group's "Hometown" is a mall for home interiors. It is now already in seven cities including Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Calcutta. The Hometown in Bangalore is in Marathahalli on the outer ring road. This is also where @Home and other furniture and interior showrooms are located. This is meant to be a "one-stop shop" for home interior.

The ground floor has several options for living room furniture. The upper floors offer options for bathrooms & kitchens. There is a 'Design & Services' Centre with four architects, four engineers and two managers, a team that offers interior design solutions to its customers.

There are three packages one can opt for. There is the Turn-key option that includes design and implementation for the interior of the entire apartment or house, where the design fee is Rs.35/sq.ft and the design & execution may be charged at Rs.600 to Rs.1200 per sq.ft. There is the Segmental option, which consists of plan alternatives and ideas for the design of a room at Rs.2999. There is the third Customised option, which may include the design of just a wardrobe for a bedroom.

This mall for home solutions also includes a small exhibition on the various aspects of house building from the foundation stage to the finishing stage. There is information made available on a Mobile Concrete Lab to assess the suitability of materials at site and suggestions for mortar, waterproofing and other mixtures that the construction needs.

How is 'Hometown' different from a Kajaria showroom for bathrooms or a Venetia Cucine showroom for kitchens. It does offer both in one location but does not match up to independent showrooms on its customer service. And, in terms of the services it offers in plumbing, electrical and carpentry, how is 'Hometown' different? The Mr.Plumber, Mr.Carpenter and Mr.Tilewala boards within the mall do look attractive. However, all services are offered within the 'design centre' on the second floor and comprise of an interior design solution or a turnkey interior service.

The social networks of building artisans have been quite strong in towns and cities. It is a system that depends on the 'word of mouth' phenomenon. Will the old system and the new one continue to run parallel to each other?

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