tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34742897.post8470354097905915875..comments2024-03-22T12:48:00.070+05:30Comments on Indian Bazaars: Territoriality in the Indian BazaarIndian Bazaarshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11914323475841527802noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34742897.post-88590380718448072672011-11-02T17:25:54.644+05:302011-11-02T17:25:54.644+05:30Anil: You bring up a very important aspect of the ...Anil: You bring up a very important aspect of the retail environment - accessibility/visibility of the selling space. It is something I need to focus on more! <br /><br />While the street bazaar offers possibilities for the informal vendor to reach out to the passer-by, the vendors do need to develop an understanding, sometimes formalised between them or between the vendor and the police officer that can establish who gets how much visibility and for how long. <br /><br />I remember asking a fruit vendor in Gandhi Bazaar in Bangalore if he paid more to the Vendor association that he was part of, a higher rent since he had a street corner location, which would have more footfalls than the vendors sandwiched between two street junctions in a linear arrangement of stalls on the Gandhi Bazaar road. He said he didn't pay extra. And, that surprised me. <br /><br />Sometimes, even in a formal arrangement of shops, it is not so easy to decide who will take what location. Some years ago, in Andhra, the government set up 'Rythu bazaars' in the cities and the towns. It was a first-time experiment to bring farmers into the city to directly sell their produce in order to eliminate the middlemen. <br /><br />One such rythu bazaar was planned and built in Visakhapatnam near the M.V.P.colony. The stalls were semi-enclosed and built in an outer oval and an inner oval layout. Vendors refused to occupy the stalls that were in the rear saying that the vegetable vendors located near the entrance gate got the most customers and few walked past these stalls to the ones at the back. It was difficult to solve this and a rotational arrangement was proposed whereby a vendor could occupy the front stall for one week and the rear one for the next. Not the best of solutions though. The business relationships between the vendors in a traditional bazaar become therefore an interesting area for study. <br /><br />Radha: It has interested me too: why do we have a "row of hardware stores...and so on". It seems to be one of the attributes of successful retail locations - the agglomeration of similar products, the shopowners see it as a profitable exercise to encourage more footfalls in one street, to create an image of a place as being a "zaveri bazaar" or a "bamboo bazaar" providing easy access to the customer and a wider choice in one location. <br /><br />It perhaps also comes from the traditional "shop-house" neighbourhood where artisans from one community lived and worked together - brass workers or silversmiths and so on. The trading activity took place in the front verandah of a house where the artisan worked and where his family lived.Indian Bazaarshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914323475841527802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34742897.post-67856167210747970482011-10-31T22:33:22.355+05:302011-10-31T22:33:22.355+05:30I guess territorial conflicts occur with most stre...I guess territorial conflicts occur with most street vendors. They have their areas clearly demarcated. I am told this is true ( I am digressing) with beggars too! But I always find it hard to understand why we have a row of hardware stores, another row of computer peripherals and so on.. would it not be beneficial if they were not so close together?radhahttp://mommyliciousma.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34742897.post-73741802972253207652011-10-16T12:58:40.807+05:302011-10-16T12:58:40.807+05:30An interesting thought.
I feel the reverse is als...An interesting thought.<br /><br />I feel the reverse is also true in many cases, of spatial order determining social order, the lack of the former often the cause of conflicts.<br /><br />And the India Bazaar is a place that offers ample opportunities to test this.<br /><br />Once, in a lane in Dadar, an old man manning his vegetables on the sidewalk outside a shop was agitated enough to argue with a rangoli vendor who had set up his roadside stall on the road, blocking access/visibility of the old man and his vegetables.<br /><br />While encroacing another's space has always been an issue insofar as territorial conflict is concerned, the approach, or accessibility of one's selling space becomes equally important.Anil Phttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02422187314611747278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34742897.post-55588668661579401632011-10-11T18:22:03.320+05:302011-10-11T18:22:03.320+05:30Divenita: I've been trying to post about once ...Divenita: I've been trying to post about once in two weeks. Thanks for following the blog!Indian Bazaarshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914323475841527802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34742897.post-5553708578356267352011-10-01T09:26:02.436+05:302011-10-01T09:26:02.436+05:30:) Thank you for dropping by.. I follow your blog....:) Thank you for dropping by.. I follow your blog.. alas i am not getting any updates! :( now a days!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com