Dipti Jain, The Times of India New Delhi, October 25, 2012 After a sluggish start for retailers this year, even the festival season might not be a mood-lifter. With consumer spending still not encouraging, retailers are not as ambitious on their prospects this festive period as compared to the previous years even as they expect a pick up in sales. While most retailers that TOI spoke to said this quarter (October-December) sales would definitely be higher than the rest of the year, not many expect the increase to be same as during a typical October-December period. According to industry estimates,…
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Nupur Anand & Ashish K Tiwari, DNA (Daily News & Analysis) Mumbai, October 20, 2012 The Seattle, US-headquartered Starbucks on Friday opened its first store in India, kickstarting what could be a sedate rollout, going ahead. Yet, if the 4,500 sq ft store in the historic Elphinstone Building in South Mumbai’s Horniman Circle — with an upscale brand Hermes at sniffing distance — is any indication, the company has positioned itself at the premium end, about 50-60% costlier than Café Coffee Day. The experience is akin to “walking into a shrine of Starbucks coffee”, Howard Schultz, chairman, president and CEO,…
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Prashant Mahesh, The Economic Times Mumbai, October 19, 2012 "Bring the old and take a new one." Manufacturers and dealers of white goods and cars come up with exchange offers during the festive season. With Navratri and Diwali around the corner, you are likely to see many such offers in the coming days. For example, car companies are offering Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh as exchange bonus this festive season, depending on the model you choose. Similarly, you could get Rs 2,000 to Rs 8,000 for your old refrigerator depending on its condition. "In the case of consumer durables…
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Sapna Agarwal, MINT (A Wall Street Journal Partner) Mumbai, October 19, 2012 A welcome sign in six languages—Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, French and English—greets customers at the entrance to India’s first Starbucks store, which opened Friday at Horniman circle in south Bombay, offering a glimpse of the localization that the Tata group and Starbucks Corp. are attempting. The atmospherics are spot on. There’s the aroma of freshly-roasted coffee; the decor is identifiably Indian, thanks to the signature jali (lattice) design; the mugs are emblazoned with Starbucks India along with an image of India Gate; iron trunks and jute bags stamped…
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Sagar Malviya, The Economic Times Mumbai, October 18, 2012 Mahindra Group plans to rejig its retail business by changing the product mix at its stores with more apparels, expanding aggressively through franchisee stores and even setting up stores abroad. "We might look at apparel centric mother and kids store," K Venkataraman, MD of Mahindra Retail, said. He said the company plans to increase the share of apparel in the total merchandise at its 'Mom & Me' stores to 60% from 40% now. Mom & Me caters to children and expecting and new mothers across categories such as baby food, strollers,…
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