Yeah! It has finally happened! You are reading the 200th post of this blog. It may not seem like a big achievement to some but it certainly feels like one to me. So go out to the nearest cake shop, get a piece of your favorite cake and eat it cos its celebration time!
Whats funny is that I wrote this celebratory 100th post way back in November 2006 which means that it took me 17 months to write the second hundred posts when it only took me only 4 months to complete the first 100. But that’s okay! The post frequency had gone since last year, I took two 3 and 4 month long breaks from blogging last year and even came close to abandoning the blog but decided not to do so because my blog had helped me get through some tough times.
I’m happy that my blog is back on track and I have been sticking to my aim of at least 2 posts per month. I hope that I’ll celebrate a millennium soon. Okay, not soon but still!
I guess this would also be a good time to talk about what’s in store for my blog. Hmm, I plan to be more regular with the updates, write about a lot more diverse things and very soon, I plan to redesign the blog. Should be fun! So if you don’t find this blog to be the most boring, self-involved blog ever (heh!), stick around!
Now go get that cake please!
The Indian retail industry is booming and lots of snazzy supermarkets have popped up in most cities. A lot of these are either owned or have been acquired by major business houses . There are 7 such stores within the 2 km radius of my house. But since I am planning to move to a different area, I decided to look up their websites and use the store locater to find a store in the new area. But what I soon discovered was that some of these supermarkets don’t even have any official site and the only way to find a store in an area is though local classifieds (Sulekha) , local search engines (Just Dial) , Google maps and Wikimapia. But the information on these sites can be wrong or outdated and not as reliable as an official site.
This got me interested and I decided to do a comparison of the online presence of all the major players in Bangalore (and in India).
Here’s how they fared:
- Reliance Fresh: Its one of the biggest players in the sector but surprisingly neither Fresh nor any other retail formats owned by Reliance (Footprint, Digital, Jewels, Timeout etc.) have any web presence. Just a one page summary of the company’s retail plans exists on RIL’s website. There are, however, many unofficial blogs dedicated to Reliance Retail.
- More: Fabmall, one of the largest supermarket chains in South India, was recently acquired by Aditya Birla Group’s More making it an important player in the market but again, except for a page mentioning the launch of its first store and news articles on the aforementioned acquisition on the group’s website, nothing much can be found online.
- Nilgiris: This South Indian chain recently acquired Daily’s supermarkets belonging to Valdel retail but I could not find company’s official website even though I found Valdel’s website.
- Subhiksha: They do have a website and the link “Store Locators”(locators??) did get my hopes up only to be met with a “Page in Under Construction[sic]” message. I am still hopeful that someday soon, they might have a real page there.
- Fresh@: Interestingly, the owner of this chain, Heritage Foods, has a website with a store locator but unless one knows the parent company and searches for it, there’s no way to find the website. Now that’s some bad search engine optimization (SEO) at work!
- Food Bazaar: They have an info page on Pantaloon’s site and there’s also a common Store Locator for all formats owned by the company. Good!
- Foodworld: They too have a website that seems alright and there is a list of all stores too but unfortunately, it is on the “Contact Us” page which is linked only in the footer.
- Spencer’s: They have a proper website (with the useless flash intro and all) and do have a “our stores” link which works well. Its definitely the most impressive of the lot!
What this proves is that a lot of Indian companies still don’t understand the power of Internet. Sure, most people would go to the nearby supermarkets rather than search for one on the internet but I think an online presence is an important part of brand development. Let’s hope they would realize this soon enough and make amends.
There used to be a time when no matter what I read or heard never moved me much. Not anymore! I seem to be in a place where most of the things I read affect me. I take in much more now. Even the music I listen to makes more impact now than ever before. I am unsure if this is good or bad but I think I should be more careful about what I read or listen to. I should filter out all the things that are unworthy of my time. Something that caught my attention in particular was this post which lists what really “determines whether someone has crossed from boyhood into manhood”.
During a visit to my hometown last week, I was just looking around and noticed how everything in and around my home, the places nearby and almost everything has a story. Its somehow connected to my life there which I will always remember. In fact, the place has changed a lot. Even my house isn’t the same. It has changed over the years. But I remember everything exactly the way it was when I was a kid. And that’s how it will forever remain etched in my memory.
I just added a new sidebar widget that shows my latest tweet posted on twitter. Its on sidebar 2 which means it will only be displayed on the home page (just below the latest sidenote). This was something I wanted to do last year when I moved to wordpress but for some reason unknown even to me, I just didn’t do it! But its on now so you can read my rants real time (and even follow me if you like the way I do it).
Remember the flying plastic bag scene from “American Beauty”? (No? Well, watch it here.) Some people loved it, some hated it. But the background music used in the scene is just mesmerizing and there’s no doubt about that. The music piece is “Any Other Name” by Thomas Newman and you can listen to the whole piece here.
Its been almost three and a half years since I stared working and to say that life’s become mundane and monotonous would be an understatement. Even going to the gym is part of the boring routine now. So I decided to try something new. Some things that I always wanted to do but never managed to get around doing. The major hurdle was that I didn’t want to be the guy who never finished what he started. But then I realized that not even giving things a try was much worse and so lately I’ve taken up not one but two things:
- German language classes: The idea of learning a foreign language had been on my mind for quite some time and since I find German easier compared to most other languages and I found a teacher, I decided to go for it. The classes are held just once a week so the progress would be slow but I think I am picking it up rather well. I’ve even been complimented by the teacher a couple of times. I hope to become proficient in speaking, reading and writing German soon.
- Guitar classes: Playing the guitar has been a childhood dream and I am really thrilled that it might become a reality soon. The classes are over the weekend and I’ve only been to three classes till now - most of which have been theoretical about musical notations. I did get to play a little bit in the last class though and I bought my first guitar yesterday. Its black, looks sexy and sounds good (in the hands of a friend, that is. I can’t play anything yet!)
I am determined to not give these up midway once the initial enthusiasm dies down. I would hate to disappoint myself. Wish me luck! Tschüs!
Raj
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