The Reception Counter

Retail Management

 We the management students have a very limited amount of time in our hands. Each subject has to be finished in appx. 36 hrs (3 hrs * 12 sessions). The vastness of this subject (Retail Management) has made this time limit the shackles that circumscribe the quantum of study that can be pursued.

 Humans absorb information primarily through the 5 senses and conjure this information and form a learning. But the fastest & the permanent way of learning, research has shown, is practical experience. This practical adventure has to be preceded by an information session. This has been excellently applied in Retail Management.

 Retail is an Art. Retail is a Science, an applied science i.e. and an Applied science is never taught completely without applying it. So here we are with a project for us, to make a retail store and apply as much brains as one can possibly apply and create a creation. And thus cometh the grandeur of THE joint,

, the place where you can relax, have a Cigar or a Cigarette or a Sheesha with your favorite drink and Starters & enjoy the lounge music, chill out. Get away from the hectic city life; experience the rural India right in the heart of your city.

This, friends were the thoughts coming to our minds concurrently. We had an amazing brainstorming session which led to the success of the execution of this concept.

 When we sat down to brainstorm as to what should be the store that we will create, the proposal that was coming forth with great strength was, to have music and people therein should feel elated... sounds like a dope joint, doesn’t it?? JJJ

 Anyways, another suggestion that was being resounded by all of us was to have some place which is not a typical store like the Big Bazaar. Yes the most common theory of placement of goods and the stacking etc. would be applied but there was very little room for creativity to seep in, we wanted something which was novel.

 Finally we resolved to let it be a concept rather than a copy of something else, it had to be our baby. Thus the process of enumerating all the concepts that we could think of started. We had, since we started, an exhaustive list of concepts that we could think of, all of which were very novel and very exciting. Therefore the elimination process ensued.

Everyone was hooked on to at least three ideas that had to be subsumed in THE joint i.e. THE joint

a)     had to do something with music.

b)    had to be exciting to work on and relaxing to be in.

c)     had to do something with tobacco.

Some comments

The Palm Tree in the centre of the room

The initial idea was to sell tobacco & all its allied products, maybe in a Baskin Robins type of a setup, but the idea soon gave way to a place where people could sit and enjoy the tobacco.

 Once the products were finalized we went on to create the look...

Oh! How we wanted to paint the wall in all possible colors, but the instructions were clear, no paint on the walls and no nails and tapes hither thither. Our Elysium to paint the college our color was disenchanted.

The most difficult part was the name of THE joint. But where there is a will there is a way, similarly where there is a cigarette there is smoke, in other words, thus the name and it’s a lounge thus

 The best time that we've had in this whole operation was when we were transforming the room to be the best.

 Well the products were finalized, the setting; rural and the place serene. But then again something was amiss. The look and the feel was still not complete, that excitement and that east meets west idea was not emerging the way it was supposed to. That was when this wave hit us & hit us so hard that we embodied it immediately and thus was born the movie section. This was the place where a movie was playing (Mackena's Gold) a western classic and an all time favorite. This brings in many facets to the place. It is not only a good way to say that “Hey this is the place which is classic and all time favorite” but also keeps some motion in the background and avoids the static syndrome.

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