The barber and his art
I have noticed in 1983 itself that the vegetable market in most localities in Mumbai were operating on the streets with their wares being spread on sacks which they roll up at the end of the day and carry home.There were very few vegetable shops operating under permanent structures indicating that the volume of business and the revenue generated rendered a business model with monthly rental outflow unviable.
A couple of days back, I was on strolling in the neighbourhood. Somebody wished me and stopped his moped. The guy looked very familiar but I could not place him. He understood as much from my expression and told me that he was our neighbourhood barber. He gave me his mobile number and told me that he would come home if I wanted to have my hair cut. I was perplexed and asked him the reason for embarking on such a service.He said that he found it unviable to operate from a permanent set up paying rent. His neighbours were internet cafe, medical shop etc and he was not able to afford the rent.
There is another barber shop in the neighbourhood who might end up in the same plight. This guy is totally is out of tune with times with Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit looking down at the customers from the Bombay Dyeing calender cut outs of early 90s !
The only one who would survive is another barber in the market complex- this guy is providing a holistic solution to hair dressing and also gives free massage though his workers gave an impression that their expertise lie in wrestling and not in massaging . He has a lot of solutions to wash one's hair- some of the cients have to bend forward into a wash basin for the wash and some others have to bend backwards for their wash in basins kept behind the reclining chairs- I feel the type of hair one has determines the direction of the wash.
Both the barber shops which were/are in a poor ways have newspapers for time pass. This modern barber has a lot of page 3 magazines for time pass.He has a TV which is always tuned to some channel showing skimply clad young ones prancing around to some song or the other which keep the clients glued.
Changing times call for new revolutionary business models !
A couple of days back, I was on strolling in the neighbourhood. Somebody wished me and stopped his moped. The guy looked very familiar but I could not place him. He understood as much from my expression and told me that he was our neighbourhood barber. He gave me his mobile number and told me that he would come home if I wanted to have my hair cut. I was perplexed and asked him the reason for embarking on such a service.He said that he found it unviable to operate from a permanent set up paying rent. His neighbours were internet cafe, medical shop etc and he was not able to afford the rent.
There is another barber shop in the neighbourhood who might end up in the same plight. This guy is totally is out of tune with times with Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit looking down at the customers from the Bombay Dyeing calender cut outs of early 90s !
The only one who would survive is another barber in the market complex- this guy is providing a holistic solution to hair dressing and also gives free massage though his workers gave an impression that their expertise lie in wrestling and not in massaging . He has a lot of solutions to wash one's hair- some of the cients have to bend forward into a wash basin for the wash and some others have to bend backwards for their wash in basins kept behind the reclining chairs- I feel the type of hair one has determines the direction of the wash.
Both the barber shops which were/are in a poor ways have newspapers for time pass. This modern barber has a lot of page 3 magazines for time pass.He has a TV which is always tuned to some channel showing skimply clad young ones prancing around to some song or the other which keep the clients glued.
Changing times call for new revolutionary business models !
Comments
Post a Comment