The enemy is...

Visited a supermarket of the "we have met the enemy..." category . 

A lot of the large format food retailers in India seem to revel in adding to the cacophony and the decibel level in-store . Star Bazar on Link Road , Mumbai has taken that literally to a whole new level . But for the aisles stocked with food stuff one would have imagined it to be a pub or a disco given the choice of music and the decibel level . One had to focus to remember what all needed to be purchased .

The music was playing across all parts of the store ( and the parking area !) . On the upper level they have a book store . Perhaps they are of the belief that loud , racy music aids book sales.

The decibel level and the choice of music was a source of distraction and annoyance to several consumers . Especially older consumers who had to speak louder to communicate among themselves . Everyone had to speak louder to be heard.  The decibel level poses a health risk to employees .

The checkout lanes are slow , several cash counters are unmanned leading to long queues in the counters which were operational . Harried customers and employees . Took 15-20 mins of waiting for the billing to be completed .

In most urban areas of India the road and traffic conditions are terrible . As citizens , businesses and a nation we are paying an enormous price in terms of loss of time and productivity . For a time crunched consumer - an organization that consistently demonstrates respect for the consumer's time can gain the consumer's loyalty . Especially since the quality of product , service is many categories is fractionally different between the players in that category .

Why is the obvious so difficult to see ?