All Those Market People

Market is flooded today with things we could not have imagined earlier. Call it the gift of globalization or liberalization. And all those market people who are flooding our market with products they cannot sell in their own backyard are here not because of their love for us. They are here for the love of lucre. Service providers of all kind are here, not so much because they want to provide service. They are here to force money out of our pocket. Complex as modern lives have become, these market people seem to have solutions for all of them. There is a new business mantra doing rounds these days: every challenge presents an opportunity. Everybody with any business acumen is out to exploit the situation to the hilt. Nothing new really. Only the emphasis is new, and often this emphasis is carried too far and at a heavy cost to us consumers. One of the solutions provided by these market people is flooding market with food supplements. Amway is a big name. And so is Lupin. Its Wellness Noni is a food supplement, an anti-oxidant vying and competing with Amway's food supplement and anti-oxidants. It would seem that they are interested in your health. So they are here. Not true. They are interested in your wealth. So they are here. I say so because the things they bring in the market are so exorbitantly priced that you will be hard put to buy them. And they will make it look so very essential for your day-to-day life that you will be forced to buy them through your nose. Its another matter that you and I are not in a position to ascertain the genuineness of what is on offer. But the cost! Its simply incredible. Why should a pack of 100 tablets cost more than Rs. 2000/- is really hard to understand. Likewise, there are many things in the market today that claim to have been drawn directly from the nature and made available to you at a cost that will simply rob you off of whatever you have in your pocket. This seems to be the latest mantra of these market people. Bring every single penny out from the consumers' pockets.

Now with 51% FDI in single-brand retailing and 100% in wholesale cash and carry trade having been allowed, the Walmarts, the Tescos and the Tarrefours will spring up in our neighbourhood and will change our life style for ever. We will be forced to forget whatever our seniors, our ancestors have bequeathed to us. Maybe, we might as well become part of the stone age that is long forgotten and the posterity will read about us occasionally in history. The moot point is--are we ready for that?