Everyday is a special day. Every day of the year is almost
celebrated nowadays - to commemorate an event or to remember someone. Usually
celebrations are done to perpetuate the remembrance of the day at least once a
year for things gone by! We celebrate birthdays and memorial days. Perhaps it
all began in the Biblical Days when people had to be helped to remember
important days in History so that they could continuously cling to God and
religious disciplines. Later, the focus on the celebrations and remembrances of
days might have moved towards human beings and mundane events!
Our ancestors perhaps never had to celebrate Father’s Day or Mother’s
Day to remember their parents. They were so much an integral part of their
lives, though they may not have been in touch with them everyday. I have always
wondered why the Son’s and Daughter’s Day is not celebrated with as much pomp and
glory as the Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are celebrated. There is no separate
Son’s Day yet, though! Perhaps consequent to a yet strong or binding relationship
that is nurtured by parents that they do not have to celebrate these days to
remember children! May be it is the children who have lost the strength of the
bond (often leaving parents to feel like a weaned child!), that they have to
celebrate a Father’s Day or a Mother’s Day to remember them! Some argue that
the Father’s Day and Mother’s Day would suffice for the parents too to remember
their children. Hence there is no need for separate days to be found to
commemorate in reciprocation! Critiques reveal that these days have been called
into existence for commercial reasons – reasons to sell greeting cards, gifts
and bouquets!
Let me come to the brass tacks of business. B. S. Nagesh, the
founding CEO of Shoppers’ Stop who is known in the Indian retailing circles as
the Pioneering Modern Retail Professional conceptualized a Day to recognize and
reward the achievements of the front-end sales and service personnel. He calls
it the Retail Employees Day with an acronym RED! He gives an opportunity to the
sales and service people every year to tell of their great deeds – where they
have gone the extra mile to satisfy customers! Some argue that people in the
service industry have to serve by going the extra mile all the time as hygiene
need. They quiz the very need to talk about the demands of the nature of the
job and fulfillment of the job’s responsibilities! Others say that it is only
just and fair to recognize and reward the best. Yet one may say that millions
of floor personnel are serving customers on the shop floors day in and day out
in the retailing continent of India and it may help to remind every one of them
to excel in delighting customers. And reward the best among them!
India’s Father of Brick and Mortar Retailing, Kishore Biyani
conceptualized many significant days to celebrate on his shop floors. The most
significant of them are The National Festival Holiday Day Sale (that eventually
got extended as The National Festival Holiday Week!) and The Big Billion Day
Sales. He has marked the days to shake his customers out of the comfort zones
of their homes on National Festival Holidays and make them go to his
stores in loads every year!
It’s now the turn of the billion dollar online retailers. They sell
at less prices. Customers can enjoy additional value. That’s super value! And
here comes one more day – The Super Value Day!
We are sure to have many genres of retailers who would be competing
to establish their own ‘days’. On the other hand, we would have our retail
floor personnel vying with each other for achieving excellence.
Now for the doyens of Indian retailing and for all that they have
done, the retailing posterity may remember them and ask the Shakespearean way, “Were
these the faces that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?”
- Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani
