For a small kid, this video will relay a very clear message on how to get items from a shop. All he has to do is go and wave his hand with a “Hi or Hello” to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper is also fine with this attitude of people coming to his shop and saying Hi, Hello. So if it is all good, then why are we writing/reading this blog ?
The reason to write this blog is to highlight a hidden illegal trade/business that is going with non-verbal gestures. And the actual poverty level at which people are living in our society.
Let’s assume that there is a seller with the name “Seller A” of computer accessories, who is selling keyboards on an online marketplace like Flipkart. Ideally this Seller A will buy the keyboards legally by paying money and taxes to all the governments involved and also to the manufacturer in a foreign country. Let’s assume that he buys it at a lower price of Rs 100/- a piece. And tries to sell it at Rs 110/- on the online marketplace. But that does not actually happen.
What happens in this case is that the Seller A’s stock of lets say 500 keyboards is lying in Flipkart’s warehouse with no sale for several months or maybe 2 or 3 items are only sold. The remaining 497 products are occupying space, for which rent is collected from the Seller A. There is a time limit set by Flipkart, till which it will hold the products in the warehouse, which can be lets say 6 months or 1 year.
After this duration it is mandatory to either discard or return the products to the seller A.
Seller A, will not pay more money or shift products to another warehouse again to sell this product, because of the below reasons:-
1. If he is a small seller, he is already at a loss. As his total investment can never be recovered. So he will forget about making any profit now and try to reduce the loss. Because if we only add the shipping cost of the product from the manufacturer to the seller warehouse and then the end customer. Then the total shipping cost will exceed the product sale price. So he will tell Flipkart, please discard the 497 products, so he can save at least on paying more rent.
2. If he represents a very large scale selling company, then Money will not be a problem for them. But still they will also discard it, as they have to sell their next version of the latest products from the same warehouse. And as the space is limited in the warehouse, they will also request Flipkart to discard their current stock.
Now, these discarded products are perfectly fine for use but they were not purchased by a paying customer. So they are taken by the local shopkeeper for a very low price. And he can now sell it for a price not exceeding M.R.P(Maximum Retail Price) and make a marginal profit.
I have given this example for computer keyboards only, but this happens for all the products (grocery items, clothes, automobiles, electronics in all sectors)
So, we do not want to put anyone in a bad light here. Because neither the shopkeeper nor the residents have enough money to make legal purchases. And they learnt doing it this way from their ancestors, so this has been going on like this for generations, so it is ok for them.
But as it is illegal to sell/buy a product meant to be discarded. This is not clearly black or white, so we can call it a grey area which is neither right or wrong. And accept it as a failure of our society in making everyone equal.
In my opinion neither the small kid should declare it illegal. Nor should the shopkeeper(or resident) call it an insult and defend themselves by using vanity to prove their worth and financial status.
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