I hope that you enjoy reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where eleven of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Padmum. The ten other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, Padmum, Paul, Rohit,Shackman, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!
Indians are funny when it comes to shopping. I don’t mean that they are funny when it comes to day to day purchases made for the home like grocery, vegetables etc. I mean when they have to buy slow moving consumer items like white goods, clothes, jewelry etc. We have special auspicious days spread over the year to buy most of these things and so merchants have significant swings in their inventory/sales operations. We have a series of Black Fridays throughout the year.
This phenomenon cuts across all religions for clothes. Diwali for Hindus, Id for Muslims and Christmas for Christians. During these ‘seasons’, as they are called, advertising revenues also fluctuate and so we have an economy that is perpetually in a see saw motion.
Gold and jewelry have a special attraction too for seasonal buying. These were the days in the current year.
For the rest of the year, things are rather slow except during the wedding seasons, yes we have those too based on what astrologers advise, when cutting across all the religions, sales for clothes and jewelry boom again.
When it comes to buying vehicles, I suspect that a cabal of vehicle manufacturers have bribed all the astrologers in our country and they have spread the auspicious days more or less evenly over the year.
I personally do not indulge in shopping sprees. My non essential purchases are restricted to books which I almost inevitably buy online. I have a favourite online portal that keeps me completely satisfied. I however buy hard copies of books only when they are cheaper than Kindle editions. Naturally, I buy the kindle books from Amazon. I have not ventured into buying any Kindle competitor’s offereings. Not yet.
No, despite being funny, Indians do not have an equivalent to the Black Friday. Our merchants have this uncanny ability to offer clearance sales after every seasonal peak and the seasoned buyer waits for these to be announced.
Nuts.
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