To the “class” conscious society ladies, do you sell the merchandise or the price tag? An interesting proposition indeed. Especially in a group setting where every one wishes to score a point over the others, price tags are displayed with more passion than the premium item itself. I saw this happening in a well known Sari Shop at Coimbatore in South India which is frequented by the society “lady wives” of the defense service officers undergoing training at the elite staff college at Wellington, Nilgiris nearby.
Soth Indian silk sari is always a great attraction for ladies of all walks of life. But for a lady from the high rungs of society like the defense forces, it has an added snobbish value and the benchmarking is done not by the fine texture or weaving technique of the sari but by the price tags which the sari carries. As these ladies from Wellington descend on the shop in groups, the discerning salesmen in the shop developed a technique by which the sari is displayed to the group announcing its price rather than its special feature and the snobbish ladies scramble to possess the highest price tags and boast about it in social forums thereafter with visible pride to the great discomfort of the spouses.
The sari shop’s profit margin is anybody’s guess and they put all their energy in creating attractive price tags for otherwise mediocre material and reap rich dividends. This technique is also employed by sellers of premium jewelery, watches and any other wares which gets associated with societal ranking. A sound technique to convert snobbery to cash!!