The Hindu Business Line : Big Bazaar bid to boost sales

Spring-cleaning is something most people put off, if they can. But novelty and innovation in retailing has changed this humdrum task into yet another exciting shopping experience for consumers across the country. Big Bazaar's `The Great Exchange Offer' has mobilised more than two lakh families to actually carry the junk of the house and offload it at the nearest Big Bazaar.

Mr Sanjeev Agrawal, President, Marketing, Pantaloon Retail, talks about the excitement it has created among housewives, "We at Big Bazaar had found that the housewife is really excited if she is able to dispose the `kachra' of her house at a value price. Thus to add excitement to our customers who are mainly housewives, we hit upon this idea where the exchange value is higher by 4 to 8 times than that of the road side kabari wala."

Other than regular throw-aways such as clothes and newspapers, people across the country have been dumping old TV sets, furniture, used mattresses and vehicle tyres at exchange counters at the retail store.

Retail analysts say that generally February and March are dull months for consumer buying in the country and therefore this kind of a promotion campaign is needed to boost sales during the period. Though exact sales figures for the two months were not available, Mr Agrawal pointed said that the same store year-on-year growth registered by their value retail business in the month is approximately 30 per cent. "Shopping in terms of buying season and spending is very different in the months of January and February - March," he says and therefore a comparison with the previous month would be inaccurate.

Pantaloon currently has 24 Big Bazaar hypermarkets across the country and revenues from value retailing in February '06 stood at Rs 91.49 crore.