The Hindu Business Line : Opportunity to serve

As a group they are Chennai’s fastest growing businesses — the support service providers such as caterers, babysitters, crèche owners, home-delivery services, all of whom keep the city ticking. From grandmothers who have turned babysitters to housewives who have become computer savvy, from fresh graduates to professionals, there’s now a growing opportunity for all.

The growth of services was first prompted in the food department by the diehard Chennaiite. For a very long time, the Chennai conservative was content to eat idli, sambar and thayir saadam at home. The advent of multinational companies, and with them the expats and people from other parts of India, changed all that. The Chennaiite started to hear about enchilada and ravioli and dhal makhni and sarson ka saag in the same breath as the dosai and the vadai. Slowly at first, but with increasing fervour, he started to venture out and soon eating-out became a way of life — even more than eating at home.

Quickly, enterprising folks set up business and started bringing these different delicacies right to the Chennaiite’s home. Small birthday parties, dinner for two, food service for ten — the diner’s wish became the restaurateur’s command and just over a phone call. No hunting for recipes or shopping for ingredients or biting one’s nails in anxiety over a new dish-in-the-making. Says Sunita, “The ‘ordering in’ is a boon for my family; my husband is vegetarian and I love my meat. I would die if I had to cook two meals…”

For the Chennaiite, takeouts, home delivery and eating out have all become means of survival, not luxuries. And she/he is equally fond of instant foods.

And it is not just food that the Chennaiite is ordering over phone. Home-delivery offers range from medicines to groceries to fresh vegetables and maid service. So much so that mobile phone address-books are packed with multiple vendors under various services.

A big incentive on offer from the neighbourhood store is instant credit; everyone has a monthly account. In fact, a family may even have multiple accounts with a unique personal identification number for each member for individual orders. Monali’s husband, Santosh, even uses special hand signs to order his favourites as he drives past the store in his car. A ‘V’ sign means two packs of his favourite cigarettes will arrive at the house within five minutes, a circle will fetch him a bottle of soda. And the storekeepers promise to keep individual orders confidential!

Meanwhile, retired Chennaiites are discovering a new after-worklife… babysitting. With an increasing number of Chennai women doing the nine-to-five, the services of reliable babysitters are hot in demand. Sunita has the security of a retired schoolteacher in her building. “She is so good with my daughter and teaches her so many things. I don’t ever want to move from here,” she says. But, above all, one service that’s proving the city has truly “arrived” is that of the ‘at home’ personal trainer. Just imagine… no more ‘driving’ somewhere convenient for a morning walk, no public display of bulges in skin-fit leotards, no peer pressure to step it up on the treadmill… this lucky Chennaiite competes only with himself and his full-sized mirror.

More Stories on : Lifestyle | Entrepreneurship

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Opportunity to serve

Hum… hamare filmi geet browser’s corner