‘Confessions of a shopaholic’ is a movie that I completely related with. I am, I won’t deny a shopaholic. I love buying clothes and I just cannot resist captioned t-shirts. It is almost as if they speak to me, the captions are so appealing! My favorite brand for the same is People. I have been buying clothes from People from the time I started going to malls and a lot more when I started earning. I would go to the mall whenever a new collection was launched. Recently, I saw a t-shirt that said ‘Dreaming with my eyes wide open’ and I bought it immediately. They have the best t-shirts and checked shirts. Casual shirts are best for any occasion and they come in so many color combinations! People has so many options to choose from and I never return empty handed when I enter a People store.
The most important thing for a brand is its customers. There was one incident that I would like to highlight which helped me develop such a good connect with and trust on the brand. I loved a pair of shoes from the summer collection in 2016 but my size wasn’t available. I went to the counter, they promised to give me a call once the shoe is available and they actually did! I rushed to the store and they had kept the shoe aside for me. Trust a shopaholic, I have done this with many other stores but I have never received a call, ever. As small as this thing seems, it is extremely important as customer satisfaction is the key to running a huge business and Aditya Birla Group excels at it.
Each and every person’s life comes with its ups and downs and though there are many ways to celebrate, I usually go shopping. Either People or Pantaloons or Forever 21. They have the best clothes worth the price and of utmost quality. A consumer needs nothing else. As I started my job in Bangalore, there were times when I needed formals and I’d close my eyes and enter Van Heusen. The class, color, style, fit of the shirts, pants, blazers is THE best in Van Heusen. I was overjoyed when ABG acquired some rights for Forever 21 because it is my favorite brand ever! I can’t emphasize on how much. There are clothes for every occasion in one or the other ABG brands. Shopping is exciting but one should exercise control on how much they spend every month, save some money every month which goes a long way.
Another product that was important in our life was when my sister scored good marks in 12
th standard and we gifted her a phone with an idea sim. There were so many offers in all price ranges that she could manage from her pocket money itself.
The buildings that we stay in, the schools that we’ve studied in, the offices that we work in are mostly made up of Ultra tech cement. How lucky are we to have gotten the opportunity to go to school, receive proper education, get a job, work in multinational companies and furthermore, go for Masters in our fields of interest! Many of the kids in our country do not get this opportunity, some go to school but the quality of education is low and they can’t afford tuition. Hence my parents decided to teach kids by taking a minimal fee and sometimes not even that from the people who can’t afford. My father works in railways and initially we got a lot of students from his contacts but soon enough, people from other neighborhoods also contacted us. I started teaching with my parents every afternoon after my school and the kids became a major part of our lives, they still are. We had to face a lot of issues initially, managing time and resources, paying the shop rent with our own money because during some years, the fees wouldn’t cover it. But we knew that all 3 of us are passionate about teaching and that we really wanted to do this so we kept going. My father had to adjust the tuition timings according to his railway shifts because no matter what, the trains in Mumbai cannot run late. I did not give up teaching even during my boards because the kids had exams during that time too! I learned the importance of keeping others needs along with mine through teaching and that is how I along with my parents have made an impact and we continue to do so.