Tag Archive for 'no trust principle'

All Indian systems, unfortunately, are built on the no trust principle. This applies to shopping too. You need to deposit everything you have at a counter before entering a shopping store. This can be extremely tedious if you are just carrying a water bottle (you have to deposit that too) or a shopping bag from another store.

But things are changing. Last weekend I went to the Inorbit Mall in Malad. I had a water bottle with me. I was expecting the gaurd to ask me to deposit it as I entered the Spencer Hypermall. Instead, he put a small sticker on it! No long lines to reclaim my water bottle. That was cool!

Similar thing happened when I was entering HyperCity (also in Malad). I had purchased a couple of books at Crossword. I went to the counter to hand in my bag. I was expecting them to give me a token (to pick up the bag later when I exited). Instead they did something smart: They sealed the bag with one of the plastic locks (see photo).

What incentives do the shopkeepers have? They don’t have to worry about forgotten items and need less space and staff to keep track of deposited items. There is also a small tribe of people who will say “oh! F**k it, I’m not going to deposit this…I really don’t need to go to this store.” These two innovations will bring these customers into the store.