A few years ago, the Bangalore shoppers’ hub buzzed around the prominent roads — Avenue Road, K G Road, M G Road, Brigade Road and of course, the Commercial Street, commercially an identity by itself. The shopping hub then gradually moved to various Janata Bazaars, during the Janata regime, shopping hubs for the Aam Janata. This Aam Janata too soon became a little complex with changing life styles and hence complexes and plazas mushroomed in the heart of the city, as well as in the suburbs.

Again, with the changing times, we had the emergence of the great Indian middle class — which has small budgets but big ambitions. This heralded the coming of mega malls, giving them a new identity of the Great Indian Middle Class shopper’s hub.

One thing that has not changed in these changing times is the provisos at these places, the three basic needs, roti, kapada aur not the makaan but the paraphernalia for every makaan; and expectations from all these shopping hubs never seem to have been belied, be it then or now.

These places have also provided the much needed entertainment in life, be it through the dozens of theatres doling out Bollywood, Kollywood and Mollywood movies on K G Road or Hollywood movies on M G Road, giving way to present day multiplexes with their prohibitive price tags.

The lop side to all these malls is that of the disappearing ingenious, all knowing, knowledgeable, salesman who would recommend to you the right product. One would visit a particular shop more for the allure of a particular salesman at the counter. From saris to chappals, trousers to hair dyes, he would recommend if it suited us or not.  He would recommend the accessories based on the company and its reputation. The present day shopper seems to have been more well-informed, more knowledgeable, but in my opinion the fact remains that the man behind the sales counter makes a lot of difference.

In most of the shops, the present day salesmen are 20 somethings, swinging around the shops unaware of their purpose — untrained, callous, non-communicative. Their chief concern seems nothing other than the pay check at the end of the month. These youngsters are at times, chatting away on the mobile phone — discourteously ignoring the customer. Sometimes, sitting idly. And more often than not the boys and girls are busy chatting or permit me to say, flirting around the shop with no shop manager to take charge as an overseer. The job loyalty too seems to have taken a beating and today the salesman you see may not be there at the next visit.

Six decades ago, one of the most remembered playwright Arthur Miller wrote the classic, Death of a Salesman, making the character Willy Lowman immortal with his death, proving that we need more such of Willys to light up the stores. The products in the stores may be plenty, but they are lifeless; the products and the mega malls selling these branded products get life from the salesman and his humane touch. Let us bring back life in the stores, let us awaken the salesman.