Life has been pretty good and busy. Infact the goodness of being busy is better than life being good. Since I was very busy with work and some chores of my life, I have not gotten time to write down anything that had crossed my mind. But today my friend is right next to me, making me write a story. He said this story is a must share with the people in Sajha. Because this is not only our story but the mentality that had been engraved in the mindsets of the salesmen in Kathmandu for years.

When I was doing my Bachelors and one of my papers was marketing, we were taught not to judge our customers by their outlook, right away. Sometimes a rich guy can just walk into a store in his half pants and slippers. A lot of times you need to let your costumer speak  his demand or you ask a lot of questions to understand his requirement. There is another very big lesson that one of my uncles,who is a businessman told me once, “ When a customer comes to your shop to get oranges, and you don’t have those, make sure that you make him feel that apples are equally beneficial and can be a pretty good replacement for the citrus need”.

So, the story begins like this. Three friends i.e. my friend here who I will address as K, another friend who wanted to buy a mobile who will be called A and I, your faithfully went to New Road. Why New Road, is because from Pipolbot( Remember Photo Concern?) till the end of the road that goes to RB Complex ( that is old Purano Bhansar area) its full of mobiles and gadgets shops. There is this BIG gadget shop. The biggest in the entire lane, it’s in Tamrakar Complex, the name of the shop is Virgin mobiles (I have no freaking idea why it is named Virgin mobiles…..maybe because they sell mobiles which are Virgin?)

After a lot of discussion where to go, we decided to go to this shop, since K convinced A and me that this is a genuine shop.  So there were 4 different counts which apparently sell 4 different company mobiles. Since Mr. A wanted to buy Nokia X2, we went to the Nokia counter. A very uninterested girl was standing there. We asked her if she can show us that model. The first answer was,” khai malai taha bhayena, ma dai lai sodhchu”. I gave both of my friends WTF look, coz she doesn’t even know what all mobiles she got in her counter. Anyway, she signals this DUDE aka her dai ( yes coz I think he wants me to address him with that name) to come to this side. I don’t know the exact word in English but in Nepal we call this behavior “ Maskinu”. He was doing that with another lady in his side of the counter. So after couple of seconds, very uninterestingly getting up he started chatting on his fancy phone. Came this side, and K asked for that model we were looking for. Not even raising his eyes or head he just said CHAINA. Mr. A is a chilled guy, he said ok and started walking, K told me, “looks like he doesn’t want to sell any mobile and take it with him to hell” and For me I actually wanted to show this guy a middle finger and walk away but , I only said 2 lines, “ if this is the way these guys are doing business, I won’t be surprised they will shut down pretty soon and infact I want this place to shut down if they cant provide customer service”.

We all walked out of there. I wanted to go back and give some piece of my mind when A asked me to breathe in and out and chant OMMMMMMM. So I smiled and we all walked inside this huge mall. This is a super market for mobiles and laptops. So we were confused which one to go to. So smartly K, said” let’s do a random sampling, let me just walk into one”. So we started looking and on 5^th floor he walked inside a store alone.

After roughly 2-3 minutes, he comes out pretty pissed. Before I even ask anything, he counter asks me, Do I look like someone who doesn’t carry an expensive phone? I was totally surprised by his question but calmly replied, Bud! You are wearing Vans original, you smell CK, your tee shirt is John Player and you got Tissot watch on your wrist. If I was a salesman, my reading would be you have either Iphone or a Samsung in your pocket and even if all this was not there, I would have targeted to sell the best product to you. Why do you ask?

He explained that the guy in that shop didn’t even bother to get up and ask what he wants, after couple of seconds, when K asked him if they have X2,the salesman told him that they don’t sell camera. A bit agitated K said it’s a mobile phone, the guy in the counter again asked him if he wants a mobile with a camera, then my friend here, gave up and walked out after saying thank you!

Both of the guys in these shops were Nepali. If it was a marwadi guy in these shops, he would have showed us 10s of other mobile phones and would have confused us completely and convinced us that there are better option than this. He would have provided us with cold drinks, as it was a pretty hot day, or coffee in winters. Why are we Nepalis so laid back or least bothered? Why cant we have sales target? Why are we always so compromising? Is that why 7 out of 10 top businessmen of Nepal are Marwadis? Even the only billionaire of Nepal is a Marwadi family.( I am sorry but I don’t think they are Nepali in anyway, they reside in Nepal and most of their investments are in India or other countries, if their business collapse tomorrow, they will not lose anything but Nepali Economy will crash). I might sound very biased and a castist here but this is the truth. We Nepalis are too busy pulling each other’s legs where people from other countries are cashing out from here. We have tried really hard not to get pissed but hell these salesman are trained not for customer service but try our patiences.

Next time someone does this to me, I swear I will talk to the manager and believe me its not gonna be good!

Invaded?? Lol....I haven't seen any "marbaadee" marauding in business malls with weapons in hands and threatening any customers to buy their products but unlike Nordic Vikings...these folks do know how to pull all the dough from your wallets with their sugar-coated talks and enterpreneul skills before you know it.One thing for sure,these folks possess a high-octane dedication for their business and their work ethics are just mind-blasting.They take a day off from their work only when they are getting married,or if someone is born or if some one died..lol. and I haven't seen any "marwadee" or "munsee"(that's what I call them!) who doesn't respect money and are always prudent in saving every penny,which,of course,will certainly help them to establish their empire,slowly-but-surely.

The young folks working in such gadgets-shops as a salesman/saleswomen are mostly college students,working with a microscopic salary,who,most of the time are just there for the sake of being there,working to fill their expense-bills of student-life,missing most of the biz acumens their boss inherited.One shouldn't also expect a terrific sales skills in return from someone who is attending Govt.college with a political science as a major,or say,RD?

The laid-back,sit-back-and-relax,procrastinating-much,mind-set of many Nepali folks have created a big gulf of enterpreneul vacuum in all areas of business in Nepal and "marwadees" are always there in look-out for such profiteering ( in a good way) and are cashing in it,day in,day out.Also,we Nepali folks always prefer to have a nice "Jagir" rather than opening a new start-up of any kind,beginning something on our own.But whatever the case,one must pass the task to some other folks if he/she is unqualified for the duty the task required.Next time,if I got chance to visit the long aisle of New road tech-bazaar,I would certainly share few helpful tips to our sales folks on "how to make your boss rich and customers happy while picking all the skills to make your own empire some day( wishful thinking??) slowly-but-surely".

Alias......invading the country with the invisible weapon call skill in business....the only thing i defer here is that they dont have ethics in business.... the only principle is money....as long as it is coming they dont care ehat they are selling.
For example couple of months back when wai wai was declaired as the brand of nepal, a week layer, quality check raided them and found out that they havent changed the frying oil for a year. Now tell me this is the best brand of Nepal:)

Ambii...they never change the nasty,sticky,icky,gooey oil they put in their hair for years.....so,we shouldn't be expecting such "changing" in the food they fried and sell?

Eeeewwww now that is a bad one....lol....but still frying in an year old oil? We all die of cancer

K-K-K-Cancer?? you kidding!!....now I know why they have already invested a big volume of dough in hospitals and medical faculties..."laddus"in both hands!!

Let me search for the link where the news was shared
They also use a lot if ajinomoto which is extremely bad for health though it tastes good

LOL why are we stuck with wai wai :) to begin with any packaged food that comes pre cooked/post cooked is harmful to us.

BTW Amby, I have been mistreated so many times in shops or even restaurants, that now all I do or say is , thanks and leave the place knowing that I would never go back to that place. Its even horrible that they look you toe to head, and then tell you, they have nth that i could afford!! so yes, shopkeepers here dont know how to treat their customers..

The title is bit misleading since the write up is more about bad customer service by Nepali shopkeepers. Nepali businessmen have mentality of "किने किन नत्र बाल मतलब" This kind of mentality is not very conducive to good business but they don't know any better because their ego is more important than business profit.

On the other hand, for marwadis, business profit is more important than ego, that's why they flourish in business.

Funtush....like i said their profit making is the only thing that they think...rest they dont have any ethics

The sweeping statements and broad generalizations you make about the preferences and abilities of an entire ethnic group based on your shopping experience shows your prejudice. No one is a saint and I am sure I myself discriminate against certain people and groups, sometimes without even realizing it. But stating that all Marwadi people have no ethics is straight up discriminatory.

Haribansa,
Where have i used All...... mine is a general term....you have your right to have your view but so do I.
If you have done research you know how samplings are done.....so if out of 100samples 90 comes out bad.....what do you conclude?

Mercy coz what i read was about wai wai that is wht:)

I have been doing business with nepalese for about 6 years now and believe me you need a lot of patience. one of the worst attitudes we nepalese have is the attitude of "Bhai Halcha Ni." When you have this kind of attitude, you never aim for perfection in any field of business.

मेरो दोस्तले एउटा माग्नेलाई जमानामा ५ रुपैया दियो किनभने कहिँ सुनिएको थिएन एक रुपैया पाउ भन्ने : चार आना आठ आना कै जमाना थियो | खाट्टी नेपालि पन देखायो सोमले : यही माग्ने जस्तै हौ हामि ! फेरी गोर्खेले के खोक्यो भन्नु होला : आठाना मागेको भए बेलुकी सम्मा १०-१२ रुपैया भै सक्थ्यो होला रुपैया मागेको ले त्यो दिन मेरा दोस्त जस्तो भेट भएकोले ५ भेट्यो |
थोपा थोपा भएर गिलास भरिन्छ मा हामि जादैनौ | मधिसेले तरकारी पुरानो हुनलागेको देखे पछि भाउ घटाई सबै बेच्छ हाम्रा नेपालीले सडाएर फ़्याक्छन, भाउ घटाउनु जात र स्वभावको बिपरित हो , बाघले घास खाएको देख्नु, सुन्नु  भएको छ : हामि नेपालि तेही बाघ हौ : आदतासे मजबुर |

Hahahahha magorkhe1 le chahi aaja mann jitnu bho hai mero lol

Hurray bhal halcha matrai hoina......kinney,kincha nabhaye jaos bhaad ma ho attitude

aha the marwadis know how many languages? and they feed you cold drinks and samosas and get that money back from your pocket.