Sachin Nagori won’t forget the occasion in a hurry. It isn’t often that an unknown businessman in distant Aurangabad is chased by The New York Times or The Times of India for an interview. Or have Wilfried Aulbur, the then managing director of Mercedes Benz India, drop by at his house.
Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Aurangabad was a typical Marathwada town. People were primarily into agriculture and industry mainly comprised local units in textiles, silver and gold handicrafts, which were sold to eager tourists. The creation of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in the late ’80s saw the arrival of big business houses like Bajaj Auto and Garware.
As a result, Big Bazaar, located on Jalna Road and one of the first retail outlets to set up shop, does not have the clean straight aisles of a typical Western supermarket. “The design allowed more people to talk, discuss and then decide, unlike in the West. And the customer is doing nothing but getting another pair of senses along with him,” says Mall. The idea was to make it look like a value and bargaining place. And almost on cue, customers invariably ask for discounts. Mall says he finds the highest level of bargaining in the Swiss watch counter. “It is not that the average Indian consumer is out there to splurge. The intent to extract value is still very strong,” he adds.
(This story appears in the 11 March, 2011 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
There are a few nuances missing; guess that\'s because of space constraint. I\'ve always maintained that the Aurangabad boom is primarily because of the 3-4 MIDC clusters. Fuelled by the proliferation and industriousness of the SMBs; when the economy opened up (in the 90s), Aurangabad was prepared, just right, to ride the growth curve. And it\'s not only being vendors for the large companies in Waluj or other MIDCs, these guys export to the world. Plus a lot have expanded beyond A\'bad and have bases in Mumbai. Sure it was piggyback but the important thing is these guys were prepared for the ride. This industrial boom had a cascading impact on the incomes of people at large. That fuelled everything- from consumer demand to realty prices. Even the number of successful professionals in A\'bad like Doctors, Architects, CAs etc. is phenomenal. One and all are reaping the benefits of this boom that had manufacturing at it\'s roots. The boom phenomenon has reached inflection in the last decade and maybe we need to figure out enablers for the next decade. Else we\'d saturate, like so many others, in my humble opinion. Forbes ought to definitely do a feature on some of the real heroes of Aurangabad. I know quite a few of them. Would love to read how they achieved this tremendous success, their journey from their shoes! It would be great inspiration for the 100 odd tier 2/3 towns in India.
on Mar 3, 2013Fantastic article on the Merc city - The Forbes team has captured the spirit of Aurangabad very well ! Well done Ashish Mishra
on Mar 3, 2011I think in the coming years Aurangabad will make it big, watch out closely.
on Mar 1, 2011we are proud to be the citizen of Aurangabad. Thanks Forbes India for sharing.
on Mar 1, 2011we are proud to be the citizen of Aurangabad. Thanks Forbes India for giving highlights to this historical City.
on Mar 1, 2011