The State of Affairs

The Tillu vegetable shop is a shop in the National Khelgaon Housing Complex vicinity in
Ranchi. It is unorganised and has no proper order to its affairs. The shop owner comes to the
destined place which is located on a footpath in the Khelgaon Housing Complex and sets up
his inventory to be sold for the day in order. The shop only functions for a very limited
period of just 2.5 hours from 6pm to 8.30pm everyday. All this while, the owner of the
business remains occupied since all the residents of the complex have no other option but
to buy their vegetables for daily needs from Tillu. The environment of the mini vegetable
market that establishes everyday is very busy since there are only 3 competitors who work
together and also set the prices together. On enquiring the group was able to gather the
information that no formal permission had been given to these vegetable vendors for selling
vegetable inside the campus. The society authorities, for the convenience of the residents
had just allowed them to sell for a limited time everyday.
The daily operations for Tillu start in the very morning of the day when he goes to the
nearby “mandi” or the wholesale vegetable market and buys the vegetable in bulk. He
claimed that he buys vegetables in generous quantities but does not overbuy because he
does not have a freezer or a proper storage space for the vegetables in his small house with
a thatched roof. He then sets the price and takes care of the little inventory that he has left
from the last day of business. He comes to the footpath where he opens his business an
hour before the customers start coming. He settles the vegetables, cleans the nearby area,
sprays water on the vegetables and it is here when customers start coming. The price
setting he does is very simple, he charges, on an average, 20% above the cost that he incurs
while purchasing the vegetables at the wholesale market. He takes advantage of the fact
that nearest place where good vegetable can be bought is atleast 3-4 km from the Khelgaon
complex and therefore he charges a premium price for the convenience that he provides to
the customers.
The usual challenges faced by him are due to the external factors. The most important
factor affecting his business is weather. The crop yield depends on the weather, for
instance, an untimed rain can destroy the yield and lead to an upsurge in pricing at the
whole sale market. The weather also affects the attitude of customers, when it is raining
outside the customer prefer staying in or stocking vegetable for the week beforehand. In
this case the customer tends to mass purchase and therefore is tempted to go to the
wholesale market himself. Other factors like relationship with the supplier, cost of
transport, his own health and wellbeing etc. also affect his business is a major way.

The way forward

The biggest limiting concern for Tillu’s business right now is the fact that he doesn’t have
the ownership of a shop. He does not even have a permit or a issued place where he can
formally start selling his vegetables. The fact that he is operating from a footpath limits the
growth of his business in a major way. The place of sale of vegetable has a lot of bearing on
the customer perception of the quality of the product being sold. The customer perceives
Tillu’s vegetables as low quality as compared to the vegetable available at the wholesale
market. The fact that he himself purchases the inventory from the same wholesale market is
completely ignored, and the setting of his shop has to be a major reason behind it.
Right now, there seems to be no growth opportunity for Tillu but if he could muster up the
courage and will to talk to the society authority to assign him a proper base to start the
business which would benefit the society and him both. The society would get enough fresh
vegetables available at their disposal without needing to go to the wholesale market every
now and then. Tillu would be able to expand his business by increasing the variety and the
quantity of vegetables that he sells. He can benefit from the economy of scale if he is
assigned a proper shop inside the Khelgaon Housing Society. With this development he
would also have a proper say while buying vegetable at the wholesale market, or else he
could also start buying directly from the nearby village from where most of the vegetables
come to the wholesale market from.
There is quite a big possibility that the khelgaon housing society union president does not
agree to the arrangement of providing a permanent shop to Tillu. In that case, another
opportunity lies in the fact that he has limited his operations to a very small period of the
day that is in the evening. He could also increase the time for which he operates the
business of find two time slots, one in the morning and another in the evening so as to
capitalise on the gentry which is involved in morning walks. He could also use his credential
of being a seller in the Khelgaon Complex as a testimonial and try to find other societies in
the surrounding areas and then try to have a similar arrangement that he has in the national
games housing complex. He could also expand his operations a little bit in terms of the
inventory turnover. The vegetable that he bring is very less and the customer at times is
discouraged because he/she feels that Tillu might not have enough of a certain vegetable
and therefore avoids going to Tillu. All of the above stated operational and strategic changes
can help Tillu immensely and can improve his quality of life considerably.

Conclusion
The group was able to find several inferences from the study of the business entity “Tillu
Vegetable Shop” located in the National Games Housing Complex, Khelgaon Society. The
group also successfully studied and observed various economic concepts and factors
functioning in a real-life scenario, affecting a real business, in real time. The group was also
fairly convinced with theory and practicality of the economic factors submerged into one
and also saw how the correct understanding and application of economic concepts can
affect lives of people. Economics at the micro level could be observed in business’s everyday
operations and concepts like demand, supply, elasticity, price setting etc. could be seen in
function.
The group was also able to derive inferences from their study and interactions with the
business owner and the customers of the business about what are the state of affairs in the
current scenario. On based of these inferences the group was able to come up with
solutions to various problems faced by Tillu. The group was also able to device a strategic
plan for the growth of Tillu Vegetable Shop.