Indian retail comes of age !

When we were kids we were taken for a short 1 day or mostly half a day trips/picnics in school bus , one class at a time to some place inside the city. Aim was to have an outing and give kids a chance to learn and experience things outside their classrooms and books , the places you were taken to used to depend on how old you were. I remember going to see factories which had big machines , centers of science research , planetarium , parks , zoo , museums etc ( depending on what was available in the area). As you grew older , longer outings were planned for a few days with visits to some good holiday spot or a big city , but all these visits had at least one 'industrial visit' as part of the tour to ensure that parents are convinced that kids not only have fun , but also 'learn' something !

Last week , I had visited Bangalore and had to get a few essential household items , so decided to go to a Big Bazaar outlet nearby. This wasn't such a big outlet , it did have ground floor and first floor but this was by far the smallest store i have seen of the retail chain. Guess they have a store every few kms in B'lore . Now as we were entering , my mom and I noticed a long line of young students wearing blue and white uniform with a badge which proclaimed that they were from a school nearby gathering patiently outside the store ; We went in and saw a couple of teachers talking to someone inside the store. We were doing our shopping when we noticed the students entering slowly in a single file ,with teacher in tow constantly reminding them to be quiet and only to look and not touch what is on display. They went slowly through almost all aisles on both floors and were stopped once a while by teachers who kept explaining something And within 15-20 min they had covered the store and slowly moved out. The kids were apparently made 'aware' of super markets , how various items were stocked and got to observe how 'buying and selling' happened in markets !

Guess Indian retail industry really has come of age if 8 year olds are taken to educative field trips in middle class shopping centers ! Big Bazaar has joined the factories , reservoirs , museums as place to observe and learn for kids !!! This is probably a good indicator of how we have changed as a society , i remember things didn't look very rosy initially for organized retail , but slowly but steadily it has surely caught on with Indian middle class !