Have some hot egg puffs ?

I haven't travelled much outside Tamil Nadu. My farthest north is Thirupathi!. But just by the question-knowledge ( Kelvi Ghyanam ), I fell Chennai is the city which got most number of tea shops. Most of them open at morning 4 AM and close at 11 PM at night. 

These shops have their own way of selling. A crowded shop, that too in the prime-time its hard to get a cup of tea. You can get an autograph from Power Star easily, but not a single cup of tea from the master. We have to stand next to the hot boiler and watch the tea master like a eagle. As soon as he keeps the glass, we have to grab it, otherwise someone will take it and again we have to wait for 2-3 mins. There is not much “selling technique” needed in these crowded shop, the demand keeps them going.

I don't know how to label this selling, lets say “Persuasive selling”, in Tamil we term it as “Kuvi kuvi vikuradu”. You can see this kind of selling in places where the supply (tea shop) easily satisfy the demand (customer). One such place is near Sathyam theater, Royapettah. 

After a long time, in fact after an year, I went to Sathyam last week. Left and right to the main entrance there are cluster of tea shops. I’m not sure about the ones on the right to Sathyam as they are always crowded. There is this shop in left, the very next shop, right next to the gate. This is a one-man tea shop. We can get anything- from different lemon juices, softdrinks, tea, puffs, weekly magazine, newspaper, cigarettes, etc..

As there was still 40 mins for the show, I thought of having something chill to beat the summer heat. When I went near the shop, I didn't even attempt to ask the shop-guy anything, but he asked “Sir, enna venum?”. I said “Oru lime”. Boom in few seconds the lime was ready. He asked me if I want some egg puffs. I said no and walked away from the shop. Having the lime and noticing the theatrics of the mini-police station outside the theater. 

The shop was little long for a normal tea shop. One end on the left- juices and magazines. The other end on the right is tea and eatables. A guy with a blue shirt came from the left and asked for puffs, while tea shop guy was walking to the right to take the puffs another guy with a red T-shirt came and asked for a tea. As usual the tea shop guy asked this red T-shirt to have puffs, he said no, but by this time, the tea shop guy had already taken the puff and cut into two pieces and offered it to the red T-shirt. But the red T-Shirt was in no mood to take it and refused. The puff was then given to the blue shirt who originally ordered it. Red T-shirt had his tea. 

The whole incident happened in 15-20 secs. It was swift, tricky and spontaneous. There  was no sale, but it was worth to try.

I leave it to you to interpret the art of selling from the above incident. To experience it- go and stand near to that tea shop next to Sathyam. Let me know your experience ?

**The Above image by the blogger :-)