I just watched a clip where the husband-wife owners of Rameswaram Cafe (Bangalore) are asked by a shameless anchor, “was it a conscious decision not to put chairs and tables in Rameswaram cafe?”
I wonder how the anchor has no common sense. Or these people lose their common sense when paid well!
It’s basic: the owners didn’t want to spend on tables and chairs. They even wanted to save on the real estate cost incurred for the space needed for the chairs and tables.
Even more shameless owner answers, “if you go to a temple and having the prasadam, you won’t ask for a chair or table, you adjust, sit and have the prasadam any way. Rameswaram is like a temple for us.”
Well, your place of business may be a temple for you. If so, your customers should be your gods and you should treat them well.
But what Rameswaram Cafe does is exactly opposite. They are not giving chairs and tables for the customers. If you ask me, this is an ill treatment of the customers. You may ask that even on footpath eateries we stand and eat. There’s a difference. Footpath eateries and fastfood joints don’t charge Rs. 180 for a masaale dosae. Fastfood eateries charge less for their food. Many of these eateries even keep stools and mini chairs or stone slabs for the customers to sit and eat.
Rameswaram Cafe has overpriced all the food items, but not providing chairs for the customers! The reason they don’t provide chairs and tables is because they want to save the space. It’s no secret that real estate is too costly in Bangalore. It’s a clever business model of Rameshwaram cafe to save space and save on the rent. Also, Rameswaram cafe makes the customers eat on the footpath, which belongs to the govt or BBMP. BBMP should ask them to pay extra taxes for using their space. But Rameswaram cafe owners are smart to tie this up with religion and market it as “temple aesthetic”. Anyway the dumb crowd believes all this.
This is dehumanisation of the customers. Even after paying so much, people are made to stand on the footpath and eat and not complain. I can say this is the success of marketing at its best! As long as there are dumb customers who fall for Rameswaram cafe type of gimmicks, they will keep getting rich. People don’t even realise!
The hotel owners who have been spending a lot of money on putting good seating facilities to ensure comfort for their customers will be feeling bad after watching this! They too will be motivated to remove the chairs and tables. It is a mockery of all the good hoteliers who have been treating their customers like kings!
