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IF you see swank buildings, the air-conditioned ambience and the attractive display, our supermarkets seem like the replicas of those in the US. But scratch the surface and underneath you find business practices that are a far cry from what you see in countries in North America. In the US, for example, the consumer need not have a reason for returning the goods purchased. Without assigning any reason, you can return the goods for a full refund. But in India, retailers make such a fuss to take back even goods that are defective or substandard. And even here, they will give you a store credit — using which you can buy something else from the store, but they will not give you a refund. In fact, I have seen some well-known supermarkets proclaiming on huge notice boards near the entrance that they will not give a refund. This is despite the Consumer Protection Act that clearly gives the customers in India the right to a replacement, or a refund in case of a defective product. The recent experience of a customer with a supermart chain explains this best. She had bought, along with her groceries, two packets of shelled walnuts. Going by the date of packaging and the date of expiry, the walnuts should have been fresh and in good condition. However, when she opened the packet and ate a couple of walnuts, she found that they had gone bad and tasted awful. When she took it back, the person at the counter handling complaints first refused to accept that the quality was bad, and kept arguing that it was well within the 'best before' date. The consumer had to have a long argument and force the person to taste the walnut. Finally, it was accepted that it was bad quality, but there was no apology. The store refused to refund the amount, and instead issued a store credit. When the client protested, she was shown the terms pasted on the wall, saying "no refunds." She then noticed another condition of sale mentioned on the wall — that the store would accept return of defective goods within 15 days only. Now, most people travel some distance, burning fuel, to visit the supermarkets, and usually shop once a month for groceries. So it makes sense for them to return bad quality goods on their next trip. Unless, of course, the shop is prepared to reimburse their travel costs and also compensate them for the time wasted in visiting the shop just to return one item. Here again, I must mention that the customer has a right to defect-free, quality goods. By selling insect-infested or poor quality goods, the retailer is actually violating that right. So, the right attitude would be to be apologetic for selling such goods, and causing the consumer so much inconvenience. When will supermarkets understand this? In fact, many of these stores seem to sell either old stock or poor quality goods when it comes to cereals and pulses because a large number of complaints pertain to insect-infested foodstuff. Since these are well within the "best before" date mentioned on the package, one wonders whether they recycle old stuff, or buy stock that is not of good grade. I must also mention here that all food items have to comply with the minimum quality standards prescribed under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. I wonder if any of the inspectors of the Food Department ever bother to do some periodic checks at these stores to find out whether they are complying with the law Also, grains and pulses are usually graded. So, I wonder if in order to sell at a low price, some of these shops buy the lowest quality. Today, supermarkets have become highly popular. But they will not remain so for long if those who run them do not develop a healthy respect for consumers and their rights. And one of the first things that they need to do is to have a customer-friendly policy in respect of goods sold by them.
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