The Diwali Window at 9:50 am
A store on LBS Marg, Mumbai, has a 12 ft glass frontage and opens at 11:00 am; it is 9:50 am. The team is building the Diwali window: a pyramid of 60 gift-box SKUs on a 1.2 m wooden platform, a mannequin draped in a saree, and two strings of fairy lights. The only usable socket is 6 m away on the opposite wall, so an extension cable and plug board run across the customer aisle to the window. The 4.5 kg fire extinguisher that was mounted beside the window has been moved and now sits behind the gift-box platform. The planogram for the week specifies a 'Festive Hampers' end-cap, but last week's data shows hampers sold 4 units while umbrellas sold 63 because of unseasonal rain, and the umbrellas are now in the stockroom. A price ticket on the platform still reads ₹1,499 although the offer changed to ₹1,299 at midnight.
1. Rank the problems in this window by what must be fixed before 11:00 am, and give a safe alternative for the lighting. Justify your ranking.
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Ranking logic: risk to life first, legal exposure second, selling effectiveness third.
1. Fire extinguisher (must fix, before anything else). A 4.5 kg extinguisher hidden behind a display is a blocked life-safety item. If there is a fire, seconds matter, and the store is also in breach of fire-safety rules. Move it back to its marked spot or another visible, unobstructed location, and keep the access clear. This takes two minutes and cannot wait.
2. Cable across the customer aisle (must fix). A live extension lead lying across a walking path is a trip hazard and a shock risk, and it will be worst exactly when the store is crowded. Safe alternatives: use the ceiling or wall route with cable clips and a proper trunking, get an electrician to add a socket near the window, or use battery/LED lights that need no cable. Do not simply tape it down and hope - taping is a temporary measure, not a fix, unless it is proper cable-protector trunking and the run cannot be avoided.
3. Wrong price ticket at ₹1,499 (must fix before opening). Charging above the displayed price is a consumer-protection problem and a trust problem at the counter. Reprint at ₹1,299, remove the old tickets, and check whether the same error is on the shelf.
4. Stacked platform (fix if time allows). Check that the pyramid is stable, not overhanging, and cannot topple if a child leans on it. Reduce box height rather than rush it.
5. Mannequin and lights (cosmetic). Do these last. A beautiful window with a blocked extinguisher is a failed window.
2. The store manager insists on following the planogram for Festive Hampers, but the sales data and the weather point to umbrellas. How should the visual merchandiser decide, and what should be documented?
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Frame it as a decision with criteria, not a preference.
Criteria to weigh:
- Rate of sale, not just units. 63 umbrellas in a week against 4 hampers is a huge gap, and umbrellas are a seasonal, weather-driven sale with a short window; hampers still have the whole festive period.
- Space productivity. The end-cap is a prime spot. Ask what each square foot earns per week for each option.
- Planogram purpose. Planograms exist to protect brand presentation and supplier commitments. Breaking one without authority damages the store's credibility with its category team, so the question is not 'ignore the planogram' but 'who can approve a local change?'
- Stock risk. Umbrellas in the stockroom earn nothing and may go out of season; hampers can be sold later.
Recommended action: keep the window festive (it is the brand statement and it is nearly built), but propose a split end-cap - umbrellas at the front with a rain-and-festive theme, hampers at the back - so the planogram is partly honoured and the demand is captured. Put the proposal to the category manager or area VM in the morning with the numbers, and get written approval for the change.
Document: the sales figures used, the weather reason, the proposed layout, who approved it, and the date it will be reviewed (say, seven days). If approval is refused, follow the planogram and record the refusal - that record protects the store if hampers do not sell.
3. A customer at 11:20 am picks up a gift box from the platform and says, 'The board says 1,499, so that is what I pay.' How should the associate handle this, and what is the underlying lesson?
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Handle it at the counter, calmly and quickly.
- Do not argue about the customer's honesty. The customer read what the store displayed; the mistake is the store's.
- Check the actual offer in the system before saying anything about the price. Confirm ₹1,299 is the live offer.
- Honour the lower price and explain simply: 'You are right, the board is old - the offer is ₹1,299, and that is what you will be charged. Thank you for pointing it out.' If the displayed price were lower than the system price, the displayed price is normally honoured, because the customer relies on it; charging more than the displayed price is a consumer-protection risk and a certain complaint.
- Fix the cause immediately, not later: pull the ₹1,499 tickets, reprint, and scan the shelf for other stale tickets from the midnight change.
- Log the incident - date, SKU, old and new price - so the price-change process can be corrected.
The lesson: price accuracy is a merchandising task, not a billing task. Every overnight price change needs a closing-time or opening-time verification round: download the change list, print new tickets, remove old ones, and spot-check five SKUs before the doors open. In a store with gift-box sales, the cost of one wrong ticket is not the ₹200 difference - it is the argument at the counter and the customer who now checks every price.