The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Grey markets, but never in the red

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Monday, Jul 21, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Grey markets, but never in the red

Vidya Venkat

They offer goods at affordable prices to people who cannot otherwise access them

— Photo: R. Ragu

BRISK BUSINESS: Shops in Burma Bazaar sell everything from suitcases to electronics.

CHENNAI: Clusters of shops on narrow alleys, off Anna Salai, colourfully advertise ‘Korean mobile phones’ which are replicas of latest coveted Nokia mobile phones and cost about one third of the branded item. These are the latest rage in Chennai’s grey markets.

Omega Electronics, one such tiny shop on Ritchie Street, sells at least two to three such mobile phones every day. Surprisingly, its clientele include the relatively moneyed classes. The success of this shop in Chennai’s grey market lay in the ability of its owner to feel the pulse of the market and provide ‘options’ to his customer.

“A ‘Sigmatel’ mobile phone comes with double SIM, FM radio, camera and Bluetooth and costs just Rs.4,500. It has a sleek design as well. Obviously, people love the phone,” says the shopkeeper. But there are no guarantees and repair services available. The phone, however, comes with two batteries. “If one stops working, use the other,” he suggests.

The viability of the grey market itself lies in its ability to offer goods at affordable prices to people who cannot access them otherwise. Durai Raj, a helper at a mobile phone accessories store on Ritchie Street, says, “Even your maid wants to have a fancy mobile phone like you but she cannot afford to buy one. So she comes to us.”

And it is not just mobile phones. Pirated movie CDs, imported cameras, fax machines, LCD TVs, music players and iPODs find their way into the grey markets. The shopkeepers here say a number of tourists, coming from Malaysia and Singapore, bring electronic goods here. “There are at least 10 flights from Singapore to Chennai in a day. So there is no dearth of stock for us,” says trader Shahul Bhai.

Burma Bazaar, set up in 1969, is a market where Burmese refugees-turned-entrepreneurs imported coveted foreign goods and sold them in shops on pavements. The market holds a reputation for selling “everything under the sun”.

“As soon as a new film is released, a master print of it is copied in Malaysia and transferred to the market here,” says Syed Mohammad, a trader here for nearly 40 years now.

Traders are wary of selling Tamil pirated movie CDs. But ask for a CD of ‘Jaane Tu …’, a recently released Hindi film, and the shopkeeper here instantly produces one. Even CDs of latest Tamil movies are available, kept hidden among other CDs.

Ravi Sundaram, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, is of the view that grey markets are an integral part of urban life and therefore need to be preserved.

“Bringing these markets under a shadow of illegality does not serve any purpose. It is these markets that have helped popularise electronic goods and culture,” he said.

Mr.Sundaram sees these markets as vibrant, dynamic spaces that take the benefits of technology to masses. “So, it is best to just let them be,” he says.

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