“It’s a good model, no thambi ?” the middle-aged man asks the salesperson. “Yes, yes,” he responds. The customer’s wife watches the two discuss the features of the flat-screen TV. During the two hours I spend at Viveks, Mylapore, on Independence Day, one thing becomes clear: purchasing a home appliance continues to be an important ritual in most families. Grandma-grandson; husband-wife-child; husband-wife (probably newly-weds)... seldom do I see a customer come to the shop alone. Now, imagine this a few decades ago...
“It was most amazing,” recalls 77-year-old B.A. Kodandaraman, the CMD of Viveks, via telephone. “The kind of excitement that a TV created... people would go to a temple and perform a pooja before taking it home. They distributed sweets. The entire family would come to the store. And once the TV arrived, the whole neighbourhood would turn up to see it.”
Kodandaraman took over the business from his younger brother B.A. Lakshmi Narayana Setty after the latter passed away in 1968. “He set up the business in 1965,” says Kodandaraman. “Our first showroom was near the Sanskrit College. We sold small electrical appliances and folding chairs and tables.” Lakshmi Narayana was an ardent follower of Swami Vivekananda and named the business after him.
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Their second branch opened in 1969 at Purasaiwalkam, followed by another in T.Nagar in 1980. The T.Nagar branch created quite a stir. “It had marble flooring, carpets, and a lift. This was a big thing then. We took our interior designers to Hong Kong and Singapore to see how they did up their shops. We wanted customers to experience how retail businesses happened across the globe,” recalls Kodandaraman. “Thinking back, I must admit that we had a weakness for the finer things,” he adds.
The Viveks family hails from Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka. “We’re from a traditional trading community,” explains Kodandaraman, whose father was a rice trader. Kodandaraman built the business with his own hands, literally. He’s handled every responsibility — from loading chairs and tables into the customer’s car to delivering the goods himself.
Today, he’s watching over the happenings with a mix of curiosity and amusement. “So much has changed. The other day, when I walked into our Mylapore showroom, I saw that a customer had bought a 100” TV. It cost over Rs. seven-and-a-half lakhs. To think that the yearly turnover during my first year was just Rs.1,20,000!” Kodandaraman remembers a time when buying anything on instalment was considered embarrassing. “Customers wouldn’t want anyone to know that. But now, they proudly whip out their credit cards to pay.”
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It was in 1975 that Viveks introduced bigger appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines. Following this, global brands made their headway. “Till then, we had only Indian brands such as Solidaire, EC TV, and Dyanora,” says Kodandaraman. Viveks’ New Year sale, introduced in 1977, saw customers throng showrooms. “We were the first to launch such a concept,” he adds.
Today, Viveks has 14 branches in Chennai, and a few in other cities too, says B.A. Srinivasa, CEO, who joined the business in 1980. Kodandaraman, like many staunch businessmen, prefers to spend on his business than on himself. “It was with a lot of reluctance that I bought my first TV.” Even today, he can recall addresses of customers he delivered products to. The man who bought a cupboard at No. 117, Mylapore; the lady called Vasantha who named her grandson Vivek... then, there are the pin codes of various localities that he’s memorised.
“I know 50 per cent of them. Mylapore 04, Egmore 08, Kilpauk 10, Purasaiwalkam...” He goes on, and I lose track.