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L.N. Revathy

Technology slump or no, great ideas can sell — like stocking a store with unique electronic gadgets that make the user feel tech-savvy.

IT is a classic rags-to-riches story. Jambu, a school dropout, left home at the age of 18, to work as a call boy in his cousin's electronic store — Texonic Instruments in Chennai.

Within three years, he learnt the art of managing the store and decided to move out. Around that time, Texonic was planning to spread its arm and decided to establish its second outlet in Coimbatore, as the elite and well-to-do sections in the city prefer to own the most sophisticated, unique and weird electronic gadgets.

Almost the entire range of products on display have been imported from Taiwan, thanks to the new liberalisation policy that permits such imports now.

Earlier, the affluent sections of society frequented some of these countries and brought the stuff back home. The need does not arise today as the Net facilitates easy purchase of such queer items.

"But it is not like seeing and making a choice between items before you decide to buy, when you trade on the Net," says Jambu.

The store offers a unique, but wide range of products that are not available locally, not even in duty-paid shops. They include voice-recording pens, digital camera, security systems, currency counting and detection machines, dual simm cases for mobile phones, digital transparent weighing scales, foldable keyboards, button camera, hidden camera and miniature pocket computer. Most of the products are targeted at those who would not mind paying that `extra penny' to own them.

Jambu discloses that his cousin visits Taiwan, almost every month, and selects each item with care. "We receive at least one load of cargo every month. That is the kind of demand for these products here. Incidentally, the desi techies are only looking at opportunities in the software industry. But this kind of electronic stuff is more in demand," he says.

The store is given a get-up that cannot escape anyone's notice. The alarm chimes announcing the entry of a customer or visitor, when you think no one is around. The closed circuit television is all over the place. And that's not all.

Jambu surprises us by showing pictures snapped from a hidden camera that has captured all our moves.

Though it was not placed within the four walls of the store, but in the office room, behind the store, the images had been captured.

Security systems have become an essential part of life, Jambu says, adding security alerts are in great demand, not just among corporate houses, but in domestic circles as well.

A handy micro-recorder, which looked more like a pen and the dual simm cases for mobile phone, are big attractions, he says.

But is this business a money spinner? Pat comes the reply, `we have just started and there are not many around. Our clientele belong to an exclusive class. We are optimistic about the future, for we are not just into selling, but service as well'.

No doubt the slump that hit the IT boom has deeply cut into the manufacturing and services sector, but the trade in IT-related electronic goods still remains a gold mine for the enterprising ones.

Jambu is perhaps a good example to prove that to be a successful trader in electronic gadgets, you need no hi-tech qualification, but sheer common sense and the ability to cash in on consumer behaviour.

To paranoid parents, teenagers spell just one thing — trouble. To marketers, they constitute a growing consumer class.

lnr@thehindu.co.in

Pictures by Siva Saravanan

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