- Anand Chandrasekharan (left) and Sriram Sridharan (Photo: Albin Mathew)
By Prashanti Ganesh
Published: 16th September 2012 12:00 AM
Last Updated: 14th September 2012 09:05 AM
For all that millions have caved in to the goodness and healthiness that upholds the tag organic, it is still considered out of the reach of the hoi polloi. But Sriram Sridharan and Anand Chandrashekaran, owners of a specialty store called Gormei Market, which is the first and only outlet in the city to stock organic vegetables, fruits and milk on a daily basis are hoping to change that mindset. Says Sriram, “The problem with Chennai right now is that organic is still a boutique model where the products are packed and sold to a particular group of customers. We want to change that and make it a retailing model.”
Making fresh produce available each day was definitely an expensive choice for the two who started the store seven months ago, but the choice came more from their commitment to the organic cause, admits Anand. “The cost is definitely more for us, but it doesn’t affect the price that our customers pay,” he explains as Sriram adds, “Our organic products are some of the cheapest in Chennai.”
The duo are even experimenting with an unique pricing model, that they feel might make more people willing to take the first step towards making the switch to organic. “We’ve flat-priced the cost of our vegetables. Customers can pick whatever they want, how much ever they want, and we’ll weigh it as a bunch and charge Rs 50 flat,” explains Sriram.
Even as they argue that the price of organic produce is not market-driven and it gives them the leeway to play around with pricing schemes, Anand and Sriram maintain that this model of pricing is the easier way out for them. So how do they make ends meet? “We are weak in math,” Anand jests, but Sriram cuts in, “It’s more work for us to price the products individually each day, because the supply price is constant. It actually solves a lot of our headache.”
Having just recently inaugurated their second outlet in Chennai, Anand and Sriram say that the number of takers for organic products in the city has definitely increased. “There is a specific audience for it and it’s not yet accepted into the mainstream, but there has been an increase in the number of people coming in to buy organic products,” says Sriram. The fact that they’ve added two more brands to their list of organic staples is an indication of the increase, points out Anand.
But despite the fact that they are happy about the increase in the number of takers for organic products, Anand and Sriram admit that they’ve answered their fair share of skeptical questions. Is it really organic? Yes, they try to tell their customers. How do you know, they get questioned again. “Firstly, we sell certified organic stuff, which means we believe a third party certification,” explains Sriram. Explaining how they can confidently vouch for their fruits, vegetables and milk, he says that they’re all directly sourced by them from farms they’ve personally visited. “We source the fruits and vegetables from farms in Ooty, near Puducherry and another near the outskirts of Tamil Nadu. We get our milk from a farm in Erode,” he adds.
Recently Sriram and his friend Hima Anugula took a 2,000-km road trip around Tamil Nadu, visiting as many farms as they could. “It was an eye-opening trip,” says Sriram. “We learnt about different things in farming.”
The one big problem with organic products that they are trying to tackle is to try and change the selling structure. “People think that selling organic and conventional stuff in the same store is like doing injustice to the organic products,” complains Sriram. “When the entire world is in transition, how can a complete organic store survive,” he further questions. Anand closes the case by cataloging Gormei Market’s range of staples, chocolates, cheeses, gluten-free products, apart from exotic vegetables and imported brands of pastas and sauces.
SOURCE: http://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/article606382.ece
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