Smallest format Retail: Pani Puri Walas

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While writing on retail, what attracted my attention recently was the mushrooming of the smallest format retail all over Bangalore. It is the ubiquitous Pani Puri stalls that have come up in the last year or so. I used to miss good Gol Gappas in Bangalore. There was a countable number of places in town where you could go and savor this delightful snack. But over the last year or so they have emerged in every nook and corner of the city. You can easily spot one outside almost every big retail store.

Smallest Format Retail - Pani Puri Walas

Smallest Format Retail: Pani Puri Walas

These Pani Puri Walas are probably the smallest format of retail. They just sell one item: Pani Puris and that too maybe not more than a couple of variants i.e. Khatta or Meetha (sour or sweet). The format is simple, you stand around the stall. You are given a disposable bowl made up of dried and compressed leaves. So by eating a Pani puri, you are not impacting the environment in any way. Unlike the more sophisticated places where you get disposable holders made up of paper, plastic, or Thermocol. All of which have a degrading impact on the environment.

You will be served Pani puris in turns, and the last Pani puri is usually a dry one. You can ask for extra water at the end if you like having an extra serving of it at no extra cost. Pay Ra 10/- and make way for the people waiting for their turn.

Small Space Optimized Utilization

The outlet or the stall occupies around 1ft X 1ft space on the floor. About 3ft X 3ft space on the platform. The way the compact space is managed is an excellent example of optimized space utilization. In that small space, they have some thousand odd Pani Puris. Which are stacked in such a way that these fragile beings are not hurt and lost. It is probably a good example of how packaging should be done.

Along with this are at least three large vessels containing the yummy water in two varieties and filling of potatoes and chole or chickpeas. There is a box stacked on top of these vessels somewhere that stores the masalas. There are various polythene bags hanging from the bottom of the platform. Which hold things like disposable bowls, paper napkins, lemons for that last dry pani puri, boiled potatoes, and chickpeas for refilling as and when the vessel goes empty. All the items are creatively tied with a rope and nothing ever falls.

Evening Timings Only

They sell only in the evenings. Typically from 5 PM – 9 PM, a neat 4-hour work day. I spoke with a few of them. Most of them hail from Allahabad in UP. They are in some way or other related to each other. One big family in business, literally dominating the Pani puri business in Bangalore. The typical turnover per day is about 800-1000 Rs a day for a strategically located stall. Owning a stall costs around 2000-2500 Rs.

Pricing Strategy at the Smallest Format Retail

The pricing of the items is interesting. A plate of Pani puri is always priced at Rs 10/-. What changes from vendor to vendor or rather location to location is the no. of puris that you get for that 10 Rs. Now is this not an interesting pricing model, where the price point is fixed, no matter where you eat across the city? But depending on my costs and advantage points I change the quantity that I serve. The price point is small enough to attract repeat customers from every strata of society every time the stall is in sight.

If you think I have written this piece with a huge bias towards Pani Puris and the people who provide them, you are absolutely right 🙂

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