Shopping in Goa.

(20 Mar 11)

            I’m shopping challenged. I do crises oriented buying: chappal strap breaks, take a taxi to the nearest Bata shop and buy whatever fits comfortably. Since I don’t indulge in shopping adventures, it goes without saying that I’m a very loyal customer to chosen shops. I stick to the familiar and the known. Wastes little time and energy.

            Shopping in Goa has always been a pleasure because the shops are few, one knows exactly what is available where, one isn’t overwhelmed by choice, and the choice is actually good. I’ve always preferred shopping here to shopping anywhere else. I also believed that shopkeepers and salespersons and other staff here were more honest than elsewhere. I’ve changed my opinion.

            A few days back, a mall was inaugurated in Panaji. There were advertisements, posters, balloons, musicians, all inviting passersby to take a look. Free chocolates, too, we overheard someone saying. My sister, who loves to spend (specially if it’s my money), encouraged me to buy new clothes for myself. Husband withdrew from this month’s savings and off I went, very happy that I was beginning a new life in my home state with new things from a new shopping place. A rare event in my life, in more ways than one.

            Several branded shops, an escalator, my-my, we said to ourselves, this is like going abroad. An American food chain had made its presence there, too. At one shop, we were asked to keep our purses (not shopping bags, just big purses, the kind you carry your powder, glasses, mobiles, keys, tissues, etc) at a security cabin. The fine print did warn us not to leave any valuables inside which, we learnt subsequently to our dismay, absolves the owners from taking any responsibility for security or staff behaviour.

            Well, we were asked to leave our purses at the cabin, which as rule-abiding middle-aged women, we did without questioning. Our upbringing has taught us to follow what is right … and in these days of constant checking of bags and frisking, leaving the bags behind was the right thing to do. My mistake, I didn’t take out every rupee in it. I just took out my wallet which had some money, leaving behind five thousand in the only zipped pocked inside the bag.

            We browsed through the shelves, and finally decided that we wanted to buy something. I went to get the money… no money where it was meant to be. I felt so bad. Am still seething even as I write this. We complained to the manager and the mall-owner’s wife. They went through the motions of checking the staff’s pockets. I wish we weren’t decent. I wish we’d thrown a tantrum and called the cops in. For there was nothing to protect us: no cctv. In fact, we were looked at accusingly, as if to say: “Who’s to prove that you had any money in the purse at all?” I won’t go that mall again, nor encourage anyone else to.   

            I may be shopping challenged, the rest of my clan isn’t. My colleagues, friends, cousins tell me that although one certainly has to be careful about what one keeps in a purse left at Security, the honesty of the staff is the responsibility of the shop. One acquaintance from right here in Panaji rather strongly told me that I should have filed an FIR and dragged the owners there for being so callous.

            The reason I see in retrospect. If customers allow them to get away with this, they’ll get away with more. They won’t take security and honesty seriously. The attitude in Goa in any case is lax about both, don’t we know that. I hope the guard there has lost her job. She can’t/shouldn’t be given a second chance. But what about the owners? They’ve got away right? That’s what rankles.

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