By Kinjal Shah,
CEO, Crossword Bookstore
It is interesting how developed countries work in terms of conservation. In Germany, for every bottle of water you buy, they take a deposit, and all supermarkets have machines to take the bottles back and refund the deposit. It not just ensures reduction in plastic waste, but also cleanliness and recycling of waste.
Retailers, as they connect to a large number of customers, play an important role in implementing new initiatives that can transform a society and make the world a better place to live in.
I firmly believe that all social work should be sustainable if carried out in the right manner with the right intention, especially as India is a big country with lots of opportunity.
In retail, it is well said that there are good days and there are bad days, but there is never a dull day. It is an exciting field which requires not just quick decision-making, but innovative thinking and calculated risk-taking.
At Crossword, our endeavour is to inculcate reading habits, and our vision is to build community centres to entertain, educate and enlighten through books and related products. We have just opened a 25,000 sq feet store at Aundh in Pune, which will be our largest store in the country. The store comprises three storeys, with a huge floor dedicated to kids’ books, toys and stationery. When we opened the store, we had lots of customers living in the areas nearby thanking us personally that we had opened such a store there.
We are also renovating all our stores to enhance the experience level of customers in them. We are emphasizing on the reading experience at the stores through focus lighting, more browsing and sitting spaces.
The reading habit in this country is still at a very low level and we see a huge potential to build on this. This year, we are planning to work with schools, our loyalty customers and build a kids’ programme to encourage reading. We believe that India has a huge talent and if nurtured well and given an opportunity, we could help create a lot of authors and readers.
We recently launched a new programme called ‘The Write Place’ as a one-stop shop for authors to get their works printed, published and edited, marketed, distributed and displayed across all our stores.
We already have a very strong awards property since 1999, through which we reward Indian authors in English language for five categories - fiction, non-fiction, children's literature, translation and popular award. Overall, Crossword has grown to 95 stores in 33 cities and aims to build 100 reading centres by this year.
Feedback: kinjal.shah@shoppersstop.com
