I guess not many. But Standardisation is the " in-thing". Look at all the malls and all the products that they have. They are all same across the world. The best example is the coffee hangouts like Barista, CCD, Qwicky's and others. But one thing is for sure, all these hang outs make you feel comfortableand at home since the ambience is same everywhere. If you are sitting in a Barista it does not matter if the city outside that Barista is Pune, Banagalore, Chennai or jhumritallai. As long as you are in there, you don't feel like a stranger in the city coz you know the ambience.
I wonder if these places will help blurring the boundaries of regionalism...
p.s. based on ideas and inputs from A.
12 comments:
interesting idea but if it were for ambience to sort things out I think language ought have been absent...
Lanuage would be a definite barrier but atleast people will try and reach out to other regions.
Anand, while standardisation is the 'in' thing and works in most enterprises as it leads to a lot of cost cutting - however for customers, variety is still the spice of life. While everyone likes nice ambience, a variety is what consumers essentially like and hence people who go to Barista will like to try out CCD etc for the change in ambience. About regional boundaries, I think that it is more the IT industry which is helping those barriers break than the coffee shops.
@Ranjeet: True. I was just talking about the comfort zone that these places provide. Sitting in a Barista and watching a cricket match is fun though :)
I agree :-)
pardon my overdriven brain as it latches (unnecesarily?) to the subtelties of your post. without reverting into comment-cum-dissertation mode, i relish the fact that time zones and miles away, i can beg your pardon for my overdriven brain latching (unnecesarily?) to the subtelties of your post.~t~
txandi, thanks for dropping by :)
AS...I guess the standardisation is doing the same thing what English did to India in 1857....as you said and I also believe its Uniting..
Hey D...good to see you here. Thanx!
when d 'variety' of a place threatens to awe me... i seek the comfort offered by standardization. for me, in brand-struck DXB *for instance*, it was a solace to find a starbucks where i KNEW i would love the cheese croissant!
so i guess... yes, i do like standardization. so long as it doesn't curb the variety.
Standardization is essential to offer some comfort zone indeed.. Yet, some times it grates, esp, when I am at strange place and wanting to sample authentic local cuisine and end up with McDonalds, KFC's and Subways of the world. As always.. balance is the key. The challenge is to retain the uniqueness while celebrating common standards.. Tough call indeed :-)
I dont like any of these hang outs personally cos of the very fact that they are so similar all over..
I want variety, its the spice of life, I would prefer a dhaba anyday to a CCD...
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