DOK's Dollar Shop plans to set up 25 outlets in TN  ( September '25,2003, HBL)

SHOPPING has almost always been exciting and stumbling upon a cheap bargain is more thrilling than finding just what you wanted at the perfect price. For just a dollar or two, you can buy lots of goodies - glassware, clocks, stationery, toys, lights, photo frames, china figurines, and other assorted stuff right here in Chennai. Of course, that translates into Rs 49 or Rs 99 in Indian currency, and most of the products look like they are from South-East Asia, but who's complaining? Especially when it serves to show up other stores that are selling the same wares for thrice or four times these prices, says Mr Mahendra Mohta, who is in-charge of the Tamil Nadu business of DOK's Dollar Shop, which has four outlets in the city and is planning to set up around 25 in total in the next three months.

Promoted by Vada Timber Industry of Mumbai, the shops, which are modelled on the dollar shops abroad, have been set up in TN, Karnataka, Gujarat and West Bengal. Mr Mohta, who is in the plywood business in Chennai, holds the TN rights for the franchise. According to him, this is the first time that such a shop has been set up in Chennai. Hitherto, only Mumbai had such shops.

In reply to a query on quality, Mr Mohta says that DOK's Dollar, which stocks products at only these two price points, will destroy the myth that products costing only Rs 49 or Rs 99 lack quality and are not useful. To a query on whether most of the products are from China, he replies in the affirmative, but not forgetting to add that some are from the US too, and with a rather spirited defence of Chinese products. "China offers very good products but importers bring in only those of poor quality," he says.

There is something for everybody from 5-60 years. Most importantly, our business is done transparently, so people know how high and unrealistic profit margins have been all along, in other stores or even pavement shops which sell these products," he says.

The shops themselves are small, not more than 300-400 sq. ft., and already look cramped with goodies and a constant inflow of customers, but promise more - kitchenware, toiletries, perfume and foods. There will even be branded goods on the shelves, including perfumes such as Revlon and Intimate, he says.

Sales in a day now average Rs 10,000, with around150 customers visiting the shop everyday. The shops opened on September 7. Other cities in TN in which these shops are being set up are Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchi, Salem and Dindigul. In Chennai, so far stores have been set up in T. Nagar, Purasaiwalkam, Kodambakkam and Anna Nagar.