Indian Electronics second Hand Market Journey - Part 1
History -
Consumer Durable has been a lifestyle product category since very beginning.
Radio was the first consumer durable product which gained entry in Indian homes in early 60s , which was the primary source of mass information dissemination tool for long period in Post Independent India & which was gradually started getting into entertainment domain in form of classical musical sessions , plays & finally many shows loosely woven around Bollywood movie songs . Who in generation of 80s did not carve for weekly "Cibaca Sangeet Mala"
Until late 90s Radio was a strict state subject with no private player operating in this domain , the reason for such control is little difficult to comprehend in today's time ... Any way with liberalization came plethora of privately owned radio stations...
After Radio next thing which made entry in Indian household was Televisions .. Big Box Black & white Television . Owner of this novelty used to get unparalleled social clout those days which is literally hard to comprehend in today's era .
Owning any of these 2 products was like a trophy in your armour & used to get choicest of the place in drawing room of house . With such high emotional connect associated of these products , they were virtually inseparable from house , even if they were not giving services & beyond repair .
Green Shoots-
With first batch of economic liberalization launched in mid 90s by Indian Government Indian middle class started to see more of cash floating around in economy . This resulted money being exchanged in more hands. Immediate result was seen like increased travel - within & outside India , People getting conscious of their social status , Gen Y influencing family purchase decisions though at very micro level
As a result of above change in Macro Economy few more products started entering Indian households, which I will illustrate later on . Any way this romance of Indian Houses with Radio & Television was at it's best till new millennium started .
Year 2000 onward many new product categories started entering homes -
Kitchen - Mixer Juicer Refrigerator
Drawing room - DVD player Radio with Cassette player
Bathroom - Washing Machine Geysers
Newton's law of action reaction came in force in automatically , hence - more the new products entered houses equal counts of old products started moving out of house .. Urge of trying new & better products was the reason of this exodus of old products from house . As this transition was happening more in Urban Areas of India , these old discarded products found their place in hinterlands which were plenty in those years .. 73 % rural population with 71% literacy ratio year . What more one can ask for .. This was a perfect launch pad for any new business type to thrive off !!
This brought a new person in Indian social fabric- KABADIWALA ! The one who bought faulty , damaged , old products at fraction of price or rather most of the times by weight from Urban areas . After making these products functional & look as new these were sold in rural or semi urban areas . Surprisingly many of times these were sold at high premium .
This stage was just start of a new booming industry which was going to have very profound Socio- Economic & more importantly environmental impact in coming times !!
This journey will be covered in my next blog ..
OMNAMAH
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