Thieves of the Private Sector (Continued): Branded Showrooms Selling "Nakli Maal" in Allahabad

Dear Friends,

I think that I shared with you how a pair of Adidas Sports shoes that I bought from the showroom of Adidas in Vinaayak City Center Mall, Allhabad, lost their 'Souls' -I mean 'Soles'- a few months after purchase and after minimal use. Well, I was telling this story to a journalist friend of mine. Imagine my surprise when he told me that in probability, the pair of shoes that I bought from the Adidas Showroom was fake !! He went on to inform me that large scale business of fake shoes is going on in Allhabad. The modus operandi is that the owners of showrooms of branded shoes are purchasing fake shoes of the same brands which reach Allahabad via Nepal. These shoes are virtually indistinguishable to the untrained eye from the original product. Typically, a pair of such shoes is purchased by the showroom owner at the rate of Rs.250 to 300. The fakes are then sold along with the original ones at the same rate as the originals (Rs. 2500 to Rs.8000 per pair) in the same branded showroom. In the process, the showroom owner laughs all the way to the bank while the poor customer has only one recourse..to go and complain to the showroom owner where insult is added to injury when the staff manning the showroom starts misbehaving with him (just as the Adidas Showroom staff misbehaved with me). If this is really happening (and I am inclined to believe that it is !), then the phenomenon must not be limited to Allhabad alone. This is another example of how crores of rupees are being stolen daily from the pocket of the hapless and unsuspecting consumer by the ubiquitous and unscrupulous thieves of the private sector..!!