The document describes the author's observations from visiting various stores and restaurants for a class assignment. [1] The author noticed many small details about the stores that they had not seen before. [2] Two contrasting restaurants near each other, one serving traditional Indian food and the other serving non-vegetarian Arabian food, gave the author the idea to combine different restaurant types under one roof. [3] The last chapter describes discovering a new food court that had successfully implemented this idea of multiple small restaurants serving different cuisines together in one space. The author realized this assignment helped them gain a new perspective and awareness of opportunities around them.

1. My Observations
As per the assignment I visited some stores this week. I tried visiting different type of stores for this
assignment (even included two restaurants in it). Due to some heavy deadlines, I was in my office itself
for 5 days now, coming out only for food and fresh air (but I enjoy my work so it's not much of a
problem).
At first I was like... I have to complete the assignment, so I have to visit all this stores and come up with
something to submit. And when I started observing them I realized how many things there are that I
haven't noticed before. It was a great experience for me. Although this assignment was completed to
meet the deadline, I have decided that I will continue observing everything around me in a new light.
So let me share my observations here. Images are of low quality, sorry. And sorry for my grammer and
spelling mistakes.
(This is a late entry, after I had written all the below. I should have made some video or something, but
no regrets. I have shortened this a bit after the first chapter )

2. Chapter 1
The Mystery
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First I went to a small shop by the highway. The name of the store is 'Ansar Stores'. Ansar is the name of
the store owner for sure. Ya, this store did draw me in. I was looking for some stores and I saw this one I
didn’t mind observing it at first. Then I saw that, even though there is not much to see at the outside the
store has a corridor like structure in the inside and there is lot of space there stuffed with shop items.
Only the front part of the store was properly lit as you can see in this picture, the inside part has a very
dim light, adding a sense of mystery to the store. After I saw this I became somewhat interested. And I
started observing it. The door was open but customers can’t enter the store, we order things from
outside and the shopkeeper will get them. It suited to those people who want to buy stuff in a hurry and
don’t want to spend time shopping. There were no sign boards but the board in the store has its name
on it. The board was pretty much covered with advertisements as you can see it in the image (left side).
From it we can say that he is not much into branding his store and is in need of money and he is making
it in all the ways he can. Smart, But most of the small stores do give their board space for
advertisements here.
The walls of the store were fully covered with items that one can’t actually see the walls. It gives a
congested feeling to the store. The environment was a bit noisy as it is near a highway and there is
always vehicles passing by. Because there are a number of restaurants nearby this place have a delicious
smell and the smell of the store was not reaching me, if there was any. Shopkeeper was very quick in his

3. response to all but when the number of customrs increases we have to wait a bit, as he has no help. He
don’t have any script to follow he is a lone ranger ;-).
The first product that I noticed in the store were the small shampoo packets of different companies
hanging like decorations, there were so many of them that it covered almost half of the counter. You
can see them in the image. The products were not arranged by function. I think he arranged them,
keeping in mind the demand for that product in his store. There were cigarettes, shampoos, pan,
biscuits etc near him.
Most of the customers are alone. Like I said this was not a destination for shopping as to pass our time.
They were mostly working men, coming for cigarettes and all. Customers don’t spend much time in the
store. Everyone who comes there are on a mission and they buy what they came there for.
So this is a bit about the mystery store.

4. Chapter 2
The Contrast
Here I am entering the observations I made about two restaurants.
They are Sri Arya’s Hotel and Hala Restaurant. They had this contrasting quality to it. You can see the
board of Hala restaurant in the image clearly, Sri Arya’s is the one just next to it with the yellow board,
It’s not clear in the image. Sri Arya’s is a traditional Indian Brahmin vegetarian restaurant and Hala is non
vegetarian restaurant with an Arabian touch. Both Restaurants do call their customers in by their aroma
but I think Hala is a stronger at it with their spicy dishes. They both were very brightly lit, but here Sri
Arya’s score high. (Maybe you can’t understand that from the image)
I visited both of them and had some snacks. Both were very good at their treatment of customers and
both served good food. One can always have vegetarian food at a non-veg hotel but here both are
specialize in what they are doing and we can see it in the quality of the food. The whole theme and

5. mood of both the restaurants matched with what they served. One has a traditional Brahmin style
textures and inscriptions on the wall and the other had a bit if modern and modern Arabian touch to it.
Here I got an Idea and saw an opportunity, and the next day I saw it realized (not by me) I will tell that
story in the last chapter. Customers are happy in both places. In Sri Arya’s mainly families visit and in
Hala both youth and families.
(Looking back to it this is turning into a huge essay or something and deadline is here so I will shorten up
and give you the essence of the following)
Chapter 3
The Invisible
I continued searching for stores and came across this invisible store.

6. The image is very poor. Even then you can see that the middle part of the image is dark and others are
will lit. You will miss the store if you are paying attention (or if you are not searching for stores to
complete your assignments ;-)]
Everything in here was boring, even the salesman. I think people come here only because here price are
a cheap. This guy seriously needs to brand this store.

7. Chapter 4
The All rounder
When I saw the store I wasn’t expecting much. But once I entered it was like ‘Oh gosh... I have
everything I needed here”. The store was fully packed with items and everything was sorted according
to their function. The store was small but there were lot of customers there. We can select what we
need and these guys won’t make us wait long to get them billed. This store has a hurry mood to it. I
think they can Increase their sale if they expand their space a little bit more in terms of space.

8. Chapter 5
The Brand
In here everything was branded. They gave their brand color to all the walls and packages and all. But
even then it has a forbidding nature to it. We don’t just go in there. I don’t know whether it’s the color
or something. And the pricing here is a bit high. There were enough employees to help the customers
but they were also not accessible in their nature. They were like “we are part of this big Brand and we
don’t have to mind you” type. All in all this store didn’t score much even though we can see that they
are spending a lot to create a face in the public. What I say is that these guys need a complete attitude
rebranding.

9. Chapter 6
The Lone Ranger
This store is in a pretty much deserted highway. Even though there is college and many people living
nearby there isn’t much shops anywhere near it (that’s why I told deserted).
The bright light in the left is the store and in the right, Its some vehicle.

10. This is a new store. A big one. The sign board is very attractive (sorry again for the poor quality image).
Its very welcoming. People can spend lot of time shopping here if they want to. I saw a guy and his little
kid. The kid was riding on the trolley. It was so cute. As I said before the whole atmosphere was very
welcoming.
(I am not lengthening my writing anymore. One more chapter to go)

11. Chapter 7
The Fusion
Do you remember that I told you that I had an idea at the restaurants? I thought won’t it be great to
couple different types of restaurants together. The restaurants will be separate but right next to each
other serving different types of food.
I saw them yesterday. Yesterday night me and my colleagues decided that we try something new for the
dinner. And one guy told that there is this food court in a mall where we can get Kerala tribal food. So
we decided to go there. We reached there and there I saw what I thought about day before yesterday.
Here there is a number of small restaurants in a single hall and there were restaurants serving tribal,
homely, Chinese, French, Arabian, and many types of food. Ya I know that it’s not a innovative Idea. But
It is a surely winning idea here.
I didn’t take any pictures of this place as I forget my phone at my room.
Now I am concluding. This assignment was a great eye opener to me. I will continue observing as I can
see many new opportunities and ideas that I have not give thought to before.