DVDs on cycle carts

During my recent visit to Kolkata, I saw a cycle cart parked outside one of the IT company offices in Salt Lake Sec V. It looked much like an ice-cream cart. I saw rows of CDs/DVDs of Hindi and Bengali movies dangling and a several DVDs arranged nicely behind a glass counter. I saw a vendor wearing a uniform standing besides it. It was the cycle cart of Moser-Baer.

A quick search on the Net, I see this news item, dated April 2008, in Business Standard. As per this news :

Moser Baer movie DVDs and VCDs can now be available right at your doorstep, with the company wheeling out its new branded cycle carts that will move around in localities selling movies on CDs and DVDs.

The company has already rolled out 100 such carts in the country and is aiming to increase this number at a robust pace.

Three carts were first rolled out in August on a trial run in Kolkata and the official country-wide launch came through early this year. Each cart that can carry about 35 titles with five CDs of each title, comes at a substantial investment of Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 each.

"We are yet to reach the breakeven point. Currently, we sell about 15 CDs per cart per day. To break even we have to sell a minimum of 20 CDs per cart per day, which we hope to achieve soon," he adds.
"We have already launched these carts in eastern and northern parts of India, and within the next six months we will launch them in the western and southern parts too," says Dhananjay.

Looks like the carts experiment which began in Eastern and Northern region, has not been rolled out in other parts of the country as per the plan. I have not seen in any of the South Indian cities.

India, perhaps, is not yet ready to accept a high-technology product like DVD in the traditional “pheriwala” way.

Interesting idea, maybe needs some innovation to make it work.

Posted in Business.