Biguine’s Thin Veneer – First hand impression of “high end” goods and services in India

Twyla and I visited the “Biguine” salon on Thursday. It was my second time there. After the novelty attached to receiving my first pedicure rubbed off, I was free to get the service in a more objective manner.

The staff meant well, but little things were off.

Examples:

  • The massage/manicure/pedicure areas has clean floors, but the grouting between the large marble tiles is very discolored. I found myself wondering how much cleaner the entire place would look if they fixed that. And then pondering whether such an improvement would pay for itself.
  • When the person working with me was running low on the moisturizing cream he was using, he cut the bottle in half and scraped the cream out with his fingers.
  • When I removed my shoes, they were kept where I put them next to my seat. This meant that by the time I left, a toenail clipping had landed in my shoe.

The above things are small. But they are things that I noticed. Biguine’s has put a thin veneer over India, but their system is not strong enough to compensate for the staff’s day-to-day judgments.

This veneer is present in other areas as well.

We are living in a high end apartment, but there are cheap plastic toilet seats on our toilet.

Daya’s mom purchased an Apple laptop from an official Apple dealer in India. When Daya brought the computer in to an Apple store in the United States, she had to pay more money to replace parts in the computer because the Indian laptop used inferior components.

Little things, but there none-the-less. There is an opportunity to introduce high-end goods that are actually high end.

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