The Elusive Black Trouser

I never knew that searching for a black trouser could be such an arduous task. A visit to most of the big retailers in Chennai (Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Globus etc) reveals that sizes 28 – 30 are quite difficult to find. The reasoning given by the shopkeeper is that a person with waist size of 28 / 30 is likely to pick up more than one such trouser (in different shades), as he knows the value of such a trouser. I initially thought that this was a marketing gimmick to force me to pick up multiple trousers from the available range.

I decided to try my luck at the retail outlet of a prominent homegrown apparel brand (which traces its origins to Chennai but has now been taken over by another domestic apparel brand) on the ground floor of Spencer Plaza and the result was the same. The retail assistant then suggested that I should try my luck at one of outlets of their parent company. Luckily, the parent company had an outlet just opposite Spencer Plaza.

I was in for a pleasant surprise as soon as I entered the parent company's showroom. The retail assistant told me that they were having a special discount of 25% for sizes 28 – 32. Upon further investigation I got to know that the fast moving sizes are 34 – 40 (Indian men are generally fat!). The shop was running a promotion for odd sizes (28, 30, 32, 44), as there is not much demand for these sizes. I then told them that I would have come directly to their shop if they had advertised this offer in any of the prominent newspapers. These guys had not even put up a poster outside their shop. The actual reason is that the discount is not a company approved discount and other fellow retailers (and franchisees) will be up in arms if they come to know that another outlet is selling these merchandise at a discount. So this particular outlet had decided to offer the discounts in a silent manner to clear the stock in these sizes. I don’t have any regrets as I managed to get the black trouser (that too at a discount!). I was all the more surprised with the way this retailer handled this brand as this brand never wanted to be associated with the discount tag.

(The author realizes that such discounts are likely to be one-off and the best way to solve the trouser problem is to put on weight so that he can look for some trousers in the fast moving range).