Like a large number of motorists, Ashitosh was fearful,
tense and distressed while driving towards his office. He was in the
predicament not because of any insecurity or due to the fear of any natural
calamity.
His main concern was the almost empty petrol tank of his car
and the long queues of vehicles at every petrol station that he passed by and
the two day long National Harthal. However, after reaching the office he took
time out and was lucky enough to get petrol after waiting for around an hour at
a petrol pump there.
The rush for purchase of petrol was so severe that the
traffic police had to deploy personnel around many of the filling stations to
ensure that the lines of vehicles did not block the traffic on the nearby
roads.
However a similar rush at another outlet didn’t require any
police personnel deployed. The queue was well disciplined, every one waited for
their turn in patience. Like in the case of petrol due to the National Harthal,
there was an increased demand for this product as well. The outlet was Kerala
State Beverages cooperation the state owned liquor shop. No one did the swagger
walk or talk. Fact is, no one could.
Ashitosh’s MBA reasoning couldn’t find answer to this
contradictory behavior of the consumer. The consumers were the same, the Socio-Political-Economic situation remained the same, the product had similar
demand but the consumer behaved differently. While the consumer at the liquor
shop was patient as the Buddha, the same consumer at the petrol bunk behaved
differently.
