Originally Posted by johnny five

To be fair, the founders and previous owners of Luma started the whole "sweets for change" thing off, but they did it with charm, smiles, humorous conversation etc. They were the first (and for a very long time, the only) proper supermarket on the whole Baga, Cal/Can strip, and made life a lot easier for long-stayers. Newtons then started across the road, and were humourless and money-grabbing from the start, closely followed by Lawande in their original location, quickly judged to be a "dump".
When Lawande moved to the new premises, still a miserable s*d, and supermarkets started springing up all over the place, the best by a million miles being Ajays at Fredville in Mapusa, the writing was on the wall. Therefore when the Mega-Newtons opened, there was an air of inevitabilty. If a certain Mr A Hitler had started a chai n of supermarkets, they would have been just like this.
But the tweekers love it..............something they knew when they spent the massive sum to build it.
Lets just hope that the tourism crash that is well under way will bankrupt them, cos the russians and domestic tourists will not keep them going.


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Originally Posted by johnny five

OK, I humbly apologise.

In the experience of most of us mere foreigners, the first experience we had of being given sweets as change was Lumar.

Up to that point, all shops - to a greater or lesser degree, were local shops, ie Indian, and from our first stay circa 1993, no-one tried to give us sweets for change until Lumar.........and they became famous for it. Some "foreigners" even saved up their sweets and took them back to Lumar in the equivalent of rs100 units to pay for shopping.

Never have I been given sweets in Panjim, Mapusa, Siolim, or anywhere other than the rip-off emporia of the coastal strip, over a period of 17 years without a break............any thoughts on that?


Oh, heres a thought, they were the only places to be inundated with kindly, gullible, white tourists, who probably found it QUAINT?

Theiving sh*ts.

Originally Posted by Bipat

Actually shops started to give sweets for change when the value of the Paise coins went down in 70's -8o's; sweets to give the children were more useful than worthless coins. However in present times there is no excuse not to give Rupees change.

Originally Posted by a_f_d

Sweets in lieu of small change must be nearly universal in India - there is even a TV advert where the checkout girl in a mobile phone shop gives sweets to a customer buying an ordinary phone but goes all gooey eyed and gives condoms to the guy buying the posh phone!! - (I am amazed every time I watch it, there would probably be complaints in the UK, in India it is simply unbelievable!)

AndyD 8-)#

Originally Posted by msj5

The strange thing is that now all the foreigners have gone home and all the beggars have gone back to their native places there is no shortage of change -even in Newtons!!I`ve permanently got small change in purse now.

Originally Posted by dreadsoc

Funny that.
Strange also that when I have been in there, Newtons always seem able to find the small coin change to give to Indian customers - without them having to ask.

Last season I demanded my change and the guy went out back and returned with a bag containing at least 500 x 1 rupee coins (which he was trying to hide from the queue of customers by stuffing up his jumper) - my question is why these were not in the till to be given out. Just proves what a scam this is and that this little practice has jack all to do with a shortage of change.

Add up the few rupees for every customers, then consider how much this would equate to in a day, now imagine the figures for a week, a month etc. Throughout a season this must add up to crores.

I am soooooooo in the wrong job!

Dread - x

Originally Posted by noni

and I bet the staff do not see any of the profit

Originally Posted by GoanPlaces

No shop assistant in Goa will ever smile at you - as they are either being paid scum wages Rs.5000/ (£80) per month average (Newtons), or they are part of a family business (Lawande) - and they are being paid nada.

The average goan is a chilled out susegad type of person, but get them behind the wheel of a car or behind a till and they turn into maniacs! POWER!!! RAAAA!!

Originally Posted by GoanPlaces

No shop assistant in Goa will ever smile at you - as they are either being paid scum wages Rs.5000/ (£80) per month average (Newtons), or they are part of a family business (Lawande) - and they are being paid nada.

The average goan is a chilled out susegad type of person, but get them behind the wheel of a car or behind a till and they turn into maniacs! POWER!!! RAAAA!!

Originally Posted by oktata

Our local supermarket in Benaulim (south goa) is K(h)aders- the owner must make tons of money as the store is always busy, but i've never seem him smile.
Hs prices are fair though - have never seen him charge more than the MRP.
he does give out sweets instead of change though.

Have noticed when I'm in Margao , the shop assistants are friendly and generous with their smiles - goes to show that while money is important, its not the only thing that determines happiness and how much one smiles !

Originally Posted by GoanPlaces

When a checkout assistant at Newtons sees a Westener buying Rs. 2000 worth of groceries or more, what do you think she is going to feel?! Is she going to be pleased that 'her' store is taking all this money, or is she going to be a bit pissed that she cannot even begin to hope to shop there herself? I think the latter. But at least she has a job and is earning Something, which is more than can be said for other Indians.