Madurai Idly Vs Udupi Park

It’s 10:30 PM on a Saturday evening. As I stop my car in front of the neighbourhood Madurai Idly Shop my wife says, “It’s closed”. I quietly tell her, “Don’t worry, it’s open. You get down and find a seat. I will park and come.” I park the car and walk in. The person at the cash counter lifts his head and welcomes me with a smile. I am a little surprised not only by his welcome, but also to see that my wife has already found a place to sit. My surprise doesn’t end there. I order 2 masala Dosa, handover the token to the counter and I am told 2 minutes. Last time I had to wait for 15 minutes for the same thing. As my Dosa arrives, I pick-up the plates and proceed towards the table where my wife is waiting. I can’t stop but wondering what changed in 4 weeks since my last visit.

My wife is not too experimentative with food. Typically our weekend dine-out ends after much planning; either at a Chinese place in the neighbourhood mall or at this place which is just 100 meters from our apartment complex. We not only found it to be convenient to walk down here rather than taking the car out on most of the days but also found food to be of decent quality suiting our taste buds. As a result, over the past 6 months this had become our favourite weekend dine out spot.

Typically we come here around 10:00 ~ 10:30 PM, but still struggle to find a place to sit. If we are lucky, we will find something only after 5~10 minutes of musical chair (imagine you are still finishing your food, someone comes and stands next to you just so that no one else can occupy the table once you are done!). At the dinner time it will be brimming with people ~ families sick of cooking through the week and wanting a break, couples too lazy to cook (cooks doesn’t turn-up on the weekends!), bachelors returning home from their evening shift at the nearby offices, so on and so forth. The guy at the cash counter will barely lift his head from the POS machine, he will just enquire about the order. If someone was undecided, he will just move on the next order without wasting any time.

It was almost monopoly business. It’s not that there are no other option nearby. Two of Bengaluru’s most famous malls are just 500 meters away with varieties of option apart from many other things (e.g. bumper to bumper traffic on the weekends). There is a nice food court in a nearby gated community, may be 300 meters behind, which can be accessed by outsiders. Couple of local food stalls inside the gullies are also there. But for some reason, this place had become quite popular ~ may be because it was just on the main road with ample parking space behind. Another reason could be perhaps that it is the only food joint serving Tamil preparation in this area.

This used to be usual scene till about 4 weeks back when we had our last dinner at this place. My wife felt perhaps it had become too popular and too commercial as she noticed deterioration in the quality of food as well as cleanliness. But today things were different ~ we not only found a place to sit as soon as we entered, the guy at the counter had time to lift his head, recognize and wish me. Our Dosa came in 2 minutes vs usual wait of 10~15 minutes. His most favourite item, Pongal, remained almost unsold at 10:30 PM (typically it will get over by 9:30 PM) which was clear indication that he had seen serious footfall drop.

Things perhaps changed after a new Udupi joint opened about 250 meters further down. This Glitzy new food joint opened about 3 weeks back. Since then my wife has been contemplating having dinner there but I have been resisting as I am not too comfortable with the Udupi preparation. But whenever we passed by it in the last 3 weeks, we saw it to be brimming with people.

The new competition around the block completely changed the equation. I was wondering if he had anticipated this. What is he going to do to fight this? I am sure that there was nothing wrong with his product or the proposition. So should he start distributing discount coupons in the nearby office/apartment complexes! He could consider expanding his catchment ~ perhaps with the support from Swiggy or Zomato! Or market himself better ~ with glossy paper inserts in TOI like his competition; reminding people in the neighbourhood that he is still worth considering! Or simply focus of providing better experience to the customers still visiting him ~ something that he perhaps started attempting.

It's almost 11 PM and looks like we are the last customer. The staffs start switching off the lights. On our way back we pass by the Udupi Park. It's still brightly lit, parking is full. I promise myself to speak to the cash guy on my next visit about the impact this new place has made on his business. My chain of thought breaks as I hear my wife saying, "Competition is good. His quality has improved compared to last time!"