The things I love about Chennai are many, filter coffee, trees, relaxed pace of life, amazing food, culture to name a few. But one of the important reasons is Landmark Bookstores.
During my second week in Chennai, Ashwin, one of my b-school classmates introduced me to Landmark. We went to the store located in the basement of Apex plaza [Address here], Ashwin – to gift something to someone he knows, and me – more because the other option is to have a really long nap. I had no intentions of buying a book or anything then.
My first reaction was, “the store is HUGE“. Later I came to know that the store has more than 12000 sft of space. Soon, I lost Ashwin in one of the alleys full of books. Wandering I found myself in travel & food section. After 3 hours and relentless browsing I have a “Metroplus Chennai Food Guide” [Buy online @ Hindu], “3 Men in a Boat“, and couple of CDs with me.
“Supply Creates Demand” is Landmark’s management philosophy. With that thinking they have opened spacious stores across the city. Each store is carefully crafted to say the least. You get books, CDs/DVDs, games, puzzles, cards, stationery, toys, extensive list of gift items and home products in each of the stores. Despite all that, the store gives a relaxed feeling the moment you enter. The salesmen are meticulously groomed and very knowledgeable. The store as such won’t disturb you until its closing time and you might want to leave. Not just that, I have seen some really sensible services marketing done by the store. Just for example,
- As soon as a salesperson spots you with more than a handful of books, he approaches you and gives you a token and collects the luggage from you. Simply put, they don’t want you to leave the store because you have bought enough books.
- The store people wont disturb you, even if you are there to read the entire volume of “Calvin and Hobbes” [Buy online @ Amazon, Sify] and leave. We (both Ashwin and me) went there thrice during the weekend and returned without buying a thing twice.
Ever since, I have been to the store numerous times and each time supply did create demand. And I am not complaining, because after 3 years I found my passion for books again.
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Just in case you are looking for the store addresses:
- Landmark Store, Apex Plaza, Nungabakkam High Road (landmark: Opposite Ispahani Center)
- Spensers Plaza, Mount Road
- City Center Mall, End of Cathedral Road (towards Marina)
11 Responses
Ciao Hui,
Collecting Excel tricks under the title “Notable Excel Websites (Non-MVP) Edition” is a brilliant idea…
Thank you in the name of all The FrankensTeam.
On our site there is a box with a picture and text highlighting:
This is a no-MVP site
we think ourselves “bad boys” a bit 🙂
For those who would like to know why our site is a no-MVP site, enough to click on the link:
http://goo.gl/lxDszY
Thank you again!
Thanks a lot
I really enjoyed this (newsletter). I must admit that I rarely read an Excel newsletter (and I subscribe to quite a few) all the way though, but this grabbed my attention and before I realized it, I was engrossed in it. I must also admit that most of this I don’t understand, yet. But, it excites me when I do learn something new in Excel. I can’t wait to see how much of this I can implement into my (constantly-evolving) ‘House Budget’ & ‘Family Medical’ worksheets that I have developed over the past few years! I sure hope to see more of these type of newsletters in the future! Thanks!
Thanks for doing this Hui! I appreciate being included.
I like Tom’s tip a lot. I posted about a tool I wrote to automate this at http://yoursumbuddy.com/tables-edit-query-dialog/
EXCELLENT !
Hui, This post is Superb! More over I have always been a fan of Roberto’s work and have learnt a lot from him.
Here are some of my recent contributions
1. Customising markers in a chart – http://www.goodly.co.in/customize-markers-in-a-chart/
2. Charting Hacks to work faster – http://www.goodly.co.in/5-charting-hacks-to-help-you-work-faster/
3. 7 Date formulas to make life easy – http://www.goodly.co.in/date-formulas-in-excel/
4. Customised scrollbar using VBA – http://www.goodly.co.in/customized-scroll-bar-in-excel/
5. Adding Direct Legends – http://www.goodly.co.in/customized-scroll-bar-in-excel/
Hope everyone enjoys!
I like the Excel Ninja Menus.
1. Select a cell or range then move till the 4-way cross appears. Right-Click and drag the selection to another place in the worksheet then, like a ninja, a menu full of skills and throwing stars pops up allowing me to do all kinds of awesomeness.
2. When you click the fill box on a Date and right click and drag it down, a lot of amazing Date options pop up.
I also brand my Excel to remind myself that I’m awesome. In my personal macro workbook I place the following code.
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Application.Caption = “SuperKrishna’s Awesomeness”
End Sub
My favorite tip goes along with #17. If you try to copy subtotaled data (and in earlier Excel versions filtered data),when you paste it all the data displays instead of just the summarized data.
To get around this, select your summarized data, click on Find and Select tab and then select Go to Special. Click Visible cells Only and click OK. Now paste and you will see that only the summarized data has been copied.
You can also go CTRL+G and then click the Special icon at the bottom of the dialog box.
What a great idea, Chandoo! I’d love to be included in your next edition:) Perhaps a VBA exclusive version?
@Ryan
I will review this concept about 6 months out from the original post and be sure to keep your site in mind
Hui…
That sounds great, Hui:) I just realized I gave credit to Chandoo for the idea and I should have attributed it to you.
Sorry about that!