9 ms·

Groupon India sells Onion. Traffic crashes site.

180 points by husayn 13y ago

chankey_pathak 13y ago
LOL, this country.
- monsterix 13y ago
  While this comment is likely to attract down-votes but on a serious note just this one line adds so more depth to the problem. What a huge challenge of numbers and scale when it comes to economics of the Indian household! The problem of overstocking to artificially create scarcity and then bend the prices over (of onions or rice or tomatoes) to profit quickly is such an age-old problem that has stuck around in India since the independence. It works like the crude oil industry and works like a charm. Every time. There have never been any convictions or efforts reported on "fixing it". No one even remotely seems close or interested (I could be wrong here) in thinking up a solution or to get involved in solving it. Thus, the LOL.
alagu 13y ago
The groupon post - http://www.groupon.co.in/deals/shopping/Groupon-India-Onion/408055 http://www.groupon.co.in/deals/shopping/Groupon-India-Onion/...
enscr 13y ago
It's an interesting marketing scheme. Doesn't cost a lot. Per day they sell max 3000 kg of onions (will go on for 7 days). This will perhaps bring them a lot more publicity than advertisement space they can buy for that dollar. Practically every blog, deal site, newspaper will end up covering them. Enormous traffic too.
bad_user 13y ago
"sold out in 9mins"
belorn 13y ago
Is it hard to grow onions in the average India climate?
- taway2012 13y ago
  Short answer: No. Longer answer: see below. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/are-high-vegetable-prices-here-to-stay-no/article5029369.ece http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/are-high-vegetab... "According to Government data, India’s onion output in 2012-13 at 16.65 million tonnes, wasn’t much below the record 17.51 million of the previous year. Also, the fact that prices at Lasalgaon, Maharashtra’s and Asia’s largest onion market, averaged Rs 8 to 8.50 a kg till mid-May shows the crop wasn’t bad. What, then, explains the same Lasalgaon prices now touching Rs 45/kg? "The last time when wholesale prices rose so much — consumers paid Rs 100 then — was in early January 2011. But that was a year when crop in South India was hit, especially by floods in Andhra Pradesh. The country’s entire requirement had to, then, be met from stored Maharashtra onions, allowing the traders at Lasalgaon to make a killing. But this time round, no such production disruption has happened; the kharif crop from the South is yet to be harvested. "It only points to the power of traders, who would have bought at Rs 8 in early-May and stored to create artificial scarcity after July — when crop arrivals stop and the festival season takes off with Ramzan/Id-ul-Fitr!
  - revelation 13y ago
    Graph of onion production by year: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+%5B%5B2003%2C+5750.50%5D%2C+%5B2004%2C+6995%5D%2C+%5B2005%2C+9432.46%5D%2C+%5B2006%2C+10847.21%5D%2C+%5B2007%2C+12157.18%5D%2C+%5B2008%2C+13564.53%5D%2C+%5B2009%2C+12158.70%5D%2C+%5B2010%2C+15117.75%5D%2C+%5B2011%2C+17511.10%5D%2C+%5B2012%2C+16817.02%5D%5D http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+%5B%5B2003%2C+5750... So production almost doubled since 2004. Data from: http://agriexchange.apeda.gov.in/India%20Production/India_Productions.aspx?hscode=07031010 http://agriexchange.apeda.gov.in/India%20Production/India_Pr... So presumably India should be flush with onions, unless I missed something and demand for onions also doubled. How could traders corner the markt in that situation?
    - 13y ago
badclient 13y ago
This is hardly surprising. During my childhood in India, coupons were very rare. This meant that when a coupon did show up, it was usually a great offer and an enourmous flood of people would rush to cash in. It was common for newspapers to sell out just for a specific coupon. I remember a company introducing a new orange flavored drink coming out with an offer where they'd give the drink for "free" in exchange for x number of oranges. Oranges across the city sold out.
- derefr 13y ago
  That sounds like a great way to boost a struggling supply chain. I wonder if Backblaze could have done this in 2011 (http://blog.backblaze.com/2012/10/09/backblaze_drive_farming/ http://blog.backblaze.com/2012/10/09/backblaze_drive_farming...) -- instead of buying huge numbers of drives themselves, getting customers to buy them and mail them in in exchange for cheaper storage.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    Not sure I would trust an hard drive bought and mailed by any random person, though. Maybe an SSD.
    - lsc 13y ago
      I'm in that situation now (hurting for expansion capital, in part to buy hard drives) so I've thought a little bit about it. If it was just a packing problem, it's easy enough for me to ship you an empty hard drive mailing carton with pre-paid return postage. As for SSDs, well, I'm generally more suspicious of SSDs. They are more shock resistant, but I've got north of a decade watching how hard drives fail. I've got a reasonable feel for it. SSDs? I am less familiar with. They /do/ fail just like any other drive; not only after you've written them X times. (I mean, they have that problem, too... but this idea that a ssd is more reliable because it's got no moving parts is bunk. You still need your raid.) The problem I see is twofold. 1. if I'm buying thousands of hard drives, I can probably get 'em cheaper than you can. and 2. if we're talking any hard drive you have laying about, (in which case, yeah, it might be 'cheaper' in that you don't want the hard drive anymore, and the effort of selling it is a large portion of it's value) well, then you have the problem of a bunch of different kinds of hard drives, which increases the complexity of your system. Now, you could make some sort of minimum requirements (e.g. must be from vendor X, Y or Z, must be at least 7200rpm, must be at least 3tb, must be 'raid edition' etc...) and that /might/ work... it'd still be hard to overcome problem 1. (I suppose it would be a reasonable way to exploit 'loss leader' 'limit one' sales, but those are mostly for consumer-grade drives.)
616c 13y ago
Is it really a big deal that Groupon India's site crashed? Was there not an article a few months ago on HN about how badly coded this website was? I thought it was just a localized version of Groupon but there was something appalling about it as I remember.
- awakeasleep 13y ago
  I believe Groupon runs many infrastructures. The US and Canadian platform, the CityDeal platform, and dozens of local acquisitions. India is almost certainly a local acquisition divorced from all the european and united states talent.
comex 13y ago
This seems like the kind of headline that would be in The Onion...
- Aardwolf 13y ago
  Yes I actually thought this was about the sale of The Onion website, until I saw a picture of actual onions in the article :) The aljazeera logo also kind of looks like an onion though...
  - sesqu 13y ago
    Perhaps Onion should not be randomly capitalized...
- dantillberg 13y ago
  Yes, wouldn't it be correct (and less confusing) to use the plural "Onions" in the title?
yelnatz 13y ago
Lets see how many startups start selling onions to India.
- tonyblundell 13y ago
  ... as a service! But seriously, isn't this how Groupon is supposed to work? Offer a stupid discount, protected by a limited supply in order to manufacture demand. I'm not sure why this is top of HN?
  - corin_ 13y ago
    Roughly speaking you're right, but there is already a demand for Onions, and there's no need to manufacture demand for "onions sold by Groupon" because Groupon don't want to keep selling onions. It's as piece of marketing by Groupon, at the end of the day, and a reasonably clever one, hence it's on HN.
r0h1n 13y ago
This is nothing but a marketing ploy. Firstly, selling any commodity for 10-15% of its market value will attract lots of opportunistic buyers. This isn't an "Indian" thing. You could try this in other countries by selling, say, Kale or Chicken Breast or Soylent, and people would still sign up. A deal's a deal in every country. Secondly, Groupon was selling 3000 kg per day, with a limit of 1 kg per order. Some sites mention they sold out the first day within 80 minutes. Other than that, I haven't seen any evidence/data about the incoming traffic that caused the site to crash. So till I do, I'll treat news of the "crash" like a marketing gimmick from the company. Lastly, as other folks have commented, Groupon India isn't exactly the platinum standard for ecommerce website design or operations in India. In 2011, they (specifically, the Indian company they acquired and later folded into Groupon India) leaked 300,000 user passwords that were stored as cleartext (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/28/groupon_india_privacy_breach/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/28/groupon_india_privac...) The same year they decided to rebrand themselves to Crazeal.com (http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/03/no-groupon-in-india-company-rolls-out-crazeal-in-11-cities/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/03/no-groupon-in-india-company...), only to re-re-brand themselves as Groupon India in Nov 2012 (http://www.afaqs.com/news/company_briefs/?id=55477_Groupon+Inc.+announces+rebranding+of+Crazeal+to+Groupon+India http://www.afaqs.com/news/company_briefs/?id=55477_Groupon+I...) Given this history - of poor design, senseless acquisitions and multiple u-turns in strategy - I wouldn't be surprised if their code is a taped-up patchwork that will crash regardless of 90% discounted onions.
- monsterix 13y ago
  > Given this history - of poor design, senseless acquisitions and multiple u-turns in strategy - I wouldn't be surprised if their code is a taped-up patchwork that will crash regardless of 90% discounted onions. Can you qualify your comments with what is good design, sensible acquisitions and what you'd call the "correct" strategy? Have you ever started or steered a company that went on to become something? Even half as big and inspirational as Groupon? [Edited]
  - r0h1n 13y ago
    Poor design = storing passwords in cleartext Senseless acquisition = entering a fast-growing market like India by acquiring a 2nd or 3rd tier player like SoSasta.com(http://www.techinasia.com/groupon-india/ http://www.techinasia.com/groupon-india/). Instead, they should either have entered directly, or bought out a leading player. Multiple u-turns in strategy = going from SoSasta.com to Crazeal.com to Groupon.in in the space of 2 years, without any traffic or revenue results to show for it. I'll ignore your last question asking about my qualification to comment. Because it has no relevance at HN.
informatimago 13y ago
Onions cost much more than 100 rupees around here. My advice to Indians: raise your prices! Don't work for less than a European salary, so that you may buy onions at a European price! That was the purpose of globalisation since the start: to equalize level of life, salaries and prices (on a global market).
- bebna 13y ago
  And then compete with european market? Oh, have fun with that.
- johnchristopher 13y ago
  > That was the purpose of globalisation since the start: to equalize level of life, salaries and prices (on a global market). Oh god no, that is economic history revisionism. Globalisation is first and foremost the method for rich countries/companies to outsource their workload to a cheaper provider. This is what it has become. In the begining globalisation was about information and tech. exchange, a larger trade market and allowing people to move easily thought frontiers. Never, and still not, about fair trade. You can't equalize level of life without social rights and globalisation don't push for that (especially in the US where globalisation is mistaken for global free-market).
  - Steko 13y ago
    "Globalisation is first and foremost the method for rich countries/companies to outsource their workload to a cheaper provider. " The largest result of globalization has been dramatically raising the standard of living of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people. "You can't equalize level of life without social rights and globalisation don't push for that" When you raise people's standards of living they begin to demand their own social rights.
    - johnchristopher 13y ago
      >> "Globalisation is first and foremost the method for rich countries/companies to outsource their workload to a cheaper provider. " >The largest result of globalization has been dramatically raising the standard of living of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people. Doesn't change anything to the fact that it wasn't intended. Companies promoting globalisation aren't doing it to raise standard issues of living. Quite the contrary. >> "You can't equalize level of life without social rights and globalisation don't push for that" > When you raise people's standards of living they begin to demand their own social rights. Same as above. Once the economic situation has been enhanced it will not bring social rights unless people (almose litteraly) fight for it. Globalisation by itself doesn't guarantee social rights because it's not architectured to do so. Moreover: people with low standard of living still demand for social rights (see brazilian tribes, north american natives, etc.) even when they can't participate in a more rewarding economy.
lucaspiller 13y ago
Regarding the actual issue of onions being very expensive, what do people eat instead then? Here in Europe, I would consider onions to be one of the cheapest vegetables you can get.
- aestra 13y ago
  They want onions, they still eat onions. Onions are a very important staple, it is like rice in Japan. Onion prices have skyrocketed in recent times due to monsoons this year and drought last year. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/28/20228605-enough-to-make-you-cry-big-spike-in-onion-prices-sparks-fury-armed-robbery-in-india?lite http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/28/20228605-enoug... The cost of a pound of onions has risen from around 9 rupees (13 cents) to an average of 45 rupees (65 cents) in the last month alone. The shortage is front-page news in the country, where high onion prices have been credited with swinging elections in the past. "We all need onions,” businessman Pradeep Kohli said. “My dining table is incomplete without onions, they're used in all Indian dishes and salads. What do we do if we can't have onions? It's a worrying time.”
justplay 13y ago
I was also one of the customer who ordered 1kg onion at just 9 IND.
enscr 13y ago
They say, 1 order per household & 3000 orders per day for 7 days. That's 21000 different deliveries (even if you order twice with a different account on a different day, it's still a different delivery). An average of 2 km run per delivery & a mileage of 117 mpg (50 kmpl) would amount to 211 gallons (800 litres) of fuel. (they use 100-125 cc fuel efficient bikes, ignoring the bulk transportation by bus/train to the end point delivery hub) That's a nice blot on the environment. Burning fuel for delivering 1 Kg of onions to scattered destinations all over the country, brilliant idea, though not that conscious. Onion is something you can easily buy from the shop around the corner. And saving a few bucks won't change your living standard. People are ordering for fun. On the other hand, offering discounted mobile recharge would have been eco friendly. But that's not the burning topic amongst a country that's obsessed with bargains :)
- brazzy 13y ago
  > And saving a few bucks won't change your living standard. People are ordering for fun. Great way to demonstrate first world myopia. A large portion of the people in India live on no more than a few bucks per day. To them, this can be the difference between being well-fed and going hungry. Which is the biggest possible change in living standard.
  - enscr 13y ago
    Yeah right ! You completely missed the context. Picked one sentence out of the whole argument and didn't realize who it's being targeted at. The ones who are living on a few bucks a day aren't the ones logging on to groupon at 1pm to compete for those onion prices for the 10 minutes that it lasted. Neither do they have broadband, credit cards, netbanking. Neither are they the target consumer for groupon.
  - VLM 13y ago
    As for well fed, One Kg of onion is about 300 calories... its not like sucking down olive oil or even beef. So if you're starving to death it'll delay death by only a couple hours at most. As for going hungry one Kg even eaten raw is less bulk than you'd think.
Ziomislaw 13y ago
what is so strange? vegetables are good :)
hakcermani 13y ago
This sounded like an Onion article on Groupon!
sgustard 13y ago
This feels like shameless exploitation of hunger and poverty, a step above Howard Stern giving out shopping carts to homeless people. I'm sure the best part for Groupon is getting to say, sorry hungry people! No more cheap onions for you!
sachmans 13y ago
its interesting they choose an agro commodity that has been classically a cause for major problems in india - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Indian_onion_crisis http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Indian_onion_crisis though I'm not sure why any supplier in their right mind would sell via groupon at a discount when therr is massive price inflation for it. It's grown faster than the price of gold hence its probably driving the gold price!

180 points by husayn 13y ago

chankey_pathak 13y ago

LOL, this country.

monsterix 13y ago
While this comment is likely to attract down-votes but on a serious note just this one line adds so more depth to the problem. What a huge challenge of numbers and scale when it comes to economics of the Indian household! The problem of overstocking to artificially create scarcity and then bend the prices over (of onions or rice or tomatoes) to profit quickly is such an age-old problem that has stuck around in India since the independence. It works like the crude oil industry and works like a charm. Every time. There have never been any convictions or efforts reported on "fixing it". No one even remotely seems close or interested (I could be wrong here) in thinking up a solution or to get involved in solving it. Thus, the LOL.

alagu 13y ago

The groupon post - http://www.groupon.co.in/deals/shopping/Groupon-India-Onion/408055 http://www.groupon.co.in/deals/shopping/Groupon-India-Onion/...

enscr 13y ago

It's an interesting marketing scheme. Doesn't cost a lot. Per day they sell max 3000 kg of onions (will go on for 7 days). This will perhaps bring them a lot more publicity than advertisement space they can buy for that dollar. Practically every blog, deal site, newspaper will end up covering them. Enormous traffic too.

bad_user 13y ago

"sold out in 9mins"

belorn 13y ago

Is it hard to grow onions in the average India climate?

taway2012 13y ago
Short answer: No. Longer answer: see below. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/are-high-vegetable-prices-here-to-stay-no/article5029369.ece http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/are-high-vegetab... "According to Government data, India’s onion output in 2012-13 at 16.65 million tonnes, wasn’t much below the record 17.51 million of the previous year. Also, the fact that prices at Lasalgaon, Maharashtra’s and Asia’s largest onion market, averaged Rs 8 to 8.50 a kg till mid-May shows the crop wasn’t bad. What, then, explains the same Lasalgaon prices now touching Rs 45/kg? "The last time when wholesale prices rose so much — consumers paid Rs 100 then — was in early January 2011. But that was a year when crop in South India was hit, especially by floods in Andhra Pradesh. The country’s entire requirement had to, then, be met from stored Maharashtra onions, allowing the traders at Lasalgaon to make a killing. But this time round, no such production disruption has happened; the kharif crop from the South is yet to be harvested. "It only points to the power of traders, who would have bought at Rs 8 in early-May and stored to create artificial scarcity after July — when crop arrivals stop and the festival season takes off with Ramzan/Id-ul-Fitr!
- revelation 13y ago
  Graph of onion production by year: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+%5B%5B2003%2C+5750.50%5D%2C+%5B2004%2C+6995%5D%2C+%5B2005%2C+9432.46%5D%2C+%5B2006%2C+10847.21%5D%2C+%5B2007%2C+12157.18%5D%2C+%5B2008%2C+13564.53%5D%2C+%5B2009%2C+12158.70%5D%2C+%5B2010%2C+15117.75%5D%2C+%5B2011%2C+17511.10%5D%2C+%5B2012%2C+16817.02%5D%5D http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+%5B%5B2003%2C+5750... So production almost doubled since 2004. Data from: http://agriexchange.apeda.gov.in/India%20Production/India_Productions.aspx?hscode=07031010 http://agriexchange.apeda.gov.in/India%20Production/India_Pr... So presumably India should be flush with onions, unless I missed something and demand for onions also doubled. How could traders corner the markt in that situation?
  - 13y ago

badclient 13y ago

This is hardly surprising. During my childhood in India, coupons were very rare. This meant that when a coupon did show up, it was usually a great offer and an enourmous flood of people would rush to cash in. It was common for newspapers to sell out just for a specific coupon. I remember a company introducing a new orange flavored drink coming out with an offer where they'd give the drink for "free" in exchange for x number of oranges. Oranges across the city sold out.

derefr 13y ago
That sounds like a great way to boost a struggling supply chain. I wonder if Backblaze could have done this in 2011 (http://blog.backblaze.com/2012/10/09/backblaze_drive_farming/ http://blog.backblaze.com/2012/10/09/backblaze_drive_farming...) -- instead of buying huge numbers of drives themselves, getting customers to buy them and mail them in in exchange for cheaper storage.
- icebraining 13y ago
  Not sure I would trust an hard drive bought and mailed by any random person, though. Maybe an SSD.
  - lsc 13y ago
    I'm in that situation now (hurting for expansion capital, in part to buy hard drives) so I've thought a little bit about it. If it was just a packing problem, it's easy enough for me to ship you an empty hard drive mailing carton with pre-paid return postage. As for SSDs, well, I'm generally more suspicious of SSDs. They are more shock resistant, but I've got north of a decade watching how hard drives fail. I've got a reasonable feel for it. SSDs? I am less familiar with. They /do/ fail just like any other drive; not only after you've written them X times. (I mean, they have that problem, too... but this idea that a ssd is more reliable because it's got no moving parts is bunk. You still need your raid.) The problem I see is twofold. 1. if I'm buying thousands of hard drives, I can probably get 'em cheaper than you can. and 2. if we're talking any hard drive you have laying about, (in which case, yeah, it might be 'cheaper' in that you don't want the hard drive anymore, and the effort of selling it is a large portion of it's value) well, then you have the problem of a bunch of different kinds of hard drives, which increases the complexity of your system. Now, you could make some sort of minimum requirements (e.g. must be from vendor X, Y or Z, must be at least 7200rpm, must be at least 3tb, must be 'raid edition' etc...) and that /might/ work... it'd still be hard to overcome problem 1. (I suppose it would be a reasonable way to exploit 'loss leader' 'limit one' sales, but those are mostly for consumer-grade drives.)

616c 13y ago

Is it really a big deal that Groupon India's site crashed? Was there not an article a few months ago on HN about how badly coded this website was? I thought it was just a localized version of Groupon but there was something appalling about it as I remember.

awakeasleep 13y ago
I believe Groupon runs many infrastructures. The US and Canadian platform, the CityDeal platform, and dozens of local acquisitions. India is almost certainly a local acquisition divorced from all the european and united states talent.

comex 13y ago

This seems like the kind of headline that would be in The Onion...

Aardwolf 13y ago
Yes I actually thought this was about the sale of The Onion website, until I saw a picture of actual onions in the article :) The aljazeera logo also kind of looks like an onion though...
- sesqu 13y ago
  Perhaps Onion should not be randomly capitalized...
dantillberg 13y ago
Yes, wouldn't it be correct (and less confusing) to use the plural "Onions" in the title?

yelnatz 13y ago

Lets see how many startups start selling onions to India.

tonyblundell 13y ago
... as a service! But seriously, isn't this how Groupon is supposed to work? Offer a stupid discount, protected by a limited supply in order to manufacture demand. I'm not sure why this is top of HN?
- corin_ 13y ago
  Roughly speaking you're right, but there is already a demand for Onions, and there's no need to manufacture demand for "onions sold by Groupon" because Groupon don't want to keep selling onions. It's as piece of marketing by Groupon, at the end of the day, and a reasonably clever one, hence it's on HN.

r0h1n 13y ago

This is nothing but a marketing ploy. Firstly, selling any commodity for 10-15% of its market value will attract lots of opportunistic buyers. This isn't an "Indian" thing. You could try this in other countries by selling, say, Kale or Chicken Breast or Soylent, and people would still sign up. A deal's a deal in every country. Secondly, Groupon was selling 3000 kg per day, with a limit of 1 kg per order. Some sites mention they sold out the first day within 80 minutes. Other than that, I haven't seen any evidence/data about the incoming traffic that caused the site to crash. So till I do, I'll treat news of the "crash" like a marketing gimmick from the company. Lastly, as other folks have commented, Groupon India isn't exactly the platinum standard for ecommerce website design or operations in India. In 2011, they (specifically, the Indian company they acquired and later folded into Groupon India) leaked 300,000 user passwords that were stored as cleartext (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/28/groupon_india_privacy_breach/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/28/groupon_india_privac...) The same year they decided to rebrand themselves to Crazeal.com (http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/03/no-groupon-in-india-company-rolls-out-crazeal-in-11-cities/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/03/no-groupon-in-india-company...), only to re-re-brand themselves as Groupon India in Nov 2012 (http://www.afaqs.com/news/company_briefs/?id=55477_Groupon+Inc.+announces+rebranding+of+Crazeal+to+Groupon+India http://www.afaqs.com/news/company_briefs/?id=55477_Groupon+I...) Given this history - of poor design, senseless acquisitions and multiple u-turns in strategy - I wouldn't be surprised if their code is a taped-up patchwork that will crash regardless of 90% discounted onions.

monsterix 13y ago
> Given this history - of poor design, senseless acquisitions and multiple u-turns in strategy - I wouldn't be surprised if their code is a taped-up patchwork that will crash regardless of 90% discounted onions. Can you qualify your comments with what is good design, sensible acquisitions and what you'd call the "correct" strategy? Have you ever started or steered a company that went on to become something? Even half as big and inspirational as Groupon? [Edited]
- r0h1n 13y ago
  Poor design = storing passwords in cleartext Senseless acquisition = entering a fast-growing market like India by acquiring a 2nd or 3rd tier player like SoSasta.com(http://www.techinasia.com/groupon-india/ http://www.techinasia.com/groupon-india/). Instead, they should either have entered directly, or bought out a leading player. Multiple u-turns in strategy = going from SoSasta.com to Crazeal.com to Groupon.in in the space of 2 years, without any traffic or revenue results to show for it. I'll ignore your last question asking about my qualification to comment. Because it has no relevance at HN.

informatimago 13y ago

Onions cost much more than 100 rupees around here. My advice to Indians: raise your prices! Don't work for less than a European salary, so that you may buy onions at a European price! That was the purpose of globalisation since the start: to equalize level of life, salaries and prices (on a global market).

bebna 13y ago
And then compete with european market? Oh, have fun with that.
johnchristopher 13y ago
> That was the purpose of globalisation since the start: to equalize level of life, salaries and prices (on a global market). Oh god no, that is economic history revisionism. Globalisation is first and foremost the method for rich countries/companies to outsource their workload to a cheaper provider. This is what it has become. In the begining globalisation was about information and tech. exchange, a larger trade market and allowing people to move easily thought frontiers. Never, and still not, about fair trade. You can't equalize level of life without social rights and globalisation don't push for that (especially in the US where globalisation is mistaken for global free-market).
- Steko 13y ago
  "Globalisation is first and foremost the method for rich countries/companies to outsource their workload to a cheaper provider. " The largest result of globalization has been dramatically raising the standard of living of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people. "You can't equalize level of life without social rights and globalisation don't push for that" When you raise people's standards of living they begin to demand their own social rights.
  - johnchristopher 13y ago
    >> "Globalisation is first and foremost the method for rich countries/companies to outsource their workload to a cheaper provider. " >The largest result of globalization has been dramatically raising the standard of living of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people. Doesn't change anything to the fact that it wasn't intended. Companies promoting globalisation aren't doing it to raise standard issues of living. Quite the contrary. >> "You can't equalize level of life without social rights and globalisation don't push for that" > When you raise people's standards of living they begin to demand their own social rights. Same as above. Once the economic situation has been enhanced it will not bring social rights unless people (almose litteraly) fight for it. Globalisation by itself doesn't guarantee social rights because it's not architectured to do so. Moreover: people with low standard of living still demand for social rights (see brazilian tribes, north american natives, etc.) even when they can't participate in a more rewarding economy.

lucaspiller 13y ago

Regarding the actual issue of onions being very expensive, what do people eat instead then? Here in Europe, I would consider onions to be one of the cheapest vegetables you can get.

aestra 13y ago
They want onions, they still eat onions. Onions are a very important staple, it is like rice in Japan. Onion prices have skyrocketed in recent times due to monsoons this year and drought last year. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/28/20228605-enough-to-make-you-cry-big-spike-in-onion-prices-sparks-fury-armed-robbery-in-india?lite http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/28/20228605-enoug... The cost of a pound of onions has risen from around 9 rupees (13 cents) to an average of 45 rupees (65 cents) in the last month alone. The shortage is front-page news in the country, where high onion prices have been credited with swinging elections in the past. "We all need onions,” businessman Pradeep Kohli said. “My dining table is incomplete without onions, they're used in all Indian dishes and salads. What do we do if we can't have onions? It's a worrying time.”

justplay 13y ago

I was also one of the customer who ordered 1kg onion at just 9 IND.

enscr 13y ago

They say, 1 order per household & 3000 orders per day for 7 days. That's 21000 different deliveries (even if you order twice with a different account on a different day, it's still a different delivery). An average of 2 km run per delivery & a mileage of 117 mpg (50 kmpl) would amount to 211 gallons (800 litres) of fuel. (they use 100-125 cc fuel efficient bikes, ignoring the bulk transportation by bus/train to the end point delivery hub) That's a nice blot on the environment. Burning fuel for delivering 1 Kg of onions to scattered destinations all over the country, brilliant idea, though not that conscious. Onion is something you can easily buy from the shop around the corner. And saving a few bucks won't change your living standard. People are ordering for fun. On the other hand, offering discounted mobile recharge would have been eco friendly. But that's not the burning topic amongst a country that's obsessed with bargains :)

brazzy 13y ago
> And saving a few bucks won't change your living standard. People are ordering for fun. Great way to demonstrate first world myopia. A large portion of the people in India live on no more than a few bucks per day. To them, this can be the difference between being well-fed and going hungry. Which is the biggest possible change in living standard.
- enscr 13y ago
  Yeah right ! You completely missed the context. Picked one sentence out of the whole argument and didn't realize who it's being targeted at. The ones who are living on a few bucks a day aren't the ones logging on to groupon at 1pm to compete for those onion prices for the 10 minutes that it lasted. Neither do they have broadband, credit cards, netbanking. Neither are they the target consumer for groupon.
- VLM 13y ago
  As for well fed, One Kg of onion is about 300 calories... its not like sucking down olive oil or even beef. So if you're starving to death it'll delay death by only a couple hours at most. As for going hungry one Kg even eaten raw is less bulk than you'd think.

Ziomislaw 13y ago

what is so strange? vegetables are good :)

hakcermani 13y ago

This sounded like an Onion article on Groupon!

sgustard 13y ago

This feels like shameless exploitation of hunger and poverty, a step above Howard Stern giving out shopping carts to homeless people. I'm sure the best part for Groupon is getting to say, sorry hungry people! No more cheap onions for you!

sachmans 13y ago

its interesting they choose an agro commodity that has been classically a cause for major problems in india - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Indian_onion_crisis http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Indian_onion_crisis though I'm not sure why any supplier in their right mind would sell via groupon at a discount when therr is massive price inflation for it. It's grown faster than the price of gold hence its probably driving the gold price!