Thane's Road Of Similar Store Clusters
Including opticians, furniture stores, snack shops and more
The discovery: We use the optician Gangar Eye Nation, a chain of eyewear stores at Mumbai who are known for their quality and service. When I went to their store on Gladys Alvares Road in Thane one thing I discovered is that there are four other opticians next to Gangar Eye Nation making it a row of five opticians at Niharika Shopping Centre, Vasant Vihar. Lawrence and Mayo and Lenskart are two of the other opticians and they figure in results when one searches for Opticians at Niharika Shopping Centre on Google. V.A. Mayekar Opticians and Lens Clinic is not listed on Google Maps. Nowadays, if you are not on Google Maps you practically don't exist and thus of 5 opticians if only 3 are shown in Google search, that business will attract less customers in my view. Also, as Google entrenches itself as a source of all information and increasingly as a place to shop, being on local search websites like JustDial and Sulekha may not be helpful at all.
It is something to think about how all of the 5 opticians next to each other can do business by enticing customers. I wrote about it in this article - https://bit.ly/2k0bKGK
Each of the opticians above seems to have a niche they cater to and due to such segmentation they seem to have minimal overlap. And continue to sell their products and thrive. Here is a link to locate the opticians: https://bit.ly/2lHr4IM
However, opticians are only one category all clustered closely - Thane seems to abound in such streets that have similar stores next to each other and offering a shopper convenience, variety and choice. Read on to find out more about some more places at Thane that host rows of similar types of shops.
Furniture Row: Gladys Alvares Road for some reason seems to be favourite for locating cluster of similar shops. The reason for that could be the road being wide (it was widened and improved by TMC at great cost and effort), has some facility for parking and most importantly in sections has few residences which could cause crowding. Towards the Manpada end of the road, on your left as you approach from Vasanth Vihar, you'll find a row of furniture shops. Can you guess how many? Fifteen actually!!! They are not all in a row but between two junctions neighbouring other stores which too we shall learn about in this article. Furniture shops need large spaces if they are to display their wares and hence the erstwhile Kothari compound is now home to series of them. They have all kinds of products including furniture, mattresses home decor and more. About two years ago this stretch of Gladys Alvares Road used to be less frequented, close to deserted. But with so many furniture shops springing up it is now busy though one can still find vehicle parking by the footpath.
The furniture shops have among them many restaurants and a very large snack shop, Rambhia Foods. There are also auto workshops and a supermarket too. The restaurants seem to be banking on customers visiting furniture shops patronising them. Some of the restaurants even have banquet halls.
Gladys Alvares Marg hosts atleast two rows of similar stores in a series. However, those are not the only ones on this wide and long road. At Vasanth Vihar, the road also hosts numerous snack shops all lined up next to each other. These shops including small restaurants are part of Swami Vivekananda Laghu Udyog.