THE UNPAID SALESPEOPLE - MANNEQUINS

Imran Amid owns a popular ready-made garments shop on the busy Purasawakkam High Road, one of the city's important shopping hubs.  The huge glass showcases of his showroom have mannequins displaying the latest arrivals and designs.  The designs and dresses displayed on the mannequins are changed a few times in a day itself.  He says that many of his walk-in customers who make impulse purchases on low cost items and even high priced items are usually attracted by the dresses displayed by mannequins.  What is different about these mannequins is that, they are hung on railings just like ordinary hangers.  Mannequins are usually heavy and not so easy to handle that one can keep changing the clothes on display every few hours.  But not quite so in this case, because these mannequins are not like the conventional fibreglass variety but are made of plastic.  He has purchased these mannequins from Shyam's Enterprises, one of the few manufacturers of these kinds of mannequins made of plastic. 

These kind of plastic mannequins are one of the various applications of a material called as 'Himstrene Hips'.  Well don't get flustered, that should read as High Impact Polystyrene.  Let's call it HIPS for short.  HIPS contains a small amount of rubber, which improves the materials impact and high temperature resistance.  The excellent surface finish of these plastic mannequins, which rivals that of fibreglass mannequins, is because products manufactured from HIPS can have excellent surface finish.  This material can also be used as thermofoamed parts for refrigerator lining, sanitary ware, disposable containers, television cabinets, toys, compact disc 'jewel cases' and audio cassette cases.

Nandalal of Shyam's Enterprises says, "These display dummies are unpaid salespeople, they help in promoting and selling the products, especially clothes.  Our mannequins are highly durable and provide excellent value for money.  They are much more cost effective than conventional fibreglass mannequins.  The price is the main factor for the decision making by the purchaser, in this case the proprietor or purchase manager of a ready-made garments or accessories shop.  And that is our first ace, because the price difference between our mannequins and conventional mannequins is really big.  The second ace up our sleeve is the value-for-money that the customer gets due to the durability of our products.  Though sometimes buyers do swear by the fact that our mannequins are much easier to handle and light weight, the truth is that there can be equal or even better fibreglass mannequins.  But these really high quality mannequins would be out of reach of small showrooms and ready-made garment shops.  We offer an economical, yet a good quality option for them".

Another plus factor of these mannequins are that they are available off the shelf and one need not wait for them to be made. They are available in a range of colours from white to off-white, light blue to black.  "Another important feature of our mannequin is that, since it is lightweight, it can be hung anywhere in the shop just like an ordinary hanger and this saves space", adds Nandalal.

Address: Shyam's Enterprises, 71, Sattana Naicken Street (Near Natraj Theatre), Choolai, Chennai 600 112
Phone: 532 4925, 532 3698
Fax: 643 2995

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