I happened to see this banner when I was crossing the Perinthalmanna town. There was this huge banner placed in front of a home appliances store named Janatha Arcade. The banner said 'World Cup 2010 Mega Sale'.
I got curious to know more about the offers. Lijo, the person in charge of the store said that most of the big name TV brands like the LG, Samsung, Godrej and Onida have come up with World Cup offers. Then there was scratch cards where one gift was assured. Other offers being Sony giving away a Jabulani, the official match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup with every purchase of LCD TVs. For other brands, there is cash discount of up to Rs.1000
Mainly the fan clubs purchase TV in this 'festive' season. On an average 10 pieces are sold each day. One of the emerging trends in this World Cup season was the group purchase. 6-10 people, mainly youngsters will pool money and buy TV just to see the ball rolling in the green grasses of South Africa.
Here also the main teams have to reach at least the quarter finals in order for the TV sales to pick up.
To be continued....
*Sandeep Varma writes for FootballKerala.com *
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 9 July 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.