Well 2 pictures in this case. See the two pictures taken today from one of the most popular Grocery Retail Web-stores in India. I’ve blanked out the brand names as that is of no consequence to the matter at hand. What I would like you to do is, in the next 1 min spot what is wrong in these 2 pictures. What would Mr Holmes decipher if he were looking at these pictures? Can you tell?
Let me give you a clue – the first one is Whole Red Chilli while the one below it is Red Chilli Powder.
If you have exhausted your allotted 1 min then scroll down for the answer - - - Look at the quantity and price. What the pictures are telling us is that you create money (4 Rupees in this current case) by converting 200 grams of whole red chilli to 200 grams of red chilli powder. How?? - simply because the POWDER costs LESS than the WHOLE. Now how is that possible you'd say, and if it is then it opens up a completely new avenue of mining currency… (bye bye Bitcoin). Now before our lockdown frustrated minds start evaluating how to mine Chillies, what the images might really be telling (& it does not need Mr Holmes to decipher this) is that the product on the bottom is not the powdered form of the product on the top and the powder is made from a far cheaper or a completely different product. As Indians we have always known that spices we eat everyday have some bit of adulteration in them AND that the spice powder we get home does not come from the best raw spice that the land of this country produces. We have also known and experienced that if we grind our own spices then the product is vastly better – it is exactly this knowledge (and more – some of which we will discuss in subsequent blog posts) that led to the birth of FreshGround.
It’s now been a little more than 2 months since FreshGround launched on Amazon amidst a Covid frenzy environment. Now having delivered close to 2000 spice packs across India from Jammu to Tripura, Rameshwaram & Tuticorin we are encouraged every day to learn that the story in the pictures above is clear to a lot of Indians and FreshGround’s reason for being is finding meaning in its own small way (though very small right now 😊) across the country. In the months to come, and as the Covid situation eases we will be telling the story to a larger audience via new and innovative channels.
If you are reading this - I hope and look forward that you join us in taking the story to your friends, family and networks and help us in this endeavour to get more people to relish the true flavour and richness of spice that the soil of our country produces and that we all EAT BETTER every day.
Shall appreciate you sharing this post, also welcome your thoughts & comments Cheers
Yogeel PS 1: Till 50 years back there was no sign of factory-made spice powders in the market. Over these 50 years while these powders have made our lives easier, they have also made the product less transparent and traceable to its origin. PS 2: The title of this post is inspired by Rod Stewart’s 3rd music album called "Every Picture Tells a Story" released in 1971 and recognized by Rolling Stone in 2003 as among the 500 greatest albums of all time.