About a year ago we decided not to buy any food or toiletries at the mall.
My folks were fairly clear that the reason to stop was
a) the quality – especially on dal and rice, my mom kept cribbing.
b) the cost – while the goods themselves may have been cheaper, the tendency to buy a lot of non essential ‘pretty things’ at the mall are huge.
c) the volumes – buying 30 cakes of body soap because there is a good deal, and then figuring that there is no place to store it at home
d) the Convenience – the ‘corner’ shop delivers home, gives credit, and is open from 8 in the morning till 10 at night, and everyone knows the folks and the folks know everyone.
e) the ‘values’ – dad and mom believed that the corner shop is under threat and that they too need to be encouraged. And, this is their way of making sure that jobs and traditions are saved.
They still use the mall — for a nice afternoon of wandering in the AC’d comfort topped by a coffee . I still use the Mall – primarily for book shopping, but most of my other purchases are from the old style shops. But, as such the amounts we spend in the Mall is very specific and very limited.
So every so often we either trudge to Vile Parle (East) market or Kalina Market to buy veggies, fruits, greens, linen etal. Andheri (my parents declare) is far too nouveau rich and the prices are all too high and the quality is not too good.
Yesterday, amma and I went to Vile Parle to shop. And, it seemed that everyone was out shopping for greens, oranges and other assorted colours
Tomatoes are half the price here than they are at Andheri. or in other words if you get tomatoes at “8 rupees a pav’ in andheri, you get them for ‘8 rupees for half a kilo at Vile Parle’ (or atleast you did yesterday)
Somehow in the summer, the colours are enhanced and the greens look thoroughly sexy.
And its not just oranges and lemons to eat that people are buying, the roadside clothes shops were doing a lot of brisk business
And of course, there was the junk food stall … Deep fried & Yummy
Finally, i grew up in Vile Parle (East). At that time it was a sleepy little suburb. Not much has changed about it. It still remains one of my favourite suburbs in Mumbai .. and just as for a lot of people buying a sea facing flat in Bandra is an ambition/aspiration, for me home is an apartment in Parle.
There is a simple and practical reason: organized retail has computerized billing and hence a 12.5% VAT. The street corner store does not give you a real bill and hence does not charge you that. So, though individual items may be cheaper by 5%, the overall cost is higher.
That is the case in Madras — not sure about Bombay.
In mumbai too, we have 12.5 % vat in supermkts like R fresh and Big bazaar
but i dont know if veggis get vated if i may use the term. but there is an APMC tax that all veggies passing through the apmc vashi are charged
I also love most of Vparle east, except its post office which is horrendously busy. but it has definitely changed a lot- the vegi mkt is fresh and i have also picked up tender bhendi from there time and again.
The jugaad that a small vendor can do – ie the flexibility of his operation , and speed in which he takes decisions always gives him the cutting edge.
plus the whole seller and the retailer cartel,and there is a minimum margin that is is assured no wonder there is so much wastage at the end of the day especially in premium veggis like broccoli and red capsicum
plus supermkts have a lot of overhead costs , but even then they sometimes beat the venders’ in terms of cost of fruits.
b) the cost – while the goods themselves may have been cheaper, the tendency to buy a lot of non essential ‘pretty things’ at the mall are huge.
There’s a whole body of research that goes into placement of products and enticing consumers into buying more than what they intended to. For example, in stores in the US, the essential items (e.g. milk, bread etc.) are at the back of the store, or far away from the entrance/cashier, forcing people to walk through aisles and picking up a few more items when all they initially wanted to buy was a loaf of bread and/or milk. There are some other tricks like placing non-essential items at eye-level on a shelf where they are more likely to catch one’s eye.
What works best is making a list before going to the store, and sticking to it (more or less). And to go food/grocery shopping after having a full meal – it’s human nature to buy more than what we intended to, if we go food shopping when hungry. 🙂
“stores” above refers to grocery stores that carry food items and some herbal+beauty products.
I come from city of Mysore. It has been just few months since the malls started coming in. Many of my childhood friends who started small shops after there high school were doing good business. I was surprised to see how they vanished and some of them moved to work in these malls.All this in a period of 6-8 months. My mom says, it just good to go and shop with the cart. She brings stuffs that we never bought. The marketing of these shops are great.They reduce the price of non essentials and attract people to buy.I don’t remember my mom buying glass cleaning liquid in 24 years !!!!
Secondly they sell vegetables are very low prices on Tuesdays,you know why ? Because they don’t want the storage overhead on them and people take it on themselves.Besides they don’t mind paying extra 100/- for electricity.
Next the corns that flow from US.Greenpeace recently seemed to have found they are genetically modified!!!! My mom doesn’t know what genetically modified mean. Are indian malls a testing ground ?.
@Nilu — i forgot about VAT . possibly that drives up overall prices.
@Prax – the PO is madness 🙂 but, Parle as a whole, especially the east, is lovely. Have you been to the Parleshwar temple there ? Part of my thrill at shopping in a market (as opposed to a mall) is bargaining 🙂
@Amit — i am not surprised that it is a science. Even at Big Bazaar in town … you have to walk through a whole bunch of sections before you get to the food, milk and veggies….i remember buying many a VHS tape (old days) in a supermarket simply because they were placed there 🙂
On the list – my folks make a list — but their eyes still wander 🙂 You must admit that a mall has some very pretty looking non-essentials 🙂
Hi Anil
welcome to this blog.
my folks like the mall — to hang out , but not to buy. i guess that they have their reasons.
i will let them know about the reduced prices on Tuesdays … maybe they will find it interesting.
i am not really sure of GM food. and if it can find its way into a mall, i am sure that it will find a way into my neighbourhood shop …:)
Hi, I wanted to refer to your blog in my blog which I am writing about “How blogging, Online visibility is going to help Outsourcing and create more business.†I understand that the question would be why your Blog as it is totally disparate and yes that is the reason I wanted to highlight that there are enough individuals who have a passion of sharing online and Blogs can be channelized for professional growth and not just personal networking or as a personal channel. I would post my blog under an interesting competition going on with a chance to win $1000 (http://www.limeexchange.com/contest/details/2). Is it going to be alright with you?
Amit Spot on – it is a big science – infact when the supermkt boom started the biggies like future group reliance incentivised people from the us/ uk big format stores to come over and help set up operations
Harini, if u dont mind- who is gargi? i get confused
Women and bargaining, a relationship stronger than marriage. 😀 Parleshwar temple where is it? ok i think it will be easy to find out – will visit the next time i go there.
i love the jackfruit the person sells below the stairs of the station
@prax – i am gargi … it is my middle name. when i began blogging everyone had these fancy names, and i wasn’t really sure that i was going with the name everyone knows me by.. but then after blogging for a bit, i realised that i really didn’t appreciate bloggers who kept their identity secret… so i reverted to posting as harini calamur… but the blog name stays 🙂 if that makes sense….
@mukesh …. sure…. my blog is disparate because i am 🙂
Hey thanks,
The Genetic modification was found in corn and corn based food products that came from US. GM was done this crops so get more ethanol. When it failed they found their way into these malls.
Ya you are right,who knows we might be already using some GM food we bought from our small shops…
Lovely pics 🙂
Now that’s one thing you would never had got in a mall/hypermarket.
thank you …
not at all… they freak if you take out the camera 🙂
to each his own
i prefer my anon status cause it gives me the placebo of more freedom to critisize, one more thing by personal exp erience how is ur camera? and what is the hit on the pocket if id like to own one ?
im thinking of canon s3is or 720is compact
by personal experience i like it…. its quality is superb and it is easy to use…
35k + for a slr… that would be a base price.
#ilikedit
Dear
I am the owner of 3 galas in kalina market, it know under construcion, shortly it is going to be developed, you may vist after some time, some one wish to know about the whole story about the kalina market, can mail me on (rajeshkhasiya1@gmail.co) or contact me on-9892294387.
Regards
Rajesh Khasiya