Big Bazaar Visit

Today I had gone to the Big Bazaar (BB) in The Great India Place (TGIP), Noida. My sole agenda was to buy some groceries and browse to find out if there are any attractive deals.

The moment I entered the store, I sensed there was something amiss. Firstly, there was no security check. Secondly, no trolleys or carry-bags were available and people waiting for trolleys had turned into a mini-crowd. There were some who ventured and got a trolley from the exit gate. When I enquired with the guard, he said that I would have to wait for 10 mins to get a trolley. I was carrying a back-pack and asked the guard whether I can take use the same for making purchases. He asked if it was empty (did not check at all) and thankfully said yes. When I entered the store, I found some carry-bags (ones with wheels, to be carried inside the store), however, these were extremely dirty and the moment I picked it, i threw it. Had these been kept in a better condition, some of the people at the entrance could have used these for shopping.

The store was very much crowded, much more than anybody would like it. The aisles near the soap/shampoo and grains sections had absolutely no place, while most of the other sections were relatively empty. I am sure, BB team could have done some re-arrangement for stocking up of things as they would have observed these trends in the past many months. Additionally, fruit and vegetable shopping turned to an absolute no, as one has to get in queue twice, once to weigh it and again at billing counter. Whatever in the size of crowd, BB has only two counters for weighing fruits and vegetables, adding to the exasperation.

BB has a variety of items kept near the billing counter to entice the customers standing in the queues do some last-minute impulse shopping. But somehow, these racks are loaded with discarded purchases of the customers, which makes it look like a waste-bin. It also reduces the space for the customer to stand.

One comment that I overheard while standing in the billing queue - "Big Bazaar aane par jyada paise kharch hote hai. Jo cheeze nahi chahi hai wo bhi le lete hai". I am sure this would bring a wide smile to BB promoters, as this is the strategy of supermarket/hypermarket. However, one should take a note of this, as there would one wise person in the family who will point this out and the middle/lower middle class would stop visiting BB. Value provided by deals should be great enough to cover the travel cost and other expenses entailed by visit to BB.

Since the ban put on plastic bags, BB allows customers to carry their own bags (which I did today, for the first time). However, there was no check on the bags carried inside (probably due to today's rush) and when at the billing counter, the attendant just put my purchases in the bag, without checking the emptyness of the bag. High value items could be easily taken out through different pockets of bags. Scanning of bags should be done before filling them with purchases.

I have visited 2-3 BB stores a number of times. These include the ones at Lower Parel and R-Mall,Mulund (Mumbai) and the TGIP one. The Lower Parel store has the crowded look each and everytime. R-Mall and TGIP have variable crowds.

I like BB, however, now-a-days I am finding it slightly uncomfortable to shop at. I intend to keep posting on this blog about my experiences at BB and hopefully someone will take notice of the same.