Why I like Supermarkets

Super markets are growing in India. I see Reliance fresh at every street these day in Bangalore.

Pros

I can read the price before buying

I can check the quality

I can compare prices

Most of things are cheaper

But supermarkets charge more for unpriced items for e.g. coffee mugs, utensils etc and also you have to pay for for some extra grams like 2.10 kg whereas a street vendor would not charge more for that extra .10 kg. I cant check if the grapes are sour at supermarkets but street vendor would allow me

Why do they keep chocolates near the billing counter.

Till 7/8 years back shopping was done only when required.Now mall owners/big businesses like Reliance/Future Group etc are successfully changed that concept to "shopping is an experience".Media has played a pivotal role in promoting that idea for its own benifit.Last year or two,hype was created as if all street vendors are going to disappear and malls will be there everywhere.But now they have understood the limitations.Mall owners primarily target prime land areas in cities/town.They also require big land.Recent study(I forgot the name) shown that by 2010,50% of malls will be closed down.They are not running as expected.Most of the time people go on week ends.And many times people are fed with long billng queues later only to find that items they purchased ae not as cheap as they expected.Sometimes people do get nice discounts.On week days malls are visited only by college crowds who only come to receive cool air.

Vegetabls are bad in reliance fresh.

Originally posted by Arjun Shastry:
Till 7/8 years back shopping was done only when required.

In economics it's called as Need Based Purchase, and current situation is called as Wish Based Purchase

Originally posted by Chetan Parekh:

In economics it's called as Need Based Purchase, and current situation is called as Wish Based Purchase

Or shopping therapy!

Originally posted by Arjun Shastry:
Recent study(I forgot the name) shown that by 2010,50% of malls will be closed down.They are not running as expected.Most of the time people go on week ends.And many times people are fed with long billng queues later only to find that items they purchased ae not as cheap as they expected.Sometimes people do get nice discounts.On week days malls are visited only by college crowds who only come to receive cool air.

I was in a retail store subhiksha y'day. A lady put many stuff on to the cart seeing the cheap price displayed on the shelf. At the billing she was told the real price. She was angry and had the courage to dump all items and walked away. I would have quietly paid without making any noise.

Originally posted by Prad Dip:

A lady put many stuff on to the cart seeing the cheap price displayed on the shelf. At the billing she was told the real price. She was angry and had the courage to dump all items and walked away.

In most of the supermarkets in the US, if you notice that the displayed price does not match what they charged you, you get that item free. Some day you'll see that in India, too.

Well, some places give you the item free, while others will simply honor the posted price - even if it's incorrect, from the store's perspective. On rare occasions the store will apologize and insist on the higher price. I can understand that if it's a mistake and they need to ensure they're not losing money, but I also have little patience for incorrectly priced items, so I tend to reject items if they come up higher than the posted price. I'll get the item from another store instead, one that either has their stuff priced correctly, or honors the posted price. It's pretty rare that this situation comes up though, in my experience (in the US).

A recent study of Australian supermarkets found that a staggering 30-something percent of transactions involved at least one 'overcharged'item.

Supermarkets are widely held in low regard for their destructive habit of putting small businesses out of business and then hiking up prices. There are essentialy only 2 big players in the Australian supermarket industry and they have a strangle hold on the entire population.... We now have very expensive goods and very low quality and no opportunity to 'vote with out wallets'.

Originally posted by John Smith:

In most of the supermarkets in the US, if you notice that the displayed price does not match what they charged you, you get that item free. Some day you'll see that in India, too.

Wow. that is good.

Originally posted by Prad Dip:

...and also you have to pay for for some extra grams like 2.10 kg whereas a street vendor would not charge more for that extra .10 kg.

Why do they keep chocolates near the billing counter.

By the same token, when the item is 1.9 kg, they DON'T charge you for the missing part.

and the chocolates near the checkout counter are there because they know you'll but them. They're referred to as 'impulse buys' here in the U.S.A. some stores now have "candy free checkout lanes". There are still magazines, newspapers and batteries, but no candy so Moms don't have to listen to kids whine for the candy they see.

Yeah - I'm not too keen on supermarkets. It's just that they do use their size or buyer power [as Michael Porter would say!] to purchase from the suppliers (farmers) at low cost, and then sell on to the customers for a large profit.

Just prefer to shop in old cities or market towns, as they have more character and history. Access can be a problem however with limited parking in most cities, so I understand why a lot of folks opt to go to those shopping centres.