Supermarkets every where ..

You name it and its in my neighbourhood - the ubiquitous supermarket. I was just counting the number of mall/supermarkets around 2 Km radius of my house and was astonished by the choice and variety I had - Two really big baazars, two subhikshas, Foodday, monday-sunday, foodworld , Vishal mega mart, Fabmall , others which I may not have discovered and innumerable small unbranded stores all around the place. Don't know how many will survive with the big one of Reliance and Bharti yet to invade Bangaqlore. I still feel that Big bazaar has an edge being a first mover and having a large format.

I have read a lot of articles which justify that the small shops dont get killed due to the large format stores but I have a different experience. I was recently in a area called Marathalli in Bangalore the factory outlet capital. Brand factory a venture of the future group (owners of big bazaar ) has opened a multi story outlet stocking more than 120 brands. The pricing is as competitive as most of the other outlets in the area but what the consumer gets is all he or she wants under the same roof plus some marque brands like Biba ( women's designer wear ) at never before heard rates.

I did a dip stick survey when I was there last and found that the some of the factory outlets have lost close to 30 % to 40 % of their sales - with the thin margins there now being forced to close down. Another thing which has hit them below the belt is that brand factory in collusion with the local traffic police has marked the whole area as no parking which makes the parking impossible in the area further constraining the customer flows. The parking charges in brand factory are Rs 50 - high by any standards though reimbursable against any purchase.

The polarisation of the market has ensured that the small folks hardly have any voice and loosing their customer base to big sharks . The ultimate benefit though is the consumer who has whole gamut of format stores to choose and buy almost anything - definitely at a bargain