Mumbai
SHOPPING
Mumbai
is a big city and everything runs like clockwork. Every street
has shops stocking items of daily use. Most of the suburbs,
even the distant ones have areas where upmarket goods are available.
Usually the roads leading to the suburban railway station are
mini commercial towns in themselves.
While
the central business district of Fort has the most number of
shops for upmarket items, many of the consumer items are actually
sold by pavement vendors as well. Gucci and Cardin look-alikes
are made in Dharavi ( you can't tell the difference). Tourist
shopping is quite different from that done by residents. Word
of mouth testimonial is more effective than any advertising
as far as residents are concerned.
Shopping
for items of daily use: Absolutely no problem in Mumbai.
While there are thousands of shops, people prefer to buy from
hawkers outside railway stations on their way home. There is
very little bargaining here unlike for instance Delhi. The prices
are more or less fixed and reasonable (competition even among
the humblest hawkers is intense. Besides the sheer number of
buyers is immense) There are several large vegetable markets
for those who wish to browse before selecting.
It
is noticed people in Mumbai prefer NOT to stock up for a week
or month ---they prefer ( and get) fresh stuff. Unless you live
closeby , consumers don't travel all the way to vegetable markets
like Dadar, Bycula, Phule market. But a group of people living
in flats might make an outing of it and do weekly shopping.
Actually the friendly neighbourhood bania in Mumbai can give
the large supermarkets very tough competition. And they too
are getting web savvy and cellphone savvy.
•
Top
