(Updated on Jan07, updated again on Aug 21, 2006, updation on May 31st 2006).
There have been MANY improvements in Double Road Branch in Bangalore, which made me feel that they may have read this review)
Review for Big Bazaar on Double Road, Bangalore only
The concept on which the Big Bazaar works as a shopping mall is very good, but doing so by fooling people is not the way to do it !
I request the top officials to improve on the short comings so that I can give best remarks for Big Bazaar!
I would say Big Bazaar can grow well in the long term if they avoid cheap marketing tricks! I am pointing out the negative so that Big Bazaar will improve! Believe me .... I still shop at Big Bazaar.
Advantage:Separate section for each item. It helps a person to easily pick his required items and choose by carefully looking at the prices and dates of items.
Advantage:Prices on goods with MRP is generally less by a few paise on most items and to a few Rupees on certain very selected items.
(upd may06: They have increased the discount on most of non Food Bazaar items, but foodbazaar prices continue to be higher than in local roadside shops.)
(upd aug06: They have reduced vegetable prices .)
PARKING HELL?Poor and inadequate parking facility in old branches like Koramangala.
A terrible exercise walking up and down ramp after parking on Double Road branch. Also you have to walk on the same way as vehicles come down the ramp and may make you think about your life insurance policies! Carrying or pushing ur goods up to parking is a prob as they do not let u park on ground floor.
(upd may06: There are stairs to walk, without having to go on the ramp, once in a while they are opening direct enterance from parking lot to bigbazaar)
(upd jan07: To make u think there are less customers inside, they ask you to park vehicles in the first floor parking and only after it is full or after 7 p.m. they let u park on the groundfloor.)
RUDEMany of the staff are not at all helpful and some are even rude.
(upd aug06: some staff are still rudeand many have badges that either say temporary without any number or most of them keep their badges hidden in the pocket!!)
upd jan07:Not a single staff was available for help on Jan 28 evening in foodbazaar to help!!!
LIFETIME BILLING?It takes at least 1 hour to 2 hour waiting in que on weekends to bill even if you shopped only for 15 mins. If you have shopped for 3 hours then God save you! On a week day, most counters were not opened making me wait 1-1/2 hour for a bill of just Rs. 150/- and then telling all items were not billable at the particular counter!!
(upd jan07: billing system improved, but still requires much improvement. Customer has to go back to customer care on first floor from the billing counter on ground floor every time they forget to stick the price tag. this has happened to be at least four times and each time it cost another 30 mins extra in que.)
CHEATING ON OFFER PRICE? As many as three different items I bought on Jan26 on which I was to get discount was billed without discount and I came to know only after I cross checked the price at home. This has happened separately for my parents as well as for my friends. Discount are computer programmed and I think if it does not work automatically for one person, then all the 10,000 customers of BB throughout India will get cheated if they do not verify!!!
OLD! WEAK! TIRED! NOT OUR PROBLEM!This mall has absolutely no space to walk on weekends so they definitely cannot afford to provide any seating facility for you and not even to the aged people, children, or patient's who accompanied you.
WHAT IS EXPIRY DATE ON DISCOUNTS?Many of products which have huge discounts may have either reached their expiry date or may be old and poor quality. Note that most of the discounted items cannot be exchangedaccording to their policy!
WHAT IS FEEDBACK?I had to return a brand new plastic chair I had bought after my dad fell because its leg broke in the first week of purchase without any external pressure. After an argument I got it replaced with another goods, but unfortunately they are still selling the same brand chairs.... worse one or two kept in the lot are also broken!
(upd aug06-They have introduced proper feedback forms and customer care with a transparent box to put feedback.
upd jan07: I really doubt if they are reading the form or doing anything about it!)
NOT DIGESTABLE:Food Bazaar promises whole sale prices. However competitor Subhisha has dared to come out openly stating their prices are lower than Bazaar prices.
NOT BRANDEDMost of the price reduction is offered on nonbranded dress/items or rather hardly known brands. So getting an equivalent to compare price is not possible, which make people think it is cheap, but actually it is like buying from any local shop.
(upd aug06: They have started introducing some branded items)
WHAT DISCOUNT?The (chudidaar set) lot of dress materials, which was being sold for Rs. 199/- on my first visit, was found to be sold at Rs.299/- after discount of (Rs. 150/-) when I visited the next time during a festival discount!! Does discount mean, materials are offered after increasing the price of the material when there was no discount ?? On Jan26-07, the regular discount itself was not there, but confusing price tagging to fool customers and really 1000s of people got fooled.
EXCHANGE OFFER? IS IT WORTH ?By reading previous paragraph, you know that discounts are offered by increasing prices first just like the road side towel seller does in Majestic !! Another aspect to consider is that you have buy goods worth four times the money you got for your old item. So if you got Rs. 100 after selling your old newspaper, you have to buy goods worth Rs. 400/-. So by percentage, it comes to about 25% discount only! Now from that you have to reduce the price of the old paper if you had sold it outside(Rs.20/-). It means the total discount got is 20%. Now reduce the cost of time, energy, petrol, effort, waiting time in queue... how much discount have you gotten. Was it worth traveling 10 km to sell your old items when 50% discount was available next door to you??
(upd aug06: Great news... they have now made exchange possible on any week day from morning till evening, compared to only at noon earlier)
Disclaimer: The above information is purely the personal opinion/experience of the writer and not necessarily of everyone. So, the above information may not be 100% complete or correct or authentic or up to date.
