[Capricorn]

Calling it pros or cons is individual choice but I found D Mart has:

• High efficiency keeping their operational costs pretty low. Think of it as Indigo airlines.
• Extremely high China manufactured products further helps achieve operational cost reduction and high supply.

[Sebring]

I found the detergents and floor cleaners far more diluted, and less bang for the buck. Manufacturers have a different line for deep discount retailers and I can't stress on this enough.

[anantpoddar]

Originally Posted by Sebring

I found the detergents and floor cleaners far more diluted, and less bang for the buck. Manufacturers have a different line for deep discount retailers and I can't stress on this enough.

Has DMart also started this?! I found this to be the case at BigBazar.
I used to regularly shop at DMart between 2013-15 so my experience is based on a single store in that period alone
Pros:
Top notch quality of daily groceries
Reasonable prices, if not the best in the market
Decent checkout times even at rush hour
Organized layout
Ample parking space

Cons:
Limited SKUs
Quality of durables wasn't up to the mark

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Sebring

I found the detergents and floor cleaners far more diluted, and less bang for the buck. Manufacturers have a different line for deep discount retailers and I can't stress on this enough.

Really? You mean the same Vim or Surf are diluted while manufacturing itself? I was never aware of this.

[GTO]

Thanks a ton guys! This has become quite an interesting discussion.

From today's Times of India newsletter:

- Who:Radhakishan Damani, the founder of D-Mart, a Mumbai-based supermarket chain. Operating through almost 200 stores across various states, it is the most profitable grocery retailer in India. Founded in 2002, with its first hypermarket in Powai's Hiranandani Gardens, D-Mart's relentless focus on providing the lowest market prices for food, clothing and other consumer products has helped the company drive industry-leading sales per sq ft and nearly 25% return on capital employed.

- Why: D-Mart's promoter firm Avenue Supermarts got listed on Mar. 21, 2017 at a market capitalisation of Rs 39,988 crore, which has swelled to over Rs 1.60 lakh crore. Its shares scaled a fresh all-time high of Rs 2,559 on Thursday after the company announced a share sale for institutional investors on February 5. In another development, the company said its promoters will sell up to a 2.28% stake through an offer for sale that will rake in as much as Rs 3,032.5 crore.

- How: Damani's total net worth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index stood at $13.3 billion on Friday — making him India's fifth-richest individual — higher than Lakshmi Mittal's $13.10 billion, Gautam Adani's $10.9 billion and Sunil Mittal's $9.62 billion. However, going by Forbes' Real Time Billionaires' Index, Damani's total wealth of $17.9 billion makes him the country's second-richest man, just behind Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani. (Damani and family saw an upsurge in their wealth by about $96 million, an increase by 0.54% on Friday.) Apart from Promoters Radhakishan, the other Avenue Supermart promoters are Gopikishan S. Damani, Shrikantadevi R. Damani and Kirandevi G. Damani.

[kiranknair]

Had to visit DMart Electronic city, Bangalore once - probably at least a couple of years back for some reason that I don't remember - I guess some stuff not available in other stores. And that was my first and last time - this comment is not against DMart - its service or the products, it is against our unruly people without basic etiquettes lacking the basic common manners/courtesy and a total disregard or fellow shoppers - Cutting into other people's line and fighting, blocking the people in queue by continuously picking up one item after next in the billing counter etc.. etc.. etc.. . I have seen the same in other places like Big Bazaar as well. Hence I hardly go out - prefer online delivery.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ashis89

[*]Every product has an MRP and a special discount price. Makes the consumer happy!

I have visited couple of DMarts here in Bangalore and on some products I found the MRP to be different (marked up) as compared to regular MRP of the product available in other supermarkets. This was like a red flag, add to it the crazy crowds, haven't been to DMart after that.

Originally Posted by civic-sense

Am eagerly waiting for Dmart to come to my city.

Your Team BHP Profile location says Bangalore - there are a few DMarts in Bangalore already (that I know of, probably there are more).

Also, as others have mentioned, DMart's core philosophy seems to be to invest in real estate by owning all their outlets (land and building), I think this is like the McDonalds business model

[VaibhaoT]

From 2012 to 2017, I used to visit DMart every month at least once. Biggest advantage was the availability of all the items under one roof. Most of the items were decently priced with very good discount on selected few.

But off late I totally stopped visiting DMart. DMart is now replaced with BigBasket.
One of the important reason to change was the unruly staff at DMart Kalyani Nagar in Pune. On couple of occasion I received very bad treatment from the store manager at billing counter as I opposed the patrons crashing the queue.

Also another reason was parking. Its a another problem with almost most of the DMart in metro locations in my opinion.


Advantage of BigBasket is the convenience of home delivery. Though most of the items are pricey compared to DMart, but if I use Credit Card discount, I believe it definitely compensate. Also I realized that, I save on my Diesel cost as well, so I should add that too my savings as well .
Still at times I visit DMart once in a quarter just for nostalgia .

[haria]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I don't understand why would go to such a place when i can order everything online and have it delivered home for free on Amazon or Big basket.

I have stopped ordering fast moving packed food items online. I used to buy earlier from amazon because of the convenience of home delivery and good discounts. But on multiple occasions I got dubious quality items - this happened more often with Nandini Ghee. The quality of ghee was clearly different (I suspect fake/counterfeit item). I raised a complaint also, but other than a standard, we'll look into it response, nothing much happened. One of my friend's relative is a distributor of Nandini and he was telling that lot of fake product is there in the market (for ghee) and many small stores stock it and sell that only because of lower cost and higher margins. He advised me to pick up ghee only from big shops (like big bazar, More, reliance, dmart, metro, etc.) who will not stock cheap duplicates. I had a similar experience with Idhyam gingely Oil also.



I still use amazon/online for non-food stuff like soap, toiletries, etc. but ghee / oils, I have stopped buying online.

[Horizon85]

I've always stayed away from DMart because of the crowd!!

I always preferred online modes like BigBasket, Grofers and Amazon. But lately, I have started visiting DMart. Reason - good discounts on MRP. Nobody in the retail can beat them here. I've learnt to manage a trip on odd hours of a weekday.

Who gives discount on 1 pack of Lays chips and a Coca Cola bottle?

[subhro1988]

Originally Posted by tchsvy

I used to be a regular until 2017, then on one fine day my friend told me to note all the prices mentioned on the racks and check the same at the time of billing, as per him the billing prices were different to what they advertise on the racks. And sure enough, out of atound 10 items I picked on that day one item was billed at full MRP. And since then I've heard few more people complaining the same thing.

This is a very important piece of information. Thanks for sharing this. I do my monthly grocery shopping from DMart since 2014; never cared to cross check the prices. Will definitely do it going forward.

[tchsvy]

Originally Posted by subhro1988

This is a very important piece of information. Thanks for sharing this. I do my monthly grocery shopping from DMart since 2014; never cared to cross check the prices. Will definitely do it going forward.

Not just that, there were many complaints about DMart's scales being not accurate, if you search on Youtube you will find few videos where customers complain about their 1 KG pulses weighing around 800 grams on other scales.

IIRC in 2018 the Legal Metrology department conducted raids on super markets and malls in Hyderabad to keep a check on these practices and the Dmart near my place was closed down for all those days. There were rumours that DMart was afraid of getting caught with all these malpractices. But again these were rumours.

[msdivy]

Who is the most effective online grocery retailer during the lockdown? It is not the granddaddy Amazon, not Flipkart, nor the poster boy Bigbasket. It is DMart.

Considering that DMart did not have an online presence in Bangalore, they introduced online delivery in a couple of days after lockdown. They took orders online, or from their app and delivered to homes. A very commendable performance by DMart, when other presumedly online retailers are still floundering.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Who is the most effective online grocery retailer during the lockdown? It is not the granddaddy Amazon, not Flipkart, nor the poster boy Bigbasket. It is DMart.

I suppose this depends on your location. DailyNinja and SimpliSubscribe (by Namdari) have been very consistent with their deliveries for me. Probably these small players are not bombarded by orders like Amazon or Bigbasket and hence able to cope up. The same might be the case with DMart since they too may not be receiving high volume orders like the big boys.

[moralfibre]

The reason for lack of car parking space at D-Mart is that they don't probably consider car owners as their primary customers in terms of footfalls. I often visit D-Mart but plan my visit strategically.

- Reach the store at opening time on a Saturday.
- I have a fully planned map of the store with a grocery list of items I need to pickup.
- My grocery shopping is in bulk which makes it easy to get a higher value discount overall. For example: I buy, 30 liters of cooking oil, 10kg sugar, 3 extra large packets of tea, 30 packets of cookies, etc. My last run there raked up a Rs. 14,000/- bill.
- I don't need to visit them for another 3 months. It is my version of Costco style shopping
- Most of the bulky items run for months in the house. For smaller, perishable items we rely on the local baniya.

Some sub-departments that I never visit but are always crowded:

- Apparel
- Plasticwares
- Utensils
- Toys
- Stationary