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A few shops in the tiny mofussil town named Bannur in Mysore district caters to the needs of surrounding villages.

In there for arranging a meal for a thousand guests, I was shopping for groceries at a good shop and got talking to the owner. He was saying how JioMart has changed the nature of business altogether. His visits to and transactions with mega stockists in Mysore and Bengaluru have come down drastically now. All he has to do is to place an online order and the items ariive at his shop the next day. He is no longer worried of dead, unmoving stocks. And has a wide variety of items to choose from and sell to his customers.

But the shopkeeper was also pragmatic enough to admit that if JioMart's modus operandi can put his supplier out of business, it can very well disrupt his line of business too in the near future.

In context of the times when this thread was started:


By March 2020, we were habituated to getting groceries home-delivered by BigBasket. It used to be very reliable. The old practice of stocking essential items before-hand was lost. To the extent that on a couple of occasions, the rice needed for preparing the day's lunch was delivered the same morning.

When the national lock-down was announced, there were only limited quantities of essentials available at home. Had to rush to get rice, cooking oil, pulses etc because it was not certain as to when the supplies would resume. In the nearby shop, there used to be some quota per customer - only so many items, so much quantity etc per visit, so there were multiple visits. Had to stand in queue for over an hour each time. The situation eased in a few weeks.


Lesson learnt: The habit of maintaining adequate stocks of essentials has been resumed.

Recently for the past few weeks, I have tried out Swiggy's Instamart. They cover all basic essentials and deliver within 30 minutes. Not a bad option for occasions when one cannot go outside the home.

Really happy with the service of this app called Frazzo here in Mumbai, for veggies and fruits. Top-class products and all delivered within an hour and half always. Fresh produce at amazing prices.

For groceries, I have been using Flipkart and JioMart. JioMart is a hit and miss at times; they are infamous for always cancelling atleast a few products from your order. Flipkart is really good; always deliver at the dedicated slot.

Jiomart's benefits are, there is no minimum order requirement, and the discounts are more often better than Amazon/FK/BB, especially on smaller items.

Bangalore:
Which online or offline stores are best for buying good quality fruits? Most of the chain supermarkets are at the mercy of their suppliers who tend to palm off their second rate produce to such stores whose employees are more worried about the quantity and price than the quality.

Bigbasket - usually substandard. Got tired of returning items (fruits), so stopped buying them.

End up buying at the local kirana shop where the owner takes special care in selecting the best he can find.

Just wanted to share an experience with JioMart customer care.

In one of the orders, some items costing around ₹400 were not delivered. We forgot to check during delivery time. Upon getting to know later on about the missing items, I had to call delivery guy after 3-4 hours post delivery. He told us to raise complaint to customer care.

Now, this is one of the worst experiences dealing with their customer care. It took me multiple calls over a period of 5 days to get them to work to either deliver missing items or refund money. No complaint number is sent as SMS and there's no way to track your complaint request via app.

Also, the refund amount is credited to your Jio wallet only irrespective of whether you pay via credit/debit/PayTM, PhonePe, Net Banking etc.
And with this money in Jio wallet, you can only purchase items that are Jio branded which is not a good practice.

The other issue is that the items from JioMart always come packed in big separate sealed bags which is difficult to open to check during delivery time. No counting and verification of items is done by the delivery person unlike other competitors.

So, if you are buying from JioMart or any other items online, always check and count items during the delivery itself in front of the delivery person.

We use BigBasket (via Tata Neu app) and JioMart for the monthly groceries and household supplies. Haven't encountered any issues with both as yet, post-lockdown was lifted. Best part about BigBasket is that you can choose your delivery slot. Delivery is always done in time; no complaints there. With regard to JioMart, since there is no option of choosing a delivery slot, sometimes the order is delivered within a day and sometimes you have to wait for an update. In case JioMart cancels any item in the order, money is credited back to the payment method and an SMS is received.

For vegetables and fruits, we use an app called Kisan Konnect. The quality is superb and order is neatly packed. Plus, there are some very good deals everyday.

Amazon fulfills most of our grocery needs. However some items are always missing our out of stock on Amazon fresh hence a quick run at a local store is usually necessary.

Thanks for sharing Kisan Konnect.

Any other recommendations for ordering fresh produce at home? Family is fed up of dealing with the unorganised segment and their fluctuating vegetable / fruit quality, unreliable deliveries & payment hassles.

Which website / app offers top-quality, fresh vegetables & fruits?

I use "Insanely good" and they have top notch quality Veggies and Fruits.
Order the day before 11.-00PM for a delivery next day early morning.

Have been using them every week and I am absolutely happy. One can transfer the vegetables directly from delivery box to refrigerator. Everything is cleaned and sorted. Leafies have their roots cut and the leaves are pre-cleaned.

Have had a consistent good experience only with Kisan Konnect, with regard to veggies and fruits.

However, my cousins have recommended Bombay Farming Co and The Farmer Online. Yet to try it out myself though. Unfortunately, none of the big ticket apps offer consistent quality.

Insanely Good is not available in Mumbai; it is restricted to Bengaluru.

I have tried various apps and pretty happy with the vegetables / fruits quality on Swiggy Instamart here in Bangalore. Earlier Big basket used to be good but off late they are not keeping up.

We are very comfortable with a combination of BigBasket and a couple of local grocery stores and the occasional visit to Madiwala Wholesale Veg, Fruit and Flower market.

Partronizing the Online supermarket is super-convenient and predictable etc, but it is also important to support our local neighbourhood stores and vendors and the farmers in the wholesale market too, in whatever small way we can.

These days a mix from Amazon Fresh, BigBasket, Swiggy Instamart & Blinkit.