[vj_carLover]

One more bad experience from Big Bazaar, Vadapalani, Chennai. We had bought a chappathi (roti) tava which was advertised some 25 % off (not sure of exact percentage). When we came home, I tried to remove the price sticker (which was placed suspiciously right at the handle). and no marks for guessing, under the price tag, it was broken.

Plastics are OK to buy (easier to spot and buy), but mind you, for plastics for storing consummables, look out for Shripet - durapet etc and then buy else a big "Nay" for Big bazaar.

Cheers

[condor]

Big Bazaar is definitely one place I stay away from. I dont see value in the stuff I want, there's too many so called "offers" for things that one tends to get confused. The crowd is just un-escapable, making it seem like I am shopping in a mela. The staff seem to be trained for & expecting just that.

I dont see too much of a difference at Reliance marts either. Specialised retail outlets feel so much better - the local kirana shop, or the neighborhood HOPCOMS for vegetables, retail outlets of clothing/footwear majors.

[xingamazon]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

I hate shopping at BIG Bazaar. Their offers and free stuffs are just an eye-wash.

Once i bought some Sunfeast 'Golden Bakery' biscuits. There was an offer like "Buy 2, take 3". I bought that and to my horror, when i opened the pack at home, all the biscuits were bad. They were moist and powdery. No wonder they gave offers on it to push it off their shelves.This was at the Big Bazaar near Forum mall, bangalore.

Another incident i would recall. This was at the Big Bazaar near ITPL, Bangalore. I had picked up a puff and a Tetra pack of flavoured milk in their food bazaar's section. I paid the bill and had the puff. I wiped my hands with tissue and threw both the tissue and the bill into the dustbin there.(Mind you, the bill was only for the puffs and milk) Then, for some reason i had to go back to the floor below. I went there and since i had not finished the shopping, came back up to the same floor.

I was walking around looking for things, when i see a smart lady , whispering something into the ear's of another guy. This guy and this smart lady walk up to me and ask for the bill. I said that i just now bought it and even the guy at the counter knows that i had paid for this. For a moment, i was helpless. I was fiddling for the bill in all my pockets when i realised that i disposed it along with the tissue. I walked to the dustbin, taking those two smarties along, promptly picked up the bill, and threw it to them and walked away.The rest of my day was spoilt.

I took a vow that i would never visit Big Bazaar again.

I understand your apathy and respect your feelings. But believe me this kind of thing can happen at any store dont think Big Bazaar is responsible for your mistake of not carrying a bill till you move out of the store.
They are just doing thier duty of regular checking

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by xingamazon

I understand your apathy and respect your feelings. But believe me this kind of thing can happen at any store dont think Big Bazaar is responsible for your mistake of not carrying a bill till you move out of the store.
They are just doing thier duty of regular checking

Me not carrying a bill for a thing that is already down my gut is a mistake? I dont think so.

If i was not carrying the bill for the goods i bought, i agree. Its my mistake.But this is NOT.

And FYI, it was not any kind of a regular check as you have proposed. It was an embarrassing situation to say the least.

[indiagenie]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

Me not carrying a bill for a thing that is already down my gut is a mistake? I dont think so.

If i was not carrying the bill for the goods i bought, i agree. Its my mistake.But this is NOT.

And FYI, it was not any kind of a regular check as you have proposed. It was an embarrassing situation to say the least.

Come on ! What if you had eaten the stuff without paying for it? How is the staff supposed to know whether you paid or not, if you don't have the receipt of payment?

I agree with the other posters that the shopping experience in Big Bazaar has deteriorated fairly quickly and has reached a level where many of us would prefer to stay away but in the specific instance that you quoted, I don't see anything wrong in you being asked for a bill for something you have consumed inside their premises. No offence meant, keeping the bill until you got out of the place is your responsibility as a buyer. More so, for so for something that is 'already down your gut' since you will not be 'theoretically' allowed to get out of the store without paying for anything that is still not 'down your gut'.

[COUGAR]

big bazaar is a VFM kind of shoppin place. I was a regular in Mumbai since it was closeby and in 3 years there has never been any problem. Wednesday discount schemes are actually quite good.

In pune, there is no BB closeby so its just Reliance stores now.

[greenhorn]

most of the stuff you see there with offers is stuff near its expiry date, Its how they do clearance. next time, check the dates before buying.

Recently, they banned kellogs, over a row over profit margins. the stuff they sell instead is crap
Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar boycott Kellogg?s over margin row- Retailing-Services-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

[wildon]

The problem is, once you get used to this retail mega shops you never check what the actual market rates are for the products. You are getting all the stuff under one roof thats the advantage you get and thats where you are in trouble.

Earlier we used to check the prices in 'Kirana' Stores then used to buy things, while in Big Bazzar every one thinks that all are at low prices and that is wrong.

We stopped buying from Retail chains as i found they are robbing us for some particular items. This is from my experience.

[prince_pervez]

So this is how they balance the shoplifting losses

Once in SPAR Hypermarket, I asked for 'Kesar'.
I was told by the attendant there that I'll get it at the
billing counter.
I was amazed and thought it must be in the chewing gum
etc rack at the billing.
When I asked for it, the billing guy called another chap
and asked him to get it from the inventory.
I re-iterared that I was told I'd get it from the billing counter.
This is what he said:
The 'Kesar' box is so small and expensive (300 bucks for some megre grams) that it can be easily shoplifted whilst tucking it somewhere
down under or up over. So we do not keep it on the shelf.

This is just an example of the kinda people that come along to shop.
So I'm getting a feeling that all the above posts of malpractices might be to counter these losses. But the sincere folks should not pay a price.

This is already here some 2 years back :

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...ustworthy.html

Mods kindly merge if found necessary. Thanks!

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by indiagenie

Come on ! What if you had eaten the stuff without paying for it? How is the staff supposed to know whether you paid or not, if you don't have the receipt of payment?

I agree with the other posters that the shopping experience in Big Bazaar has deteriorated fairly quickly and has reached a level where many of us would prefer to stay away but in the specific instance that you quoted, I don't see anything wrong in you being asked for a bill for something you have consumed inside their premises. No offence meant, keeping the bill until you got out of the place is your responsibility as a buyer. More so, for so for something that is 'already down your gut' since you will not be 'theoretically' allowed to get out of the store without paying for anything that is still not 'down your gut'.

FYI, the stuffs are given only after you pay for them. Got that? Don't jump the gun unnecessarily.

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

FYI, the stuffs are given only after you pay for them. Got that? Don't jump the gun unnecessarily.

Who said so? Well atlast in the big bazars and food bazars you pay when after you pickup stuff, there is a lot of space to walk arround and people usually pickup packed eatables, what i do is i keep the wrappers/ bills till i leave the primises to avoid embarasment.

I have been to reliance mall in hyderabad and they display the pics of shoplifters there, and trust me its a very tiny number of people who they actually catch. People usually go to the chaning rooms and stuff clothes under theirs. If people commit these kind of crimes then every one is scanned under the scanner, which i see no harm in. Big bazar is mostly one stop shop so i prefer going there to buy my monthly supllies, I usually do not check the bill at the counter as its time consuming, best way is to carry a list and write the price of each article before going to the billing, this way you can get the price right. But i prefer checking the bill once i am back and if there is any 3-4 rs difference i tend to ignore as prices of articles keep on changing, its usually updated in their master data base in mumbai but not at the shelfs.

As far as the free stuff goes the math works like this

Consider the per sft rent of big bazar as 1000 Rs/month, and the cost of articles per sft is 2000 Rs, out of with 200 is the profit, as each month passes and if the article is not sold, now that particular area is running loses and the cost of the ariticle or the rent is no longer recoverable, it is usually this time when they decide to give it out free to avoid further losses with something little fast moving. Perishable have low shelf life so there is nothing wrong in getting a juice which will expire in a month for free, if you dont want it leave it.

I learned this in my management classes and i have nothing to do with Big bazar or any other establishments.

Pramod

[shankar.balan]

its a simple fact of life - when you buy things at any supermarket there are always chances of unintentional human error.
therefore while the cashier is billing the items keep a hawks eye on the process and then, before you go, check your bill against your purchases always.
Its a bit difficult in Spar on account of the crowd but it is still possible to watch the cashier while billing so that he doesnt make some mistake.
end of the day one should always bear that old latin saying in mind - "Caveat Emptor" - meaning Buyer Beware!

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

Who said so? Well atlast in the big bazars and food bazars you pay when after you pickup stuff, there is a lot of space to walk arround and people usually pickup packed eatables, what i do is i keep the wrappers/ bills till i leave the primises to avoid embarasment.

Again!!

Did you go trough my first post? It was not any packed eatable FYKI. It was a freaking veg puff and some flavoured milk. Both were given to me only after billing was made. If some other BB outlet/mall gave you the stuff to eat before you made the payment,what can i do for that? I am just narrating my bitter experience with BB.

Enough of people picking up pointers and jumping the gun without assimilating what i was trying to convey!

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

Again!!

Did you go trough my first post? It was not any packed eatable FYKI. It was a freaking veg puff and some flavoured milk. Both were given to me only after billing was made. If some other BB outlet/mall gave you the stuff to eat before you made the payment,what can i do for that? I am just narrating my bitter experience with BB.

Enough of people picking up pointers and jumping the gun without assimilating what i was trying to convey!

Sir,

First of all i give up, second thing is if you dont have change they write you a coupon which you have to give during billing. I understand and acknowledge that you have been through some trauma, but imagine if you had the bill u could have politly smiled and showed it to them thats what i do. Understand mistakes happen and people might throw money at times with tissue . There is a popular mallu movie where the comedian/villan thrown a cell phone insted of a coconut and keeps the coconut to his ear and says hello. Any ways enough OT: What is feel is you have learned you lesson(i hope its the right one to carry the bill till you are out and not to avoid shopping with them). I had a tip off with one big bazar cashier when he refused to bill me as my brand new debit card was no signed. I just took it out of the cover in front of him and he rather rudly told me that he will not bill insted to ask me to sign it.

No point having any grudges here, just imagine if the house keeping cleaned the dustbin then what would have happend.

Please do not take any offences but as customers we are all getting little unreasonable.

Pramod

[lejhoom]

My friend tells me that he got prompt reply through e-mail from the customer service of Big Bazaar with regard to his grievance. They informed him that the customer service manager would call him up. Sure he did. He apologized for the inconvenience and promised to meet him when he showed up at his store. He gave his personal mobile number.


I believe it was a nice gesture. Errors might creep up any time with anyone but the willingness to remedy it is indeed praiseworthy. It would be all the more praiseworthy if they could put their system in order.


There is some sort of Happiness Sale going on at their stores. I too trooped in to check things out. Of course, there were some good bargain: 50% off on Reid and Tailor shirts as well as on Arrow shirts. I checked the date of manufacture of some merchandise and found them to be only a three or four months old. Suffice it say, I am poorer by a few thousands! For good measure I bought a suit from Park Avenue, model Business. Manufactured in November 2009 and it came with a 40% discount. I was told that the offer was only for a few hours. Usually this frenzy of doling out happens on Sundays around 7 pm. The PA screams its head out urging people to grab the opportunity that could tentatively last only for a couple of hours.