In Media

Written by Sujit John / TNN

Bangalore: The Wal-Mart phenomenon is hitting Bangalore. Large discount stores and hypermarkets will dot the city over the coming months. We have had Big Bazaar for a while. Metro Cash & Carry too has been around for over a year, but most can’t easily access it. What’s coming, however, is a literal bonanza for Bangalore.

The RPG Group’s hypermarket, Spencer’s, could be ready by the end of this year or early next year. Jubilant Organosys’ Monday to Sunday is said to have signed properties in Bangalore of about 80,000 sq ft each for a hypermarket venture. The Landmark Group, which runs the Lifestyle departmental store chain, is preparing for a hypermarket business, which could begin with a store in Bangalore . The group’s director H. Ramanathan says plans are also being made for a value fashion retail chain — specialised midmarket stores offering excellent value for money garments.

Trent, which owns the Westside departmental store chain and which launched its hypermarket venture Star India Bazaar with a store in Ahmedabad in October last year, has said a hypermarket would be set up in Bangalore this year.

Big Bazaar is said to have started work on a second project in north Bangalore and is believed to be looking at a third. Shoppers’ Stop is known to be close to finalising its hypermarket venture plan and Bangalore is expected to be among the first few destinations. The Fabmall - Trinethra combine has also said it plans to get into this mass market retailing format.

“It’s a reflection of what’s happening globally,” says Bikash Kumar of Integrated Retail Management Consulting. “In the US , for instance, department stores are witnessing a downward trend, their bottom lines are getting butchered. On the other hand, hypermarkets and discount formats are growing extremely rapidly.”

A hypermarket is a huge facility selling typically an extremely wide range of products, at low or discounted prices, and having provisions like “the more you buy, the lower the price per unit”. Keeping prices down demands that the stores be located where real estate prices are low.

Foodworld Supermarkets general manager Sunil Chandran says Bangalore already has the largest grocery shopping floor space in India . “With hypermarkets, you will find people doing one monthly shopping in them, and then topping it up with two-three visits to a supermarket,” he says.

Source: Times of India, Bangalore
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