Shopping Delhi

It has been many years since Marks & Spencer landed on Indian Markets and we all have been seeing them around, in the posh malls. We have also been aware (if you’re more interested in bargains ads in local supplements then you’d know) of it having season sales and the same getting better in terms of offers, by the year. Yet, most of us carry the notion around that the place is prohibitively expensive despite the discounts being offered. Well, true to an extent, but only till some time back.

In my prowl for bargains as the sole-aim-of-my-being, I happened to be in a mall and right outside Marks & Spencer and decided to check it out for myself. The last I went in was probably in 1999 when my paycheck was 1/8th of now. So the results were somehow predictable.

M&S had an “All sale stock at 60% off” across all stores and the range. The best part was the lingerie. Now, without doubt they have really good stuff in the innerwear range, and getting that at 60% off was quite a find. I also found really good shirts - for men and women, and lowers, again at bargains better than any other Indian brand (Globus, Lifestyle, Shopper’s Stop, GFO, Bizzare, Westside, Maxx, Freelook, Pantaloons, Cotton World, and so on…)

The best thing is that the quality of the cloth and the fit is beyond comparison with any. M&S seems to have realised that they cannot prohibit the Indian shoppers by tagging a shirt at 2,000 bucks. So an average price of about 1200 rupees at 40% of it would come to 480 - which is very good!

What more, there are now four M&S outlets in the NCR - there is one in Ansal Plaza on the Sirifort Road (the debut store), at Westgate Mall Raja Garden, MGF Metropolitan Mall in Gurgaon, and the latest at the Great India Place in Noida.

My advice to the upper-middle, upwardly mobile Indian shopper is to not bother about local brands like Koutons, TNG, Cotton County, Cantabil and the sorts anymore. Times are changing and the sellers are now open to far more genuine sales than ever before. If you can get Marks & Spencer as the same price as San Frisco, then heck, why do you mind!