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.

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Happened to visit both the stores at Pacific Mall to hunt for Bargain. Result : nothing impressive. Now, the thing about monsoon / summer sales in Delhi is, that summers are always around much longer than winters, hence, the desperation to clear stocks is much lesser. More so, the summer stock requires much lesser space in the godown so why sell cheap! What I deduced after spending 2 good hours in these stores, trying to make sense out of my visit, is that winter sales score over summer sales hands down.

Most of the stock is less than 20%. Some between 15-30% and very few things which the store-owners don’t want to retain and the shoppers will definitely not want, are on 50% off.

* If you go in the day-time, go to Chunmun first. Their happy hours (10% extra discount. Only on items that are on sale!) are between 11 AM - 1 PM. Ritu wears has happy hours till 3 PM.

Do not expect much, though.

Monsoon’s arrived and is showering the customary SALES all over the town.

Do write your experiences, reviews and any great achievement you’ve made during the Sale period.

You can also check the forum : http://www.shoppingdelhi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6

When Delhi was smaller, people would go to the adjoining cities (now called the National Capital Region) as an agenda. This would mean an outing for one full day. Those who could afford it, would hire a taxi for a day - since most of the times the weather is acting funny, this side of the temperature or the other - have one meal at the dhabas on the outskirts and visit one such ‘factory outlet’. What gave these shops more authenticity was that we believed that the factory would be located somewhere nearby and that’s how the same stuff is available so much cheaper. And then you saw them on all highways leading to Delhi, and wondered how come there were so many factories. And one day, the myth shattered!

You realised that there is a factory outlet within 5 km reach of your home/workplace, and another within the next 5km. And then you saw that the discounts were never more than 15-20-25%, on wollens in summers and on shorts in winters. Floaters are never on discount and the shoes that are thrown at you, you anyway do not want.

Why, they even went ahead and opened a Factory Outlet Mall for you. It is called Ansal’s Plaza in Vaishali, next to Ansal’s Neel Padam Kunj and bang opposite Dabur’s multistoried office. All shops out there claim to stock goods at fctory prices. In retail chains, there is Allen Cooper, Allen Solly, Megamart (Arvind group for Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England and Lee Cooper), Bata, Bizarre, Cantabil, Catmoss, Cottons by century, Gini n Johny (kidswear), Hidesign, High Life (shirts), Liberty SHoes, Mega Store (another chain), Provogue, Reebok, Samsonite, SF Jeans, Snowhite, Tuscan Verve, Van Heusen, VIP. There is also a big Vishal Mega Mart and Discount Store - that houses electronics and furniture. Incidentally, they do have good Zuari furniture at some amazing rates!

Shopping never seemed easier than this. Although the discount percentages do not have much to offer - probably during a season-change sale, you may get better options.

There is more for this article. (TBC…)

- The rest you’ll get at Lajpat Nagar

How many times have you heard people rave about The Lajpat Nagar Market and felt either unimpressed or uninitiated? Most of us have most of the time. Yet some of us know Lajpat Nagar like back of their hand since it is undoubtedly one of the most self-sufficient, be-all and end-all, colorful and most importantly best-bargains market place. (I still belong to the former lot).

I‘m here to share my pleasant surprises with the market last week. I happened to have a baby 2 years back and she happened to have her second birthday and incidentally we happened to decide to not celebrate the first birthday so it was a first experience of celebrating a kids birthday for all of us. Not that it was a big deal because all we did in the name of celebrations was that we went to her day-care and put together a small do over there. Yet, however conventionally-challenged parents we might be, I still have some aspirations of my own when it comes to parenting.

During my numerous trips to Lajpat Nagar and amidst buying Roasted Namkeen, Bhujia, Matthi, Chips and the family, I had noticed these shops (read:shacks) in a lane opposite Sita Fabrics (the furnishing guys). This is where you get suit pieces, duppattas, export quality clothes and Pakoras. There are about 3 shops (shacks) that look extremely colorful and sell party props.

In my list, I had to buy gifts for other kids of all age groups. Challenged, as I have mentioned above, as I am, I had forgotten about other important things like ‘birthday cap’ (or a crown these days for girls) and disposable plates and ware and ended up buying from another place later.

So coming back to gifts, since I have become a little more comfortable with hyper-marts, I had checked out Big-Bazaar in EDM to Vishal Mega Mart but nothing found anything worth the buck. I decided to check out these places in Lajpat Nagar since I anyways had to buy snacks from these shacks.

I felt like a kid in a toy store!

You get great return gifts, anywhere from 2 bucks onwards. There is no upper limit since you may decide to give away Barbie Doll Houses and spend Rs. 2000 per present. (what crap am I talking!)

So you get great gifts here, really great props like disposable ware, wrapping paper, stationery, decoration pieces, bags and the works. The prices would about half, if not a third. Bargaining to a certain extent (about 15-20%) also works in most of the cases so don’t give up.

All of the above is also available at Sadar Bazaar, and probably cheaper, but unless you’re throwing a really big party with a lot of elements, or you go there every other day anyway - I would advise to stick to Lajpat Nagar. There is also a shop or two in Karol Bagh and Jhandewalan but LN still scored better - both in terms of range and prices.

Look forward to a party and BYOG (Bring Your Own Guests) - the rest you can shop for at Lajpat Nagar… and love it!