My my isn’t that pretty…….. Review on Shoppers Stop, Mumbai

Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping.

-- Bo Derek

Now then, most of you would presume that I am about to talk about the extensive range of apparel and how I could choose SS over so many other malls blah blah, NO you are in for a surprise because one of India?s best known retail stores which changed the very idea of shopping for so many urban consumers, is woefully inadequate in terms of variety and comes no where near specialized retail outlets in India.

Note : My experiences with this store are limited to the ones at Bandra and Andheri (Mumbai) and Salt Lake(Kolkata).So if at other stores, your experiences have been any different, please enlighten the readers with the same in the comments section. Yeah for those obsessed with thinking this is a clever ploy to increase the no. of comments, yeah I just finished a course in identifying strategies to increase the no. of comments at MS and hence the application of the same. Those interested to join this course, kindly contact our ?clique???..

Let me first start off with some history of Shoppers Stop in India and how it started off as a new concept and thereafter where did it fail?

History

When Shopper stop was started by the Raheja group in 1991, the aim of the organization was to spin off a revolutionary concept in fashion and lifestyle retail. The first store was started at Mumbai. With diverse product categories such as apparel for all ages, household items as well personal care items available under one roof, the footfalls in the initial stage were some positive indicators and that made the owners invest in integrating all the various departments by using IT solutions and thereafter for a number of years Shoppers was worried about the decline in footfalls and sales while the bottom lines started shrinking. Now this was as far as the organization is concerned. What about the consumers???

Product variety

I cannot claim to have purchased every item under every category and shall limit my opinion to apparel, shoes, imitation jewellery and crockery.

When it comes to ethnic wear ? Salwar Kameez, long skirts and kurtis, I have observed that for reasons best known to the person responsible for buying and merchandise there, the variety is somehow limited to either embroidered stuff with same kind of stitching and cuts and absolutely similar colour combinations.

Gosh in fact all the salwaar kameez combos are essentially the ones with some floral prints in chiffon or crepe or cotton ones with typical golden/silver coloured embroidery near the neck or asymmetric designs in Kurtas. And to think that they got pretz wear by designers introduced to some of their stores which look all the same but for the soaring prices, well it all adds up to my foolishness for having gone there without checking up with my friends and reading these reviews.

Long skirts, well what do I say? Crush cotton skirts which you get at less than one fifth the price at Linking Road and if the argument is quality well, all of them last as long as you maintain them by washing them properly and the usual care tips. In fact the brighter shades are usually missing and I love real bright ones (it?s the Preity Zinta look in Lakshya that I liked a lot).

Imitation jewellery - Black metal is conspicuous by its absence. All you get are most common kinds of chains and those black thread wear with the same old pendants. C?mon creativity seems to have escaped these people. The same white metal stuff with american diamonds and danglers with stones which would drop out the moment you unpack them. Now a lot of us might actually like them but when it?s a retail outlet that claims to offer the best in terms of fashion trends, you cannot afford to keep introducing and reintroducing the same old stuff available at any other store.

Cosmetics Now the problem does not lie with the kind of brands available or the variety per se, it?s the fact that newer shades or collections takes a long while to adorn the shelves of SS. I remember scouting for the designer collection introduced by Lakme a longtime back and the same was available in almost all the other stores by the time the commercial hit the streets. Now I as a consumer am not so much concerned with whether the store had logistic issues or some margin problem, for me whats important is whether I get what I want and when I want. I do have to admit that in terms of the no. of brands available, yeah you would find right from Clarins, Maybelline to Himalaya everything under the sun.

Shoes

Since the formal shoes as well as chappals are branded ones viz. Catwalk, the quality is def. very good and the leather quality as well as styles available are satisfactory. If you are looking for ethnic stuff specifically, then this might not be the preffered one though.

Crockery

Again these are essentially branded ones from La Opala , Borosil etc hence quality is not an issue. This is a good place esp. if you are planning to gift a set to someone.

Now if you look at some of the other stores competing for the same wallet as SS, Westside for one offers an amazing variety of apparel-esp formal wear and jewellery. Lifestyle has an amazing collection of casual wear and true to its name if you are looking for lifestyle items such as cushion covers, lamps, candles, pot pourri, this is a nice place. Now when it comes to Globus, for one I find this store obscenely expensive to say the least.

Secondly to think that the idea of finding everybody right from my boss to my colleagues of varied depts., ages and sizes to be wearing the same kind of shirt that I do is not particularly appealing. Moreover, its meant for mainly apparel and a rather unicoloured range makes me refrain from ever going to this store.

Now then, before people think that I am going to either launch a private store or this is a personal tirade against the CEOs of any of these organizations, let me clarify that these are my personal experiences which I felt I could share and hence have none of such plans!LOL

Keerti

Don?t forget to RRC the review.