Shoppers' Paradise

If there's anything more expected than polls every year, it is the boom in festive shopping in Mumbai. However, unlike polls, the festival season has one unmatchable attribute - charm. Despite the yo-yoing of the money markets and public sentiment with unstable governments in the past three years, the festival season, roughly from Navaratri to the New Year, has been marked with increased sales of all imaginable consumer goods. The rains have bid adieu and Mumbai is ready for three months of shopping frenzy.

This year promises to be even more spectacular with the mushrooming of a slew of superstores, speciality megashops and malls. Westside, a Tata enterprise opened some time ago with a promise of elegance, and Crossroads, the Ajay Piramal-owned shopping mall, have lent a new dimension to shopping. Just before that, Planet M, the Bennett, Coleman & Co. music store, threw open its gates. And last weekend, Nagani's opened at Linking Road, the shopping artery of western Mumbai. The Bombay Swadeshi Stores got itself a spanking new look some time ago on re-christening as The Bombay Store. Charagh Din, "the biggest shirt store in the world" according to owner Raju Daswani, is now ready for the impending festival season with an expansion of its floor space to 10,000 sq ft. These superstores join the existing Mumbai wonderplazas like Shopper's Stop, Akbarally's and Asiatic.

With lakhs of rupees spent in doing up these new temples of boom, the owners have different strategies to draw the crowds. Each of these stores is preparing to ring in the New Year with a bang. Over a third of annual advertising and promotion budgets are being spent in these three months. And hefty sales volumes are expected in return. Four levels of chrome, glass, granite and polished wood beckon you to go through a range of 25,000 shirts at Charagh Din. Says Daswani, "We are introducing about 25 new designs every day in this period to give the shopper a real bargain for his money." Charagh Din is a far cry from its look of the yesteryears. Daswani will invest close to Rs 5 crore on his new brand, Ditto, which is the latest on the ramps in Paris and Milan. He will formally launch it any time around Diwali. This investment is over and above the expenses he has incurred in doing up his store. Charagh Din is exciting, contemporary and will attract even the top-end customer. It also promises the largest range in shirts. "For every 15 options that another store offers in a design, we offer 200," says Daswani.

Shiraz Nagani, the newest entrant to the business, has flown in experts as well as material for his interiors to give his 20,000-sq ft store the looks of "the malls abroad". He is going to have cross-promotions with the likes of McDonald's for the New Year. Old hands like Akbarally's have already announced their festival offers on a huge range of goods. The lights are sparkling at all the four Akbarally's outlets in the city.

Says Anil Gajria of Pinxit Blue, which handles the account of the newly-opened Nagani's, "Most strategic for us was the choice of location which itself will bring the crowd to our doorstep. " Point taken. Considering that even on a regular weekday, Linking Road is brimming with shoppers who give the impression as if there will be no tomorrow. Gajria recounts how the store had to actually restrain entry on the opening day, such was the crowd. Sales on the first two days: Rs 5 lakh. Planet M has a similar story to tell. When it opened a few months ago, the music store entertained over 10,000 people on the first day itself and notched up sales of over Rs 5 lakh.

The mother of all promotions for the season comes from Westside. Slightly overshadowed by the high-decibel launches of the likes of Crossroads, Westside is poised to grab its rightful place under the Mumbai sun. It has been the first to announce its special offer for Diwali. The Diwali Itch Scratch & Win will give away Tata Indicas, air-conditioners from Voltas and gift vouchers. That's not all. There's, hold your breath, a Mercedes-Benz to be won as a bumper prize. With 20,000 sq ft of shopping space replete with a huge range of goods, centrally-located Westside is already attracting shoppers. Westside promises a smart range of western clothing for women, a welcome addition for the Mumbai working woman. The range for women is breathtaking in other garments and lingerie as well. A large part of this range is imported. Not that the men are left out what with a large range to choose from in both formals and casuals. In all this, explains Ajay Mehra of Westside, "quality control is most important and we check every piece to offer consistency to our customers". Mehra is looking at this quarter to help make his store "a vibrant and happening place and a complete shopping destination in Mumbai".

All these stores are targeting the middle-class and upper middle-class customers. "They have to align with their counterparts abroad," explains Gajria, "and can't remain the exclusive domain of the rich if they need to get their volumes." So while, say, Westside may offer garments for as little as Rs 300, there are also exclusive brands gia and Trent for women and men, respectively. Nagani's offers custom-made suits while Charagh Din offers shirts in the Rs 300-2,000 range.

These brand new and Generation-X superstores will change the shopping experience in Mumbai forever. Shopping no longer needs to be a sweaty, exhausting or tedious affair, what with air-conditioned shopping space, an exciting ambience and refreshment options thrown in. If you aren't too sure what you want to buy for yourself and your loved ones, just try the new millennium departmental stores like Westside, Akbarally's, The Bombay Store, Shopper's Stop or malls like Crossroads and Nagani's. If you're sure it has to be music, books or jewellery, then there's Planet M, Groove, Crossword and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, now elegantly called just tbz. Don't forget the old hands of Mumbai though, like Rhythm House and Strand Book Stall.

Shopping leisurely is a dream come true for any Mumbai-ite. This festival season is going to be the best in the last many years. Shop without the bother of bumping into people and cars, rest awhile at the coffee shops and food courts at all these stores. It is the beginning of a new era. So go ahead and splurge. And while at it, do try the sinful pastries at Westside and the cappuccino and chocolate chip cookie at Rashmi Uday Singh's The Good Food Store at Crossroads. You'll never say "No Shopping" again.