Market

The Star Bazaar in South Bombay is an everyday market, extremely comprehensive and price competitive for everyday shopping, for everyone from young health and yoga freaks to middle-class families and elderly couples. The common denominator is the Indian obsession with in-person shopping for fresh vegetables and fruit and quality processed food products – all with the convenience of self-service – everything in one place and at rock-bottom prices. This is the imperative of the modern city – it has to be done in person between the morning walk and breakfast. 

market
Late Mitter Bedi’s photo studio behind Taj near Gateway of India

A walk in South Bombay on an early Sunday in March. There are crowds already on Marine drive, some dancing and jogging and others taking selfies. On the eastern or harbor side, we walk from restoration to restoration of the old churches, the first post office, libraries, museums, restaurants, and hotels. 

The sun has just risen and the small sailboats are still docked at a seeming mid-tide. We arrive at the Star Bazaar hypermarket that occupies the ground floor of a multistory residential building to do our weekly self-service shopping from an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits and every kind of dry goods, cooking oils, condiments, and household goods to personal care.

The vegetables and fruit are very fresh and are to be selected and put into paper sacks for weighing and pricing. Strawberries in a plastic box are spectacular and only 29 Rupees and the ripe mangoes are in spongy plastic nets. We put potatoes, tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, drumsticks, and chilies into the brown paper sacks that are abundantly provided in every size, and stand in line to have them weighed and marked. This is done efficiently. However, the sacks are sealed with transparent plastic tape – a sustainable solution or innovation is needed here, perhaps a paper tape, spot gluing, or an innovative crimping solution for a safe carriage home, reuse, and recycling. 

In the processed foods section, there is a preponderance of flexible pouches with the occasional luxury cereal in a bag-in-box carton. The soaps have come back from cartons to mostly coated paper wrappers. House brands abound, from the Star sunflower oil in a 15-kilogram tin to the cashews and raisins in flexible transparent pouches and the aggressive tomato ketchup in a high-barrier stand-up pouch with a spout. 

A few days, a young industry colleague explained, “In these inflationary times, we cannot afford anything with fancy packaging. We buy practically everything in flexible pouches, and if we can we replenish the earlier containers of glass or semi-rigid plastic with the new products purchased in stand-up pouches with a spout. We are well aware that the pouches are still the same size while the product inside has decreased, but this is the most economical and convenient way for day-to-day life.”

market
Super low prices everyday- compact aisles. Photo PSA

South Bombay is one of the richest neighborhoods in the country but it has a substantial share of legacy house owners and residents. It is also one of the most demographically heterogeneous areas in the city. For a taxi driver, it is one of the ‘poorest’ areas with few customers for long rides – many of the residents have cars and drivers, and others take public transport or walk, even if they have to continuously dodge other pedestrians or grand constructions and renovations. 

Star Bazaar offers a wide range of products. It is managed by Trent Westside, one of the companies of the Tata group. The key to viability in its expensive location is compactness, a well-organized and high density of goods for which its customers do not want to go to a specialty shop or boutique. This is not your Modern Bazaar with SUVs being handed over to a valet service. This is not your obsessive coupon clipping online app for home-delivered food if it’s in stock. 

Competitive in-person hypermarket shopping implies fresh produce of the highest quality, good presentation and access, and clear pricing. And everyday products with a choice of brands and the retailer’s brands. 

Packaging has to work both for high throughput retailers and the shopper – no-frills – a combination of materials and formats – paper sacks for self-service, flexible pouches, paper wrappers, bag in box, and other cartons but only where needed. Metal packaging for personal care and bulk cooking oil. Semi-rigid and glass bottles only if necessary. 

Value-for-money packaging to fulfill the sale paradigms: ‘Super low prices every day! And, Buy one, get one free.’ Discounts are automatically accumulated and applied to regulars. And most of all, this is a social interaction with the real world of needs and necessities. An activity best performed by a couple or in the company of a friend, “Stand with the shopping cart in the checkout line please – so I can get some more stuff, and we can pay and get away as fast as we can.” 

Packaging South Asia — authentic, impactful and influential

An English-language packaging industry B2B platform in print and web, Packaging South Asia is in its 19th year of publication. We do not make any claims about being the best or the most widely read. However, if you are interested in targeting the Indian and South Asian markets to sell equipment, technology, software, and consumables, we can help.

To improve your marketing and grow sales, talk to us. Our research and consulting company IppStar [www.ippstar.org] can assess your potential and addressable markets in light of the competition. We can discuss marketing, communication, and sales strategies for market entry and growth.

Suppliers and service providers with a strategy and budget for targeted marketing can discuss using our hybrid print, web, video, and social media channels to create brand recognition linked to market relevance. Our platform and channels are differentiated by hands-on practice and an understanding of business and financials. Our team, including some of the best technical writers, is ready to meet you and your customers for content.

India and South Asia’s fast-growing packaging industry is continuously expanding capacities with efficiency and appropriate innovative technologies. Get our 2025 media kit and recalibrate your role in this dynamic market. Enhance your visibility and relevance to existing markets and turn potential customers into conversations. Ask for a sample copy of our monthly or two weekly packaging eZines.

For editorial info@ippgroup.in — for advertisement ads1@ippgroup.in and for subscriptions subscription@ippgroup.in

Naresh Khanna – 21 January 2025

Subscribe Now
unnamed 1

NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Previous articleThe Print Business Outlook seminar in Mumbai
Next articleThe Michelman water-based coating barrier solution
Naresh Khanna
Editor of Indian Printer and Publisher since 1979 and Packaging South Asia since 2007. Trained as an offset printer and IBM 360 computer programmer. Active in the movement to implement Indian scripts for computer-aided typesetting. Worked as a consultant and trainer to the Indian print and newspaper industry. Visiting faculty of IDC at IIT Powai in the 1990s. Also founder of IPP Services, Training and Research and has worked as its principal industry researcher since 1999. Author of book: Miracle of Indian Democracy. Elected vice-president of the International Packaging Press Organization in May 2023. One of the judges for Packaging Sustainability Awards 2024 and 2025.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here