Shoppers think fresh – and think less of products endorsed by World Cup losers

Middle-class Delhi-ites have fallen in love — with supermarkets. The ‘Organised Retail’ concept has exploded here, as mini-chains such as Big Apple, Food Bazaar and Reliance Fresh seek to get a head-start over the likes of global brands such as Wal-Mart and Tesco — both rumoured to be looking for sites in the capital. Big Apple (slogan: ‘Think Fresh’) consisted in 2005 of just one store employing 30 people; by August 2007, the group hopes to have opened 300 stores. Analysts say the market is growing at over 25 per cent annually.

At six o’clock on a Sunday evening, the Reliance Fresh outlet on Rani Jhansi Road in north-east Delhi is buzzing with affluent families filling their baskets with fresh vegetables, cans of condensed milk, sachets of popcorn and brightly coloured kitchenware. For many, a visit has become the new social pastime en famille. Those who fail to make it past the officious security guards stand on the pavement and watch the customers troop by on the retail red carpet.

I wonder aloud what the attraction is. ‘I like it that this onion hasn’t been rolling around in the dirt just minutes before I buy it,’ says Rupa Mathur, holding one up to me. ‘It’s cheap!’ says another woman. In this price-sensitive country, the ability to bulk-buy means the new chains have an edge over mom-and-pop corner shops; they also focus on the psychology of shopping, noting that more than half of what finds its way into a shopper’s basket are impulse purchases. With young staff in red and green uniforms running around helping customers choose the plumpest red pepper and the shiniest apple, supermarkets, it seems, are the best thing since sliced bread — on sale at Reliance Fresh for 13 rupees a half-loaf.