I went around the Ampa Mall and finally went to the basement where the Tata Star Bazaar is located which is said to be the first hypermart in Chennai.  I went inside and was greeted by men’s wear and women’s wear clothing section and since being a Sunday evening, the crowd was considerable and as I had expected.  The price of the clothing seems reasonable and cheap and not much of branded products except their own as well as other not so popular brands were seen in clothing for men, women and kids.

Then comes the main part where the groceries and vegetables and household products are kept.  On the outset, Tata Star Bazaar in Chennai looked really big in capacity with everything being able to move around the store without bumping into people which used to be case of Big Bazaar in Vadapalani.

It was clearly evident that Star Bazaar is clearly trying to emulate Big Bazaar by trying to keep every product needed for a household, all in small quantities except for the groceries and vegetables.  Also Tata Star Bazaar is having a separate section dedicated to home electronics which is rather a pretty small area of products.

Similarly they have well separated place where they sell meat and fish which is located on the other end of the store.  And right next to it is a bakery.

There were a whole lot of billing tills available to make life easier for us during peak shopping hours and hence the waiting time is far less.  One has wait and see whether all will be manned on most of such peak hours and how they are going to maintain it.  The stocks are well maintained and neatly arranged even during such peak hour.  Many store assistants offered help voluntarily (for how long!) and were courteous indeed.

There were really some good offers mentioned on the Hindu ad but mostly are for vegetables and groceries but many of them I could not find, no idea whether it was due to stocks being sold out or offer ended or not.  While most of the products are priced at 5 paise or 10 paise less than the MRP! which I really found funny!  What they are really trying to make out of it?  Are they trying to show off that they are selling below MRP or what?  I know the local kirana shops sells the same products for around Rs. 1 or 2 less.  I know that the overhead charges for these super stores like Tata Star Bazar is high when compared to local shops but I wonder why reducing just 5 paise or 10 paise on MRP, perhaps they can explain it or they only knew why.  I really doubt that people will fall for it.  Apart from that there were offers like buy one take one, bulk offers, freebies, etc on very many products on display.  While some are worth it and some are not so.

Overall, Tata Star Bazaar looks like another hypermarket in the life of Chennai and it is surely going to be a success with good marketing strategy and genuine deals and offers.