Wishing for- A Concept Food Store!

The great Indian Food bazaar

Though this may seem a severe critique, it is more of what could have been…

Background:

The thought of this post started after a rather disappointing visit to the newly opened Food Store- Foodhall at Palladium, Lower Parel. The disappointment was not about the variety or it’s quality, but of a huge lost opportunity. It is very easy to sum up Foodhall- it is Big Bazaar’s now shut Food Bazaar in a swankier mall.  So the change has been addition of International ingredients and good lighting.

The reason to open foodhall, I’m sure is the newly presented opportunity of offering ingredients of World Cuisine.  Godrej Nature’s Basket may have been the first super market to start on this format. Recently launched Gourmet West by Westside(Tata) has a similar concept.  About 2 years ago, a very pleasant, inviting, well-planned and wisely stocked Gourmet city opened atop Shopper’s Stop, Malad and shut soon after. Mostly, a wrong location I would guess for such a premium concept.  Hypercity does have a limited section of International ingredients, cold cuts and meat.

Post all this, we now have Foodhall, a 15,000 sq. ft space. The first glitch is the same as that of Big Bazaar, stamping ugly stickers on your belongings. A child’s fancy toy was scarred with a sticker (perhaps foodhall also plans to sell toys?! ). It is quite urgent to really find an alternative to this ugly practice to safeguard against shop-lifting!

What’s in store:

The first aisle is filled with Indian spices and dry ingredients in fancy acrylic dispensers 
( Like the cereals at Gourmet west). However, I am quite unsure of what appeal lies in taking normal, generic mustard seeds out of these fancy contraptions.

This is followed by aisles of masalas, including the famous in America, made in Pakistan Shaan brand. It is right here you notice, the maze and tight aisle space created. Post this, we have the Asian and South-Asian section filled with the usual Nature’s Basket stock, though shelves here are packed to the tee. However, they need to be careful about crushing packaging under it’s weight.

Next is Indian cooking oils- Saffola, etc. and then instant noodles  and other ingredients of everyday kitchen use.  There is a mini dairy section with packaged products. Packed breads and bakery products are available. A well-lit vegetable and fruits island is loaded with quite badly arranged vegetables.

Extras:

There is a big ready to eat cooked section, which serves Indian fare- biriyanis, meals, salads and a few other things. A small cold-cuts section is something you just may miss. By check-out, I am not sure why would I re-visit this store?! I also am skeptical about quality, but at the counter there is a re-assurance that they do take back ingredients that you are not satisfied with.

Scope and Expectations:

The main disappointment was the typical mentality of dumping a given space with as much possible so as to achieve maximum returns. I think we as Indians, especially when it comes to niche stores, should do away with this hangover. But then again, the problem with Foodhall seems that it is not interested in carving a ‘niche’ unlike Nature’s basket and Gourmet West.

In offering everyday  Indian ingredients with the Exotic, they may seem to fill the gap between a Big Bazaar/ Subhikhsha and a Nature’s Basket.  As a tweet from them said “#foodHall is like its modern indian customers..Pesarattu dosa for breakfast, Fajiats at dinner! “  
But then again I happen to be a 'non-beleiver in fusion' modern Indian.

So is Indian not exotic enough?

Of course it is, but give me a story, a belief. Tell me that the Sarso out of the fancy vending machine is of superior quality, give me origins. Is it sourced directly from farmers? How about integrating a greater, richer experience? What about myths and legends about our rich spices? That something more is what any new food store format is going to require. Or the local baniya is just a call away for any generic Mustard seeds/ Urad/ jeera, etc. What will make a customer entering Palladium, go to Foodhall, travel through narrow aisles, encounter untrained staff and buy a normal, everyday ingredient?

How does over-stocking a shelf with all the seaweed and bamboo rolling mats, but no sticky rice or horse-radish powder easily visible help? In the plethora of 4-5 brands of everything and packed to the tee quantity of each, it is very difficult to decipher or obtain that one exact thing I may be looking for.

Which may be the comman case of a person shopping for Foreign ingredients. She/ He has a list of ingredients for a specific recipe they plan to cook. It was a great opportunity to break away from aisles and create Cuisine islands instead. Something that would be easy to read and also interactive and engaging.

Direction- Experential Gourmet

Further, the purpose of the whole ready to eat meals being there is something I cannot fathom. The disappointment is not just the underutilization of space (actually over-utilization of floor space ), but the lost opportunity to have an actual Experiential Gourmet store at an ’exclusive’  mall. A part of Mumbai is ready for a different, more challenging format than a generic Food store with an integrated confused Deli.

There hardly lies a recipe in the world that is inaccessible, an ingredient that’s remotely unheard of. A large mass of Indians will take time to get there. But a considerable few have got there and that niche can now be explored. It is time Giant companies can afford to experiment and take these quality risks.