[vivek95]

Heartfelt gratitude to D-mart

I am a Doctor and after I finished my 24 hour shift at hospital today morning followed by bath, I headed to D-Mart at CBD Belapur Navi Mumbai to enquire with their token system. Token system allows the public to visit their store at a specified time slot. But they said Doctors would get direct access anytime and I was let inside after showing my ID. Also, happened to attend to their worker who fell a few feet down the ramp. Checked him, he was otherwise good but had sustained a left humerus fracture, so immobilised his limb by tying a sling around the neck that temporarily relieved his pain and asked him to head to the hospital. Shopping around in D-mart felt so peaceful today with limited crowd and less head-on collisions between the carts. Every lot of crowd is given only 20 mins to shop failing which the billing won't be done. Thank you people at Dmart for giving us some consideration, much appreciate.

This is CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai outlet

[Sarkar_ask]

I live in Hinjewadi, Pune; the nearest DMart is around 1 KM away from my house and adjacent to DMart there is located one BigBazar too inside Xion Mall complex. I have a mixed experience with DMart. Here is my experience with numerous DMart shoppings -

1. DMart is always very crowded. Getting a four wheeler parking is like winning a lottery. Always waiting and waiting and waiting, most of the time I park my car at Xion Mall parking spending 30 rupees.

2. Things are really cheap in DMart but quality is not that good. I remember once I bought one door mat at 20 rupees only. So, I generally buy those things from DMart which are not quality-concerned items for me, example- bucket, broom, pen, glass jar, door mat, bathing towel, surf, floor cleaners etc.

3. Bought cooking utensils and crockery items, bad experience, quality was too bad. Only after using for a few days utensils started to break, non-stick pans lost their non-stick coating totally, white plates and dishes became yellow, only the pair of colourful coffee mugs are still in good condition.

4. Generally packaged food items which are offered with a huge discount is nearing expiration date, so always check the dates before buiying them to make sure that the item will be consumed by the time it expeires. DMart is good for buying these items in bulk. Whenever we party we generally buy things (disposable plates and glasses, mineral water, juice, cold beverages, snacks etc.) from DMart only, we save quite a few bucks.

5. The billing queues are generally long, it takes a good amount of time to get the billing done. So, in the middle of our shopping, I generally go and stand in the queue while my bae finishes the shopping and joins me in the queue, it saves some time.

So, generally when I need to buy things in bulk I go to DMart, otherwise now I always go to BigBazar since quality of products are better than DMart, not so crowded like DMart, parking is available always and also the billing queues are shorter than DMart. The only downside is that BigBazar is costlier than DMart, but I think the extra bucks are worth the other facilities and qualities that I get in BigBazar over DMart.

[AWD]

So I had ordered some essential products for home delivery from the the nearest Dmart store. The delivery charge is pretty steep, I say this as my house is very near the store. Ok this could be looked over but saddest part is the delivery experience, by NO means is it contactless & neither are proper sanitised procedures carried out. There was error in billing too.

[antz.bin]

I usually do not shop too much at DMart because it seems that I overspend every time I enter their premises. I have been 90% dependent on Grofers for all my groceries while DMart gets the remaining 10%. DMart in my area (Nanded City, Pune) is rarely crowded apart from Sunday / Saturday evenings. Even then, the queues are shorter than Big Bazaar (now closed, in Abhiruchi Mall and even elsewhere in Kothrud/Nashik) due to a much larger number of billing counters.

Also, there is always parking available in Nanded City Destination Centre for free, so that isn't an issue either.

All of the above is probably just for Nostalgia now that the world is changing so rapidly.

My first interaction in the Post-Covid world was when I had ordered some supplies from the DMart app around the end of Lockdown 1.0. This was when Grofers was facing major issues with finding slots and I wanted to stock up the 10% items that I usually buy from DMart.

Overall experience is neutral. With everyone (apart from SuprDaily) delivering at the society gate, DMart delivery also happened there. Some items that the hyperlocal delivery startups do better than DMart are:

1. App only works in off-peak hours like 1-3 AM.
2. There is no prepaid option. Payment had to be done at the time of delivery, but I must mention that they did accept card at the time of delivery.
3. A couple of items were not delivered. They weren't high priority items but regardless, they didn't get delivered.
4. The biggest boo-boo was that the package they initially gave me was not mine. So they changed it, the 2nd one wasn't mine either. Finally, they searched around and found my package. That was definitely not contactless and I had to identify from memory if the order is indeed mine since the App wasn't working. At this time, I was actually glad that it was NOT a prepaid order.
5. Delivery charges were Rs.45 even though I stay barely 2.5km away. On a similar sized order, Grofers / BigBasket waives off the delivery charges.
6. DMart has been following the definition of "Essentials" too literally. I wanted to order items that I could see on the shelves in my last physical visit to DMart (Token System, Limited entry, Socially distant) but they weren't available on the app. Grofers is not that rigid and is selling a much wider variety of products.

[bharatbits]

No, i don't shop there. Too crowded and too poor customer experience. I hate to stand in queues.

Pros
1. Economical, Lulu of India.

Cons
1. Crowds
2. Poor experience

I have been there couple of times to check them out when i was really bored and bought some not really necessary stuff like biscuits.

It's been some years since almost all my grocery shopping is done online.

My experiences from visiting D Mart in Pune, Mumbai, Ramanthapur, Tolichowki, Madhapur, Kukatpally, Ameerpet. I like checking out new large, retail spaces when they open. Not to buy but mostly to observe. One common thing in all the stores was that their alleys were really narrow. I think that's a strategy to let their stores appear crowded to people. What else can be the reason? They open store after store even in upscale areas but still manage to keep their alleys very narrow.

Big Bazaar is also borderline D Mart.

Had good to better experiences at Tata Tesco's Star in Church Gate Mumbai, Tata Tesco's Star Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Spencers LB Nagar, Hyd, Spencers Musheerabad, More Hyper Dilsukhnagar, More Hyper Banjara Hills, Ratnadeep Jubilee Hills, Spar Kondapur, Spar Nacharam etc

[Miyata]

An alternative to DMart is the Metro Wholesale (B2B).

I recently got a Metro Card and visited the Metro at Yeshwantpur, Bangalore - next to Columbia Asia. Seems decent. Over the next few visits I hopefully will learn more about it. The access to the place is only via the metro card. They have a requirement for every invoice to be more than a minimum of Rs. 1000/-

The (small-ish) restaurant inside was / is pretty decent too.

[Scarlet_Rider]

We regularly purchase groceries and other essentials from DMart. Go usually during the early morning hours to avoid the crowd. However in the current situation, it is not worth the risk.

They have an app called DMart Ready where you can order online. You can either opt for home delivery or select a pick up point. A nominal amount is charged for home delivery. However for certain locations home delivery is not available. For either option, you need to pay for confirming the order as there is no COD option.

As per the FAQs section of the app, DMart Ready is currently operational in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Ordered groceries at 12 noon yesterday. There was no home delivery for our address hence opted for pick up point which is just 1 km from our place. Confirmed the order by paying via card. Got a SMS at 3 PM stating that the order is ready for pick up today morning. (It gave me the option of selecting pick up dates for the next 3 days.) Had also got another SMS with link to download the bill.

The pick up point timings are currently 6 AM to 10 AM which are the relaxation hours during the current lockdown in Hyderabad. Reached there at 6.10 AM. Various orders were segregated in large plastic boxes. After sharing my order number, they opened the sealed box and scanned each item. Was out in 10 minutes and back home by 6.30 AM.

Found this to be a very good option for various reasons:

• Faster delivery/pick up. Picked up my order in less than 24 hours. Other apps like Grofers, Big Basket, etc. were showing delivery times of 4 to 6 days.
  
• No hiked prices. The local grocery stores have started selling at higher prices after the lockdown was announced.
  
• The usual DMart discounts were still available for almost all products.

[1985Darkkid85]

Never shopped at DMart, but this thread has certainly piqued my interest.

Is there a minimum ticket purchase that must be made?
I was told the the minimum invoice value should be thousand rupees , but I'm not very sure about this.

There is one in South Bangalore which is hardly 2 kilometres away from my house.
Considering the lockdown at Bangalore, what is the best time to shop in DMart now?

How good Is quality of perishables like Bread, curd and other miscellaneous snacks?

Are wallets accepted as a mode of payment? I'd like to use Paytm as that's linked to my Amex and I earn monthly rewards on them.

[a4anurag]

Since the second wave hit the city hard, we decided to try this option of ordering online for a few critical items that were near their end in stock at home.

It took 10 minutes to place the order and get the confirmation message regarding the same. We opted for Home Delivery since it was available even though the DMart store is just 2 kms away. The order was delivered the next day where every individual order is placed in a plastic crate labelled with the order ID. They come in a Tata Ace (sealed read weatherproof).

Have placed 2 more orders and awaiting delivery which shall happen today and tomorrow. For each order, an average of 21 items for which they are charging ₹49 to 51 as delivery charges and increases as the weight of the order goes up. The maximum we have been charged for delivery is ₹52 for a total of 24 cart items.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Miyata

An alternative to DMart is the Metro Wholesale (B2B).

I recently got a Metro Card and visited the Metro at Yeshwantpur, Bangalore - next to Columbia Asia. Seems decent. Over the next few visits I hopefully will learn more about it. The access to the place is only via the metro card. They have a requirement for every invoice to be more than a minimum of Rs. 1000/-

The (small-ish) restaurant inside was / is pretty decent too.

The restriction is that you need to be a business owner with GST registration to get the Metro C&C card.

Honestly, my experience with Metro is underwhelming. With the advent of online shopping and few other super markets, there are very few items which made financial sense to me buying from Metro. The financial savings work out if you buy lot of groceries. Almost all home improvement items and tools were priced higher than corresponding online prices.

I heard from my friend(whose metro card I had borrowed to shop at the metro) that the cost will work out lesser for TV's, refrigerators and air conditioners. Will check out the next time I need one of these items. For regular home needs, metro did not work out for me

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Honestly, my experience with Metro is underwhelming.

When Metro started (I think 2003) it had great deals, exclusive items and was the only place you could go to and browse tools and appliances without a salesperson hounding you. After traders started protesting their easy membership rules and pricing, Metro started restricting memberships.

Over time, everything went downhill. All the employees have a very poor attitude, can be seen chatting in groups among themselves, and are always on the phone making deals with certain favored customers - as a result, an ordinary customer will never find sale items on the shelves. Today it is a place, I make it a point to avoid.

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by 1985Darkkid85

Is there a minimum ticket purchase that must be made?
I was told the the minimum invoice value should be thousand rupees , but I'm not very sure about this.

If you walk in to a store, there is no such minimum ticket size.

For online shopping via Dmart Ready, a minimum ticket size of Rs.500/- applies (was Rs.1000/- earlier).

[noopster]

I've had the chance to work closely with the DMart guys on their IT/e-commerce side and there is no doubt it is a 100% professional organization. There is a legendary story about RK Damani giving a patient hearing to a top-tier firm's analyst who finally came up with the brilliant suggestion of providing Free Wifi in the DMart stores. The meeting apparently ended at that point because free Wifi negated the core principle that the company operates on; how to get customers OUT of the store in the fastest time possible Indeed they are even measured on that as a KPI!

Neville Noronha, the CEO whom Damani handpicked from his previous role managing the supermarkets channel at HUL, is a thoroughly impressive guy and the results are there for all to see. When DMart went public it was one of the handful of IPOs I got an allocation in and for some reason I sold my holding within a day or two for nearly double. It would easily be at 5x my selling price had I held onto it!

Closer home, I haven't shopped in a DMart in a while- my wife and the help manage it now- but when we did go, it used to be a systematic effort where we'd split up and keep intersecting at our cart with our respective list items! The deals are great and the product range is unparalleled. Once a month big bang grocery shopping at DMart accompanied by top-ups from the friendly neighbourhood kirana store has been our model for quite a few years now.

[vinu_h]

One stop shop for all your home needs, adequate parking, slightly lower priced than local kirana shops, allows exchange/warranty and is 1 km from where I live. That's a win for me.

Pro tip - Walk in 20 mins before their closing time and you'll be treated like a king/queen.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by noopster

Once a month big bang grocery shopping at DMart accompanied by top-ups from the friendly neighbourhood kirana store has been our model for quite a few years now.

Since I was a kid, I remember going to the neighborhood superstore to buy a month worth of grocery. Was the best way to watch Sodexho disappear. In the earlier part of last decade, I followed this for a while and here's why we entirely stopped this approach.

a) When you plan to go to stores like DMart/Big Bazaar or the likes, you mentally feel like making it that big one-stop-get-all kind of visit so your shopping cart ends up being rather long
- A big list means you spend a good amount of time navigating through the various aisles, often waiting for others to finish their shopping. (furthermore, the risk of buying stuff you actually don't need along the way)
- A big cart = a bigger hassle to carry it to your car, and then home. What makes it worse is a lot of these places have very inconvenient parking (extremely irritating). Heck, the Big Bazaar on Baner rd did not even have it's own 4W parking (the basement fit about 4-5 cars at most).
- Long queues at check-out, often indisciplined. The worst.

b) The sheer size of these stores make it a minimum two-three hours affair, which is a spectacular waste of time and energy, given that you spend it most on parking or billing check-out

We've now moved to a model of buying a bulk of our groceries every fortnight, either from the corner superstore or BigBasket (door stop delivery is a blessing), and then step to the corner shops for adhoc purchases. I also feel the time and tested kirana shops have taken the fight right to these big stores's gate by having a really wide range of products, being competitive with price, gracefully accepting credit cards, perks like home delivery (order in person or WhatsApp) and so on.

Although a loyal DMart shareholder, I just feel these big stores are a waste of my time and energy.