Big Bazaar turns focus to Tier II, will open 300 hypermarket stores in 9 months

India’s leading hypermarket chain Big Bazaar, which has its presence in over 100 cities across the country, is planning to open 16 more stores to take the overall count to 300 over the next three quarters, a company official has said. The Future Group firm, as per its expansion strategy, is expanding into the smaller tier-II cities in India, which are lesser impacted by the pandemic and has aspirations and an emerging consumption class.
“We are on the course to complete the milestone of reaching 300 hypermarket stores in next three quarters,” Big Bazaar CEO Sadashiv Nayak told news agency PTI.
Future Retail is presently operating around 284 stores of Big Bazaar in over 100 cities, he said adding that with the 300 stores, the brand would be reaching almost across all the states.
Nayak also told PTI that now the number of visitors in stores is increasing and during the festive season, all sections including the apparels and garments also recorded good sales.
Terming it as a “positive tailwind”, Nayak said, “We are still on path to recovery, we have not fully recovered to normal state” and there are some behaviour changes on part of consumers also.
“People have started to consume again, which is a good sign and the people need to be price conscious and promotion conscious and that has not gone away. People are checking the price and promotions,” he said adding “another behaviour change is that now the people have started to check the source of the origin of the products,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
Chains such as Big Bazaar are needed not only for providing daily essentials at affordable prices but also to stroke consumption, he added.
Big Bazar has also adopted digital modes, using shopping app, WhatsApp and even phone to get orders and get them delivered at the doorsteps. The company has also adopted concepts as ‘pick up at stores’.