Bangalore's grocery shopping redefined

Grocery shopping has never been so easy and as much fun! From vegetables, fruits, processed foods and fresh bakes, to plastic household items, stationery and lifestyle accessories, grocery shopping today takes on a completely different hue and translates into an experience to look forward to.

The city literally spoils you with choices while shopping for your everyday needs. Every area now has a Food World or a Fabmall (with the changed brandname "More") vying for your attention. A shadow image of Wal-Mart, grocery-store chains like Big Bazaar, Nilgiri's, Monday to Sunday, and stand-alone shops like Star Bazaar, or hypermarkets like Spar Hypermarket are a welcome relief to the city’s time-strapped populace, who prefer a one-stop shop to address all their household needs.

Many strip malls in the city like The Forum and Garuda Mall have also dedicated floor space to grocery shopping. For fresh vegetables and fruits you could look at recently opened outlets like Reliance Fresh and Namdharis.

Hop into any one of these outlets, pick up a push-cart, manoeuvre your way through the numerous alleys, and get absorbed in the fabulous display of a zillion products shouting for attention. Enticing items like peanut butter, cereals, pancake mixes, pasta, salsa, chocolate chips sit pretty with the usual suspects like rice, dal, wheat flour and spices: exotic vegetables like zucchini, red bell pepper, lettuce, cherry tomato and asparagus share shelf space with their desi cousins, all promising to change the look and flavour of your evening meals.

If you are done with the piling up of the contents, containers cannot be far behind. Sitting pretty in their designated corners are convenient jars to store every kind of food and beverage under the sun, not to mention the utensils for everyday use or the occasional party wares. All sorts of stationery, from notebooks to colouring books, are also available to keep your tiny tot occupied. And while you wait for your turn to be billed, browse through the magazine stand or pick up a music video, the choices are limitless.

However if the evening finds you too tired to wait in a queue or look for parking space outside a larger food store, you could still visit the good old neighbourhood provision store, of which there are ample in Bangalore.

So, pick your mood and just shop away!