Recession-Free Street Shopping!

Branded products might be high on style, but they’re crazily expensive! Despite the cost, you head to the nearest mall every now & again, and albeit reluctantly, dish out your hard earned cash to acquire branded goods. Now with recession’s ugly head weighing us down; if you are a little bit wise, a little aware, and a little smart – you can get just what you want, for a song compared with the prices branded things cost… you need to become a smart street shopper!

Trickle Effect!

Its the way of the world. Be it technology, trends, or fashion – everything starts high up. Designers launch edgy styles in their runway collections, tech brands preview cutting edge gadgets at expos around the world. At this point, getting a piece of the action is rather expensive. There is a novelty value, an exclusivity, for which you pay a somewhat justified premium.

However, if you are just a tad patient, you will realize that the speed with which a particular technology or a trend trickles down, is well worth the wait. Its the same reason that when a new cell phone is launched, its very expensive. Barely 2 months hence, the same product can be had for half the cost.

Fashion is just the same. A trend’s journey from it’s debut catwalk to the shop-lined street is so quick, its almost foolish to splurge the hefty premiums to sport the look just a month before it is available to the masses. Unless of course you are born into copious inherited wealth (which, lets face it, most of us aren’t), WAIT. THAT IRRESISTABLE GOWN YOU SAW IN A MILAN RAMP ON THE TELLY, WILL HIT YOUR LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET, SOONER THAN YOU THINK!

Bargain Shamelessly!

Before we get to the places you can street shop at, there is one thing you must be crucially mindful of. Especially those new to the concept of street-shopping, you need to constantly remind yourself that the main objective of this exercise is frugality – and therefore, you must must keep your ego aside, and bargain shamelessly.

A rule of thumb, start the bargaining process at 70% down from the price being quoted. Absurd as it sounds, stick to your guns and do not relent. Even if inside yourself, you feel the asking price is already a tenth of what you’re used to paying at your branded boutique; there is room for more cutting, much much more.

If the mark-down bargain strategy doesn’t seem to be working (these salesmen are smarter than you think. They have sized you up even before you’ve come knocking at their shop. God forbid they’ve identified you as a regular ’boutique memsahib’, they will be unrelenting as well!). At this point, a good tactic is the ‘stage the walk-out’. Trust me, 9 times out of 10, the fellow will run after you indicating he’s willing to reconsider!

Then, even if it is an outfit you feel you will die without, find it in yourself to be a little patient. It’ll all work out, and when the deal finally settles on half the asking price, you will have so much money left over, you’ll be able to buy that tantalizing skirt you just picked up, in all the other colors its available in!!

What & Where?

NEW DELHI

Sarojini Nagar – Western clothes for young people. Export surplus branded clothes that include dresses, skirts, jeans, tops, party-wear for men & women

Lajpat Nagar – What Sarojini is to Western Wear, Lajpat Nagar is to Indian clothes & accessories. So from Saree & Salwar Kameez farbic to ready made Indian garments, and a bevy of every imaginable accessory. You can even get ‘mehendi’ put as you prowl and sample the excellent street food.

Nehru Place – This is the holy grail of IT. The humongous wholesale computers & tech market is the ideal place to crack that substantially-less-than-showroom-price deal on your laptop, computers, computer peripherals etc.

Delhi Haat – Though not strictly street-shopping, Delhi Haat is a congregation of regional delights. So you can eat and shop for goodies from all the states of India in the same complex. It can be a tad expensive, since it is a ‘touristy’ spot – so bargain real hard!

GKM Block Market – Those familiar might be wondering why I recommend this. Well, its not for the boutique-lined main market, but more for the little kiosks (thelas) that dot the periphery of the M block market. From junk jewelry to scarves, clothes and shoes – its a veritable feast!

There are more places to street-shop in Delhi. Janpath is a great place, as is Palika Bazaar. Both however in my experience can be a bit unreliable…. definitely worth a look n see though!

MUMBAI

Fashion Street, Colaba Causeway, Hill Road/Linking Road Bandra – These are your Sarojini Nagar counterparts in Mumbai.

Choices galore, great prices, great finds, especially for western clothes

Oshiwara Antique/Old Furniture Market – A great great place to get some stunning looking furniture, that does not cost the earth. Just one word of caution, you need to be careful because a lot of the shops here use sub-standard materials. So just ensure that you either know about wood & other furniture materials yourself, or go with someone that does.

Lamington Road – is to Mumbai what Nehru Place is to New Delhi. Of course, Mumbai being a city with much lesser space, you have an entire street filled with these IT & peripherals stores (as opposed to one large space in Delhi)

JAIPUR

When in Jaipur, you’d obviously want to shop for traditional Rajasthani apparel, accessories, handicrafts and jewelry. Being a major tourist center, Jaipur has a slew of fancy boutiques selling this stuff – but at sky-high jet-setter targeted prices.

Head instead to the old, walled city. Johari Bazaar, Chowra Rasta and Bapu Bazaar will be stuffed to their gills with small stores offering perhaps more variety than the uber-cool stores in the new city, and at certainly more approachable prices. Bargain hard, as always.

For younger people, the area immediately around the Hawa Mehel is especially interesting. There are shops here where you can find superb footwear (traditional kolapuris, jutis, mojris in unimaginable & trendy colors & styles – especially at a place called Rishi Shoes, a personal favorite), as well as typical Rajasthani apparel like Lehengas-Lugdis & Bandhej and Leheriya Sarees. A must visit.

KOLKATA

It is for good reason that Bengal still boasts of India’s greatest intellectuals and thinkers. After all this retail therapy, to hit the shopping trail for books, it has to be College Street near Presidency College in Kolkata

Be it used books, rare books, books on any & every imaginable subject – one can find them at College Street, at the most eye-popping prices.

For the more intellectually inclined street-shopper, College Street is an absolute gold-mine and a must visit on every avid reader’s list.

So Shop Street-Smart

Like the places I have talked about above, each city across the country presents its share of street-shopping highlights. The real trick is to get out of this mental block of mall/boutique shopping, put on a pair of comfortable sneakers, and hit the streets. Explore, discover, and be amazed. There will be mistakes, but I guarantee you, they’ll be much less expensive than the ones you make at branded stores!!

[Kartik Bajoria, a regular contributor, runs his own creative agency called BOLD & is also involved in Films & Music as a force of habit!]

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