Big Bazaar is a chain of hypermarket

Hypermarket

In commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full groceries lines and general merchandise...

 in India. Currently, there are 210 stores across 80 cities and towns in India. Big Bazaar is designed as an agglomeration of bazaars or Indian markets with clusters offering a wide range of merchandise including fashion and apparels, food products, general merchandise, furniture, electronics, books, fast food and leisure and entertainment sections.

Big Bazaar is part of Future Group

Future Group

Future Group is an Indian privately-held corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores.-Businesses:Future Group has a number of businesses across the retail, financial and service industries. -Clark:...

, which also owns the Central Hypermarket, and is owned through a wholly owned subsidiary of Pantaloon Retail India Limited, that is listed on Indian stock exchanges.

History

Big Bazaar was launched in September, 2001 with the opening of its first four stores in Calcutta, Indore

Indore

Indore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...

, Bangalore

Bangalore

Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...

 and Hyderabad in 22 days. Within a span of ten years, there are now 150 Big Bazaar stores in 80 cities and towns across India.

Big Bazaar was started by Kishore Biyani, the Group CEO and Managing Director of Pantaloon Retail. Though Big Bazaar was launched purely as a fashion format including apparel, cosmetics, accessory and general merchandise, over the years Big Bazaar has included a wide range of products and service offerings under their retail chain. The current formats includes Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Electronic Bazaar and Furniture Bazaar.

Operations

Most Big Bazaar stores are multi-level and are located in stand-alone buildings in city centers as well as within shopping malls. These stores offer over 200,000 SKUs in a wide range of categories led primarily by fashion and food products.

Food Bazaar, a supermarket format was incorporated within Big Bazaar in 2002 and is now present within every Big Bazaar as well as in independent locations.
A typical Big Bazaar is spread across around 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²) of retail space. While the larger metropolises have Big Bazaar Familycentres measuring between 75000 square feet (6,967.7 m²) and 160000 square feet (14,864.5 m²), Big Bazaar Express stores in smaller towns measure around 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²).

Big Bazaar has the facility to purchase products online through its official web page, and offers free shipping on some of their products.

Wednesday Bazaar

Big Bazaar introduced the Wednesday Bazaar concept and promoted it as “Hafte Ka Sabse Sasta Din”. It was mainly to draw customers to the stores on Wednesdays, when least number of customers are observed. According to the chain, the aim of the concept is "to give home makers the power to save the most and even the stores in the city don a fresh look to make customers feel that it is their day".

Maha Bachat

Maha Bachat was started off in 2006 as a single day campaign with attractive promotional offers across all Big Bazaar stores. Over the years it has grown into a 6 days biannual campaign. It has attractive offers in all its value formats such as Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Electronic Bazaar and Furniture Bazaar - catering to the entire needs of a consumer.

Timeline

2001

• Three Big Bazaar stores launched within a span of 22 days in Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad

2002

• Big Bazaar - ICICI Bank Card is launched.
• Food Bazaar becomes part of Big Bazaar with the launch of the first store in Mumbai at High Street Phoenix

2003

• Big Bazaar enters Tier II cities with the launch of the store in Nagpur
• Big Bazaar welcomes its 10 million-th customer at its new store in Gurgaon

2004

• Big Bazaar wins its first award and national recognition. Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar awarded the country’s most admired retailer award in value retailing and food retailing segment at the India Retail Forum
• A day before Diwali, the store at Lower Parel becomes the first to touch Rs 10 million turnover on a single day

2005

• Initiates the implementation of SAP and pilots a RFID project at its central warehouse in Tarapur
• Launches a unique shopping program: the Big Bazaar Exchange Offer, inviting customers to exchange household junk at Big Bazaar
• Electronic Bazaar and Furniture Bazaar are launched

2006

• Mohan Jadhav sets a national record at Big Bazaar Sangli with a Rs 1,37,367 shopping bill. The Sangli farmer becomes Big Bazaar’s largest ever customer.
• Big Bazaar launches Shakti, India’s first credit card program tailored for housewives
• Navaras – the jewellery store launched within Big Bazaar stores

2007

• The 50th Big Bazaar store is launched in Kanpur
• Big Bazaar partners with Futurebazaar.com to launch India's most popular shopping portal
• Big Bazaar initiates the Power of One campaign to help raise funds for the Save The Children India Fund
• Pantaloon Retail wins the International Retailer of the Year at US-based National Retail Federation convention in New York and Emerging Retailer of the Year award at the World Retail Congress held in Barcelona.

2008

• Big Bazaar becomes the fastest growing hypermarket format in the world with the launch of its 101st store within 7 years of launch
• Big Bazaar dons a new look with a fresh new section, Fashion@Big Bazaar
• Big Bazaar joins the league of India’s Business Superbrands. It is voted among the top ten service brands in the country in the latest Pitch-IMRB international survey

2009

• Big Bazaar opens its second store in Assam
  Assam
  Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
  
   at Tinsukia
  Tinsukia
  Tinsukia is a city and a municipal board in Tinsukia district, Assam, India.Tinsukia is a business city in the Indian state of Assam. It is situated north east of Guwahati and kilometres away from the border with Arunachal Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Tinsukia District of...
  
  
• Big Bazaar initiates Maha Annasantarpane program at its stores in South India – a unique initiative to offer meals to visitors and support local social organisations
• Big Bazaar captures almost one-third share in food and grocery products sold through modern retail in India

2010

• Future Value Retail Limited is formed as a specialized subsidiary to spearhead the group’s value retail business through Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and other formats.
• Big Bazaar wins CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards for the third consecutive year. Adjudged the most preferred Most Preferred Multi Brand Food & Beverage Chain, Most Preferred Multi Brand Retail Outlet and Most Preferred Multi Brand One Stop Shop
• Big Bazaar connects over 30,000 small and medium Indian manufacturers and entrepreneurs with around 200 million customers visiting its stores