Sunday Shopping, Monday Rant

On Friday, the snubnose fell down and scraped a knee while playing in the park. As usual, she played up the drama showing her teeny weeny scratch to everyone she met and basically acting like it was a serious accident. Why am I telling you this? Read on to know more :).

This weekend, our friends wanted to go to the Decathlon Sports Store on Sarjapur Road and invited us to join them for a bit of shopping.

Visiting this store reminded me once again of how the Whitefield area is almost completely NRI-dominated. It’s like a little bit of Americana in India. Just consider the size and structure of the store, it is very similar to the big box stores in USA.

Decathlon Sports Store on Sarjapur Road
Decathlon Sports Store on Sarjapur Road

Decathlon (it’s a French company) is a huge warehouse style store containing all kinds of sport equipment – camping, rafting, diving, snorkeling, whatever…you name the sport, they have the equipment for it.

You can also check out this Finishline promo code to help you out if you need some gear!

Us being the couch potatoes that we are really had no use for the majority of the equipment. But, K’s eyes lit up when he saw a whole rack of protective gear to protect children when they are cycling.

We went all the way and picked up everything :). The snubnose was super-thrilled with her new helmet and K was super-thrilled with all the elbow, knee, and wrist guards.

Here is a shot of the snubnose protected to the hilt 🙂

Is There Anything Left Unprotected?
Is There Anything Left Unprotected?

About the store, Decathlon is a pretty good sports store. However, it is a members-only and cash-only store (something along the lines of Metro – another B2B wholesale store).

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of good running shoes. I am wearing out my running shoes, and am really on the lookout for a good replacement. However, this was not the place to look. Don’t come here if you are looking for deals on Reeboks or Nike shoes.

One really good thing I like about the store though is how you can really try out the merchandise before you buy. I could see a lot of children (and even adults) riding the cycles freely throughout the store before committing to a purchase. This is really not something that is allowed in most Indian stores.

Again, the cycles were not a brand that I had heard of (no BSAs or Hero cycles here).

The coolest part were the trampolines in front of the store. The kids had such a blast bouncing away.

Bouncing on the Trampoline
Bouncing on the Trampoline

And now Comes the Rant:
I wish I could say that I also enjoyed myself. Something about the store bothered me a lot. The quality of the goods were good no doubt, but nothing exceptional, neither was it particularly cheap.

The camping, snorkeling, and diving products were good, and they are not readily available in India, so stocking these products make sense. However, most of the people were buying the generic cycles, which didn’t really make sense to me at all.

Why would anyone buy these cycles? especially when our country manufactures much better ones?? They were not particularly cheap or particularly good. It made me wonder whether we really think about the choices we make before we buy. Are we just blinded by the glamor of big foreign names?

I know friends who go to America and come back with bags full of Made in China stuff from Walmart. Why? I know that I myself have been guilty of mindless shopping many times…but shopping sensibly (and ethically) is something that I have at least been striving for, in the last couple of years or so.

While googling about shopping ethically, I happened on this very neat, really informative Ethical Shopping link, a lot of the information in this site made a lot of sense to me.

And my apologies for the rant…sometimes, I just need to let off a little steam. And what else is a blog for, right? 🙂

17 comments

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  1. pedant

    Actually, the “Indian” cycles also have drivetrains made from imported components. Only two companies make drivetrains worth the name (SRAM & Shimano) and neither manufacture in India. And don’t dismiss the Decathlon bikes as “generic”: they’re made for serious biking, rather than to be flashy and appeal to the teenage-boy-market, as so many Hero and BSA bikes are. And so, they’re a lot more reliable, the frames are designed to optimize your posture for long distances, and they’re easier to service.
    I don’t normally comment on stranger’s blogs, but you seem like a nice person and its worth setting you straight 🙂

  2. Trampolines

    An exception is any business in a railway station, which is deamed to be serving travellers and so is exempt. Trampolines

  3. Rock Trampoline

    Swiss employment law bans working on Sundays, so shops stay closed. Rock Trampoline

  4. Blazers Sport Coats Wholesale

    Jason Harris, USA (Febr 05) Merida is a completely different city on Sundays and we highly recommend that you go to Merida on a Sunday. Blazers Sport Coats Wholesale

  5. Josette

    It’s mind-boggling how so many things are made in China but sold under famous international brand names. Petty traders here also sell stuff that were made in China but sold at much cheaper prices. So I guess when we pay a lot for something branded, it’s only us paying for the brand name and not the quality of the product.

    Anyway, the Decathlon place looks really fun! They sure know how to attract the customers. 🙂

    • Nish

      @josette: that they definitely know how to do. There is no shortage of entertainment options for kids there

  6. Jenny

    She looks adorable in all her protective gear! It’s great that she’s so happy about it – I hated all my protective gear when I was a kid, and my sisters and I used to take it off as soon as we left the house. And then I broke my arm roller-blading, which just goes to show. :p

  7. work at home

    This has been a very interesting read, would love to read more on this.

  8. bermudaonion

    I’m like you – I’m tired of all the big box stores. An Apple store opened here Saturday and people have been really excited about it. I’m kind of sad, though, because it will probably put a small, privately owned store out of business.

    • Nish

      @bermudaonion: I would not mind the Apple store all thaat much. But, I am just tired of these huge super-stores and malls all selling the same mass-produced stuff.

      Such an eyesore 🙁

  9. Body Workout 101

    Sunday Shopping, Monday Rant…

    I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…

  10. Ride on

    An exception is any business in a railway station, which is deamed to be serving travellers and so is exempt. Ride on

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