Nilgiris once a well known name in local supermarkets finds its tenuous hold over customers threatened by the evergrowing chain of supermarkets springing up all over the place such as Food World which has taken over Spencers.
Nilgiris is well known especially for its dairy products such as milk, butter, cheese and also its bakery products. It has also started packing and marketing its own brands of spices, flours and rice. It is part of a chain with outlets in Bangalore, Chennai, Erode, Combaitore, Salem, Mysore, Pondicherry, Visahakapatnam it also caters to the taste buds of the customers through restaraunts.
Once an extremely well known name over South India from the year it started in 1905 it has been forced to undergo several cosmetic changes to retain its place and its customers. What was once a small store on Brigade Road, Bangalore for instance has been forced to expand and stock a varied range of commodities to attract a larger range of customers from abroad and India. It started out as a smallish store with a Joy ice-cream stall and a fruit stall outside till the pavement clearance drive of the BMTF ensured closure of the ice-cream stall and reduction in size of the fruit stall which had started to encroach on the pavement. There was also a coin operated weighing machine outside for customers and others to take their own weight if so desired. The inside which was rather small had a dairy counter before one entered the main part where the various goodies were stocked neatly on shelves. Vegetables had not yet reached the shelves of Nilgiris yet. The cold storage room used to stock dairy products which were handed out to the sales personnel outside through a small window.
Now after expansion the store even stocks cosmetic products, CD-ROMS, fresh vegetables, chilled and frozen meat and fish products, soft drinks where the cold storage room used to exist, plastic products in a new expansion of the building into its old storage space. The cakes section has been shifted to the basement which was once completely for the generator, but now caters to a restaraunt also. On the mezzanine floor above the supermarket exists a cafe which has been remodelled and attracts even college students and office wprkers from nearby.
It also possesses a Citibank ATM. But forced to survive it has also taken to market its own products through the shelves of other supermarkets such as Food Food World outlets and also the All Saints supermarket nearby. But every supermarket has its drawbacks and Nilgiris too does possess a few drawbacks. Lack of space forces customers to jostle between each other and between the shelves while nimbly dodging a trolley pushed at high speed by another customer in the race to get to the billing counter first where long queues are the norm in peak hours and festive times.
The billing slows down as soon as a credit card holder is billed. Once you reach the billing counter your ordeal is not yet over by a long shot. You could have just placed your goods to be billed on the counter but another customer jumping queues and claiming to have very little goods to be billed and unwilling to go to the special billing counter for a small number of items may only bat her eyelids at the girl at the billing counter and hey presto! she gets preference over you. Snorting like a nilgiri bull you finally get your bill in hand when the girl billing you demands change from you when you can see in the half open drawer below the cash register loads of change which she refuses to part with whereas in other shops such as Food World and All Saints change is willingly given to a customer, maybe these are the reason why other supermarkets are gaining customers.