I am not a regular shopper at the store, but went there while visiting a mall. So, here is a story on why I hated my recent trip to Big Bazaar. Shopping at big bazaar defies all business ethics. It faces a huge negative impact to its reputation risk. Its business risk is huge when it adopts unfair and unethical practices. Although, there is nothing legally wrong with what it does, but in the grey zone, it does a lot. And here's how. 1. From the moment, I enter the store, the first person I meet is someone who wants to take my name/number for a lucky draw. Knowing well that it is a time share person, I politely refuse. He persists and I just continue to ignore him. 2. A few steps later, I see that there are atleast3-5 more of such person with small forms and pen in their hands, eagerly waiting to grab an innocent prey. 3. As the shopping begins, various brand vendors approach me and start offering their product over any other product. To the point that they almost take the product I selected and replace with the ones they want me to take. This push marketing continues through every aisle and for the next 30-40 minutes, I am constantly bombarded with such marketing persons. I am fine if they are there as standby to answer questions about their products, but please dont shove it down my throat. While my shopping continues, I am again approached by the vacation sales guy with a lucky draw form. He is from a vacation rental company. He had the guts to approach me three times thinking I will give in. As I start to approach the cash counters, I am approached by a Big Bazaar representative who is selling me cash discount schemes ie Rs 10,000 card purchased gets me Rs 12,000 purchases. Somewhat like a money deposit scheme. Then I am offered payback card or something similar Credit card companies are all around in the store too. But the icing on the cake was a real estate company that actually had brochures and wanted to discuss real estate purchase with me. My God, am i there to buy bread or an apartment. Risk Factors in Big Bazaar Business Model To think about it....Big Bazaar is not actually a discount store. On an average shopping of Rs 3,000, you might save Rs 150 or so as compared to others. But to recover this loss of Rs 150 that Future Group is taking on deep discounts, it more than makes it up by creating a platform of huge footfalls. It exposes its customers to companies to cross sell their products. Is it worth it. To be talking to and replying to strangers more than taking to your spouse. To save Rs 150, but be forced into buying various unwanted products. Why are customers taken for granted. Why can't Big Bazaar just advertise that each shopper will get Rs 50 savings voucher for each visit provided they are ready to bear with 10-15 people selling them other products. A huge reputation risk also associated with these cross selling gimmicks is that the Big Bazaar brand gets impacted if the shopper has bad experience with the products being sold. There are thousands of complaints against vacation club rental firm that associate Big Bazaar to it. False promises, cheating and what not. Now, the store itself is not doing these, but because it is exposing the platform to such frauds, the brand is impacted. Another risk factor is operational risk in the form of misselling and frauds. With so many savings scheme, voucher schemes, discounts based on billings etc, there is a whole new business tactic around these. In this same trip, someone from a product company approached me with a Rs 250 savings coupon and some products. She said that since my purchases are likely to exceed Rs 2,000 you can take these products that will effectively be free, because of the discount of Rs 250. Why is she forcing me to try that brand. How did she get those coupons. Why are they accepted? As a risk professional, so many questions ran into my mind as time passed.