Quick Commerce Is Taking on India's Premium Grocers: The Modern Bazaar Case

Modern Bazaar, one of Delhi-NCR's oldest premium grocers, has gone from about 27 stores to around 12 in roughly a year. Quick commerce is a big part of the story, because delivery apps have moved into the premium and imported products that once set it apart. But cash pressure and service gaps made the problem harder.

What happened

Mint reported in September 2026 that the five-decade-old retailer is restructuring, with more stores under review for closure or relocation. Its founding family says it is not leaving physical retail.

The numbers, which Mint attributes to Tofler, show the pressure:

Why quick commerce hit a premium grocer

A specialist retailer depends on having what others don't. Mint reports that quick commerce platforms have expanded into premium, imported and gourmet products, the same categories that helped Modern Bazaar stand out.

Once a customer can get those items on an app, the store has to give them another reason to visit. Larger stores also carry heavy fixed costs while shopping habits move towards convenience.

It wasn't only quick commerce

Mint's report also describes other problems.

• Supplier pressure. Vendors became more cautious about extending credit, leaving some stores short of stock. An industry source described a cycle of lower stock, weaker sales and tighter cash flow.
• A gap in online ordering. One long-time Gurugram customer told Mint her local store took WhatsApp orders but routinely failed to deliver, so she moved to Blinkit and Country Delight.
• Questions about management. An unnamed industry executive criticised how the stores were run. Modern Bazaar's founding family strongly rejected one of the claims made in the report.

How Modern Bazaar is responding

The company says it won't try to match delivery apps on speed. Vedika Kumar of the founding family told Mint its plans include:

• More smaller Express stores, which have lower rents and suit quick trips.
• More selective choices about store locations and sizes, based on profitability and demand.
• An online offering built to keep customer loyalty in-house, rather than to deliver in minutes.

It also says customers still visit for larger grocery trips, with stores carrying more than 50,000 products. It is too early to say whether this will work.

What smaller businesses can learn

1. Check whether your difference still holds. List the reasons customers choose you. Then ask which of those a bigger or faster competitor now offers.
2. Don't compete where you can't win. Modern Bazaar isn't trying to beat apps on speed. Choose the ground you can realistically defend, such as range, advice or experience.
3. Own the customer relationship. If your loyal customers order through someone else's app, you may lose the data and the habit. Build a direct way to stay in touch.
4. Fix the experience you already offer. A channel that fails is worse than none, because it sends people to a competitor. Test your own ordering process regularly.
5. Watch your best customers closely. A drop in repeat purchases among regulars can be an early warning.

For a much larger retailer dealing with changing habits, read what went wrong at David Jones.

Owning the relationship starts with knowing who your regulars are, and our guide to AI customer segmentation explains how to get started. Teams can put that into practice with EdgeIQ by GalaxiQ, part of GalaxiQ's enterprise AI marketing platform. It brings customer data into one profile per customer and groups people into segments such as high-value customers and returning shoppers.