12. GHATKOPAR METRO STATION

Hi everyone,

This is the place you will find every thing for your and your family.

                                                           GHATKOPAR METRO STATION

Chances are, you haven’t yet taken the metro in Mumbai. Plying from Versova to Ghatkopar and back, it’s an air-conditioned saviour in more than one way. On one Friday night, we stumbled across the stalls which had been set up inside the Ghatkopar Metro Station, and discovered everything from jars of pickle to chunky jewellery.

X5 Market – as its called- is a 4 day market that happened every week from Thursdays to Sundays 10am to 10pm. Here’s the best of what we found.

                                                                   CLOTHES

The market, surprisingly, has decent options for clothes shopping, ranging from colourful cotton-printed kurtis and scarves. We found Sonia Selection to be the best stand-out. Sonia, who’s from New Delhi, also showcases her Rajasthani prints and bohemian shirts at Dilli Haat.

Price: Tops for INR 350 upwards

                                                            PHONE COVERS

Just next to Sonia Selection, we found a stall with phone covers in abundance. We decided to check it out. It had all sorts of phone covers for all sorts of phone types. From really quirky ones with beautiful glittery women in gowns, to witty one-liners. But our best two picks were one with the Harry Potter caricature standing next to the Eiffel Tower {because why not?} and a colourful one with a dreamcatcher on it. The stall also has phone covers for INR 100 – which we immediately got put on our badly scratched phones.

Price: INR 100 for the plain ones, INR 250 upwards for the designer ones

                                                                JEWELLERY

Walking around, we also saw a couple of stalls for really pretty junk jewellery. This stall is right next to the stairs for the Metro exit, by the name Jaipur Jolly. Manned by a friendly person, this stall had plenty to offer – from brass to gold and silver-plated jewellery. We picked up a gorgeous neck piece {for the glamorous night outs} and a set of huge chunky earrings. We also decided to throw in a chunky gold bracelet.

Price: Bracelet for INR 50, neck piece for INR 200 and earrings for INR 150 upwards

                                                         HOME-MADE  PICKLES

Apart from the on-the-go Dominoes that are stationed at every station, this market offered a lot of varieties. From pickle stalls to stalls selling all sorts of sweets and savouries {all home-made}. We stopped by the pickle stall as it looked really enticing. Konkan Coast, as it’s named, had at least 20 different types of homemade pickles. We tasted chutney pickle, mango pickle, chili, sweet mango and so much more.

Price: INR 70 for 250 grams for the usual pickles, and INR 60 for sweet mango, lasoon, and others.

Tip: Adding to the market mood, employees of Natural Streets for Performing Artists {NSPA} were playing delightful music, upping the otherwise mundane routine seen at the metro station. They often play there, so if you’re in for shopping whilst listening to live music, go here.

Thand you..

11. Hindmata market

Hi friends,
 If you want sarees this is the place you should go
.

 HINDMATA MARKET

I had visited this store for some Diwali shopping with my mother. Hindmata Cloth store is pretty huge and is located near Hindmata Cinema in Dadar. It is exclusively for saris and lehenga sarees from different regions of India.

 The Maharashtrian sarees i.e the Nauvari dominates the collection of sarees at this store. One part of their store is dedicated only for designer & wedding saris with nice & beautiful posters of designer work sarees, which makes it easy to choose one. The other half of the store is reserved for chanderi silk sarees, cotton printed sarees, weaved paithani saris, mysore silk and brasso sarees, etc.
 Everything is above 2k & lehengas and the designer sarees are priced quite reasonably as compared to the other stores that offer the same outfits. My mom picked a designer saree in a jacquard fabric. It was purple and cream and had a resham embroidered border. The staff here were very amicable and were very patiently showing us their collection. Thumbs up to this store!
Do visit this store for their Nauvari saree collection.
Thank you.

10. DHARAVI LEATHER BAGS,JACKETS

Hi Everyone,

Now days leather jackets,bag are so expencive out there.But if you want to buy in less price and with a good quality this is the place you should go.

       DHARAVI LEATHER BAGS,JACKETS

I have two recommendations on this post. One is Famous Sale Leather Boutique where I first placed an order for custom-made purses in Dharavi, Mumbai. The other shop is Leather Field also located in Dharavi. These two shops stand right next to each other. Famous Sale Leather Boutique is less expensive to have order made leather items than Leather Field. On the other hand, the quality of workmanship at Leather Field seemed better.

I am going to write about Famous Sale Leather Boutique on this post. If you are interested in Leather Field, please either scroll down to see a small piece of information on Leather Field or click here to jump to the post dedicated for Leather Field.

FINDING A RIGHT SHOP

One day I passed by a street in Dharavi called Sion-Bandra Link Road where I saw a number of leather shops lined up one after another. I wondered how people found a shop to go to. As an expat it is a bit intimidating to go to Sion-Bandra Link Road.

One of my expat friends told me that she had her leather bag copied in Dharavi. Unfortunately, she did not have a good experience. Nevertheless, I asked her to take me to the shop as I needed to start from somewhere. Three girl friends and I went to the leather shop where she had tried to make a copy of her leather bag. Sadly enough the shop keeper at the same store was not interested in making one order-made purse just for me. He added that swatches were not available, either.

As determined as I was, I dragged my friends around to probably 10 shops on the same street. One by one I showed my original bag which I would like to have a copy made of and asked for swatches and prices. Almost all of them told me it would cost me 4,000 Rupees (about USD 80) to copy a simple shopping bag type of purse. It felt too much. I quickly learned that shops in Dharavi were not interested in making or copying one or two bags.

Finally I came to Famous Sales Leather Boutique. This shop was the only place on this day who came down to 3,000 Rupees for one custom-made bag. I found it still expensive, but I decided to make a bag because we all were tired from walking around. I also felt that I needed to make a decision. He was nice enough and spoke English to communicate with us. My girl friend and I placed an order for one leather bag each. Mine is in black and hers was in navy blue, whose color turned out very pretty.

Hope you will like it.

Thank you.

9. Manish Market

Hello Everyone,

Here I am again with my blog. This is the place where every one can go and buy whatever you want.

This place is known as Manish market where you can get any thing you want.

 Manish Market

The market is well-known for fancy Chinese products available at wholesale rate. All kinds of electronic products are available here – mosquito killing Rackets, MP3 players, LCD Screens, Fancy lights, crockeries, and many more. Cell phone products and accessories can also be easily spotted in the market.

If you go to Manish Market, every time you will find different types of fancy products which are all from China. Regular products available there are Mosquito Killing Rackets, MP3 Players, Digital Displays, LCD Screens, Fancy Lights, Crockery & bone china items, etc. On the way to Manish Market, you will find a market for Hardware & other electrical products known as the Lauhar Chawl. (I will discuss about it in detail in another blog post) Other products you will find there are Air Pillows, toys, Mobile Phones, Mobile phone accessories like battery, hands free, Bluetooth daggle, Bluetooth ear piece, memory card, cover, screen guard and many other fancy products which you may have not seen before.

manishmarket1

This market is only a wholesale market. If the people in this market gauge that you are retail customer, they tend to offer you a retail price. So, only retailers who buy in bulk get a better deal. Since I was with my cousin, who happens to be trading in Chinese Products, I could learn many a things about the price of such products. Chinese Cell Phone ranges between Rs. 1500 – Rs. 3000, with IMEI number, Mp3 player with memory card slot expandable upto 4 GB and no inbuilt memory ranges between Rs. 165 – 180, depending upon the quantity and bargaining skill you have. We bought 20 such Mp3 players @ Rs. 165 each. This Mp3 Players are sold at Rs. 300 – 450 on various e-commerce portals. Market price of Memory Cards (SD, Micro SD, etc.) is as good as oil & sugar prices, it keeps on fluctuating daily. Currently 2GB Micro SD card is available at Rs. 220. And yes, all these products are available at drastically low prices; but again, it does not carry any guarantee or warranty.

Lot of other things to know there. Here’s the secret of Manish Market. Manish Market (the building) itself is a retail market. The actual wholesale market is behind the building where dealers sit in open space or in a store made of thick plastic, the temporary stores. They just have a table and a wireless landline phone or a cell phone for communicating with other dealers. They have a common godown, where all the dealers store their products.

manishmarket2

The market is very dynamic and the most important part is that you should have a good negotiation skill or else they may easily cheat you.

Reaching Manish Market:

The nearest station on Western Railway is Marine Lines. From Marine Lines it is approximately a 15 minutes walk. Walking is more suitable rather than going by Cab as one can also find various other markets on the way to Manish Market.

For more details about the market you can get in touch with me by posting a comment and I will reply you soon or else for sourcing any product from this market visit sourcing page or click here.

To buy products at wholesale prices visit our wholesale shop at Wholesale Shop.

I hope it will help you.

Thank you..

8. Irla market

Hi friends,
If you are tired of going from one place to another searching for trendy clothes for yourself, then go straight to Irla Market where you can find everything at one place.
                                                 

   IRLA MARKET

There are 5 major alfa stores in irla that are  very popular
 Alfa 1 store – food supplies, snacks and packaged food items.
Alfa 2 store – electronics specially mobiles, jewelries of well-known brands, and other beauty products.
Alfa 3 store – decorative pieces, table clothes, kitchen electronics, utensils, cutlery, toys and other electronic items like TV, fridge, Digicams, DSLRs etc.
Alfa 4 – Formal clothing
Alfa 5 store – Men’s wear
To tell you the truth street shopping has never been my thing but recently I have developed keen interest in exploring various local markets in Mumbai and see what they have to off – one such place was Irla market in Vile Parle West . This market is ruled by the Alfa stores, though there are many other stores too but the main attraction is definitely the Alfa stores, which has 5 stores on the same road, you get everything possible in there. Apart from this Alfa stores, there are various street vendors selling almost all the girly stuff – accessories, hand bags, clothes, shoes- you name it, you get it.
street shopping irla alfa andheri mumbai
Alfa 1 is known for its food supplies, you get all kind of snacks and packaged food items, specially the things not available in regular food stores like different types of cheeses and imported chocolates. Alpha 2 is famous for its electronics specially mobiles, they also have a section of costume jewellery and make up counters of most prominent beauty brands in India. All the make up brands offer some discounts on their products in this shop and also let you try the products. The mobile prices in this shop are believed to be  cheapest in the town but we found prices cheaper on flipkart or snapdeal. In Alfa 3 you will find items of regular use , there are decoration pieces, table cloths ,blankets, kitchen electronics, cutlery, utensils, baking materials and even toys and other electronic items which includes TV, Fridge, Digicams, Ipads, DSLRs etc. Infact, we have bought our DSLR from Alfa 3. All the electronic items – mobile phones are sold with bills and warranty. I am not sure about warranty on imported items. Alfa 4 is known for its formal clothes collection and last but not the least Alfa 5 is for men clothes.
street shopping irla alfa andheri mumbai


Other than Alfa stores, there are many other shops selling the above mentioned articles too. Stores like Kanchan designer studio , Ella and Aishwarya give you a wide variety of bridal/party wear clothes to chose from. There are salwar suits, sarees and even lehangas.
street shopping irla alfa andheri mumbai
The street is full of shops selling junk jewellery, shoes and bags, Gala Selection and Ava to name a few. I personally found the collection of handbags really good. From simple handbags, clutches to fashionable embellished ones, you will find all kinds of bags and purses here. So if buying a branded bag is not a necessity, you will find beautiful and latest bag designs here.
alfa-1
Street shopping includes tops, accessories, shoes and many other things. I bought an awesome neck-piece for myself. Though I am very bad at bargaining but managed to get 20% off. Most of the vendors are averse to bargaining and you may have to buy at the price they sell. Sorry, I am not able to post pictures of the market as it was very crowded and some of the vendors asked us not to take any pictures. One more thing, market is really crowded so avoid going on holidays and best time to visit this market is 11 – 4 pm. There is a government parking on the road and there is mall ( Prime Mall ) which also has parking but road is too crowded for a smooth drive.
street shopping irla alfa andheri mumbai
Overall this market is a great place to visit if you like street shopping !! Do share your experience about this street and market.!! I am sure girls will love to do street shopping in this market
I hope you had a great time reading and graped some new knowledge from this blog.
Thank you.