Big Bazaar, one of the biggest retail chains in India that every Indian is familiar with, has come to an end as the stores started shutting down all over the nation at the beginning of 2022. The hypermarket with more than 300 operating stores nationwide under the Future Retail Limited has had a long successful journey in the nation but it seems that the Future Group will no longer be operating this retail and logistic chain anymore and instead new stores will be taking over.

So how the biggest Future retail has ended its journey in the nation and what will happen from now on? Let us learn more about the detail,

What Happened to Big Bazaar?

It is considered one of the biggest and first hypermarkets introduced in the nation with over 400 stores by the Future Group that owned other retail stores including FBB, Food Bazaar, Hometown Furniture, Heritage Fresh, and many more. The supermarket first started its journey in 2001 as a marketplace where customers will get all the necessary groceries for everyday needs in one place, it was more like a grocery store, which then later turned into a hypermarket with everything can be found in one place from clothing, household appliances to a variety of groceries.

The hypermarket chain by 2013 had become one of the biggest retail stores in the nation with its markets available in every city and town providing the best service to the customers. But with the expansion of various businesses with the passing time, the Future Group’s success comes with a huge sum of business debt.

By the year 2013, the business debt was somewhere at 8,000 crores, which led the company to sell the majority of its popular fashion retail, Pantaloons to the Aditya Birla group and also its Future Capital Holdings finance service to a US-based private sector.

Even after this the company continued success with its other retail businesses including Big Bazaar, FBB, Brand Factory, and others, and was able to gain popularity with its expansion but the new players in the retail markets like the Reliance Retail raised a new challenge to the Future Group.

The company debt in the later part of 2019 was somewhere near 12,800 crores which again led the company to sell most of its stake, though its hypermarket retail store was still going steady and then it was again hindered by the coming of covid making it worse.

So what happened after the worst situation? Is Big Bazaar closed? Let’s get all the answers to all these questions,

Is Big Bazaar Closed Permanently?

As we have seen how the financial debt kept rising with the passing time and the company seemed to be at its wit end, this is when Reliance Retail stepped in to help the company by taking over the lease and sublease and providing working and inventory support to the Future Group.

Then in the year 2020, the Future Group and Reliance made a deal and came to an agreement that it will be purchasing the whole Future retail business including its biggest retail market Big Bazaar. And this is how now the biggest retail market is no longer under the Future Group, which was its initial founder but now became part of the Reliance Retail Limited.

Most of the consumers were not aware of the situation until the hypermarket started closing down across the nation making everyone seek the answer for the sudden shut down of their most loved retail groceries store.

Will Big Bazaar Reopen?

After the sudden shutdown of the retail stores, everyone only has one question, when will Big Bazaar reopen? Or whether it will even reopen?

The retail market started to shut down almost every store across the nation in the February of 2022 and caused a chaotic moment for the shoppers. So will the market reopen?

The answer is the stores that are shut down will reopen but not as Big Bazaar anymore but it will be reopened with a new remodeling and rebranding in the existing location of the previous market. Reliance has announced that it will rebrand the hypermarket with a new name ‘Smart Bazaar’ in place of Future store and Future fashion retail FBB will be taken over by Reliance Trends respectively.

Reliance already has its supermarket chain called Reliance Retail across the nation but the Smart Bazaar will be more attentive in providing all the necessities to its consumer from small to large commodities. Some of the taking over has already started in many places across the nation and it is estimated that the taking over of every single one of its previous stores will be done within this year.

So from now on, we will be seeing a new branded hypermarket called Smart Bazaar but every one of us will be missing the Big Bazaar that has been our beloved grocery store for over two decades.