Last week, a grand opening in the outskirts of Changanacherry, Kottayam district, Kerala, drew a spectacle. A new supermarket skipped the celebrity ribbon-cutting fanfare and instead splashed a four-page ad in leading Malayalam dailies, plus leaflet drops, offering discounts starting from 50% on selected products.

This tactic—now standard for new store launches—worked as expected: kilometres-long queues formed on opening day. But behind the scenes, there was a twist. As discounted stock vanished, the owners restocked by buying at regular market prices, to meet their discount promise. Many buyers were not regular households but local retailers, eager to profit from the price slash.

These steep opening offers generally serve two purposes:

1. Loss Leader Pricing – A handful of products are sold at a loss to lure customers, who are expected to also buy full-margin items. In theory, the extra sales cover the loss. In practice, today’s clever shoppers zero in on discounted items and ignore the rest, leaving minimal scope for profit.
2. Customer Familiarisation – The aim is to get customers used to the store so they return regularly. Decades ago, shops could count on “loyal” buyers—drawn by personal rapport with shopkeepers, convenience of location, or unique product offerings. Retailers once classified such loyalists as “dogs” (attached to the seller), “cats” (drawn by location), and “rats” (chasing specific products).
   Now, thanks to COVID-19 and the rise of e-commerce, customers are shop-hopping, , product-flexible and are not brand- loyal. They scan online and offline offers and make unpredictable choices. The market reality? Zero guaranteed customers.

Given this shift, the supermarket’s heavy opening-day losses are unlikely to be recouped soon. The retail battlefield—small, big, and mega—runs on deep discounts, which bring in cash during the offer period but rarely translate to sustained profits.

Still, new supermarkets and retail shops keep sprouting, inspired by the short-lived rush, only to vanish within months when numbers don’t add up.

For consumers, such openings are a festival—worth braving the crowds for bargain hunting. As the saying goes, “Customers are kings,” hopping from one discount to another. But the old rule caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) has flipped for our times—
Now it’s caveat venditor: “Let the seller beware.”