Mumbai - Post Report Question and Answers
How would you describe the availability and cost of groceries and household supplies relative to your home country?
You can find basically everything in Mumbai. International cuisine is popular and many stores have specialty items for similar prices to the US, maybe a little more. India’s food delivery apps are amazing (Swiggy, Zomato) so most of us get our groceries delivered. Housekeepers do most of the produce shopping at local markets. You can get anything delivered in Mumbai, sometimes within 8 minutes. It would be challenging but not impossible to be vegan here due to the prevalence of ghee/dairy products in most Indian food, but vegan options are available and it’s not considered an odd diet. Nut allergies may be difficult. You can’t get beef here. Great for vegetarians. - Apr 2024
Very affordable for local foods. Imports can be very expensive. Alcohol is also expensive, unless you have a duty free shop. - Jul 2023
Local groceries are inexpensive and readily available. Most items can be delivered to your home. Beef is available locally only in the form of water buffalo. All turkey is imported and extremely expensive, but other meats are readily available and affordable. Alternative flours and milks are also readily available, which means those with food sensitivities and/or dietary restrictions can easily find substitutes. Amazon India has fresh produce that can be delivered, and some residences have nearby fruit/veggie stands either every day or on a regular schedule. I rarely go to the grocery store or to get household supplies, as I can have them delivered right to my door for a very small delivery fee. Cheese can be expensive, but there are lots of varieties available locally. - May 2023
same or less - Feb 2023
Groceries are cheap but lack a variety. It's the typical coriander, onions (purple only), broccoli, carrots, potatoes, etc. I had probably spent $40 usd on groceries per week. very cheap. Very hard to find beef. There is only chicken and pork. Chicken is okay, but pork is of very low quality (lots of fat and chewy). - Aug 2021
Super low cost and convenient food stalls/vegetable stands around the neighborhood. The nearest one to my house is around a 1 minute walk. You won't find too many western grocery items, those have to be bought in upscale grocery stores like Foodhall. - Nov 2020
Vegetables and meat are similar prices as in the US. Food items that aren’t typically eaten by Indians tend to be two to three times as expensive. Most everything can be found though. - Aug 2019
Most shopping is at small markets, or on the street for produce. Most of it is very inexpensive. There are a few high-end grocery stores with a decent selection of imported Euro / American groceries, at 2-3x the price back home (Nature's Basket; Foodhall). Wine and liquor are expensive (several times the US price). - Mar 2019
Local stuff available, however all foreign items are priced very high, for example, local whipping cream has 2% fat and won't whip. You can find imported whipping cream for over $10 for a small carton. - Jan 2019
Cheap produce however most cleaner places cater to foreigners like Pali Hill, are similar to US prices. Same thing with meat, low quality stuff for cheap meat is available but then it's sitting in the heat and sun all day so most people shop at higher end stores for expats like Nature's basket and Pali Market upscale shops (expensive). Mumbai prices were a complete shock to me. - May 2018
Vegetables are very cheap, meat is relatively cheap, and imported goods are very expensive. Day-to-day household goods are cheaper than in the U.S. - Jun 2017
You can get anything here, although the prices for some items might be higher. - Aug 2015
Most things are fairly easy to get, especially if you're not brand-conscious. There are tiny grocery stores and big supermarkets, and of course the supermarkets (Reliance Mart, for instance) are more expensive. We order a lot of non-liquid things through Amazon because it's cheaper when we want American stuff, like Cheerios. - Nov 2014
Super cheap. You might not get every specialty brand you want but you can find a cheap substitute. Groceries are very cheap unless you buy fancy imported stuff. Household supplies are also cheap unless imported. Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson are here making a lot of the products you know and selling them cheap -- for the Indian consumer to be able to afford. - Mar 2014
Local produce is cheap. Imported groceries are very expensive. - Feb 2014
Depends where you shop. At the local market, produce is fairly cheap but if you're buying imported foods from a foreign supermarket then you can expect to pay more. There's an increasing trend of organic food locally produced and they have some good local organic brands, like Nourish Organics (http://nourishorganicfoods.com), that are a lot cheaper than imported organic products. - Feb 2014
You can find everything you need here. The Palladium has a huge western import grocery store, and Nature's Basket is like whole foods. I haven't tried regular Indian grocers- there are a number of fruit and veg sellers in pali market. - Aug 2013
Most things are available but VERY expensive. Not readily available are: chocolate chips, canned pumpkin, good quality broth, and vanilla extract. Canned sauces and condiments cost a fortune. Beef and other meats are available at some cold storage places. Nature's Basket sells buffalo, which is actually pretty good (tastes better than Indian beef, which I find chalky and odd), but check the dates and color of the meat. I almost picked up a package that had been packed a year and a half ago! And I wonder how many times this stuff has been thawed and refrozen. - May 2013
Widely available and less expensive than in Washington DC. - Feb 2013
Fresh produce and basic staples are very cheap. If you like certain Western, Asian, or Middle Eastern foods, you may have trouble finding/affording them. An imported box of Oreo cookies costs at least $8, a can of blueperry pie filling was approximately $6, cheeses are no lower than $4 or $5 for 250 gm. It's much better to order dry goods over Amazon or Alice.com if you have access to diplomatic pouch. - Dec 2010
Most are available though finding them can be a chore. Costs range from extremely cheap to highway robbery. - Nov 2008
Groceries are hard to find, and overpriced at decent stores. For political reasons, they have not allowed investment in the supermarket sector. Even the - Aug 2008
Goods are available, but buying U.S. products is quite expensive, and you can normally find local products of lower but similar quality. - Jul 2008
