Vijay Sales' exchange FAQ, read on 3 September 2026, is direct about the point of no return: “once the old device has been picked up from you, we will not be able to return or refund it”, because it has gone to a third-party liquidation partner. The new device is delivered before the old one is collected, which is the only window to change your mind. A failed condition check cancels the exchange and the trade-in bonus is collected back. Screens must be free of scratches, cracks and dead pixels, tempered glass comes off first, and a phone that runs only on the charger is refused outright. One device per purchase, same category, same pickup and delivery address. VS+ Extended Warranty, operated by OnsiteGo, runs up to 4 extra years (1 for phones), caps at 5 years with the manufacturer's, allows unlimited repairs and is cancellable within 30 days if unclaimed — but excludes drops, liquid, power surges and wear and tear.

Croma's washing machine searches, read on 3 September 2026, hold 104 models running from Rs. 4,994 to Rs. 3,31,170 at a median of Rs. 22,592 and a median 20% off — large appliances discount nothing like clothing does. Twenty-one models are under Rs. 15,000. Croma's own label holds the price floor in all three formats: Rs. 8,090 for a semi-automatic against Samsung's Rs. 9,990, Rs. 12,790 for a fully automatic top load against Whirlpool's Rs. 17,070, and Rs. 23,990 for a front load against Whirlpool's Rs. 32,990 — a Rs. 9,000 gap. It also runs the aisle's deepest median discount at 38%, against LG at 18%, Samsung at 17% and IFB at 15%. The three deepest badges on the aisle, at 71%, 59% and 53%, carry one rating, none and one; the two most-rated machines are discounted 19% and 26%.

Amazon's vacuum searches, read on 3 September 2026, put four different machines on one shelf. Of the 47 listings we kept, 17 are 12V car dusters and handhelds — six under Rs. 1,000 — and they are what drags the aisle's median price to Rs. 4,298. The cheapest machine that will actually clean a floor is a Eureka Forbes Compact at Rs. 3,199. Robot vacuums run Rs. 14,998 to Rs. 59,998 at a median 58% off, with badges up to 74% resting on stated MRPs as high as Rs. 1,69,999. The household machines with the most ratings discount least: Eureka Forbes' Quick Clean DX (3.9 from 26,651) is 18% off, Philips' PowerPro (4.3 from 22,896) is 22% off, and the Eureka Forbes Compact is 3% off. Six further listings claiming 99% off stated MRPs at 100 times their selling price and were excluded from every figure here.

Myntra's men's jeans and trouser listings, read on 3 September 2026, run Rs. 349 to Rs. 1,461 with 61 of the 64 under Rs. 1,000 and a median of Rs. 703 at a median 69% off. Trousers and cargos are the cheaper half at a median Rs. 602; jeans sit at Rs. 842. The more useful finding is what the badge is measuring: stated MRPs here are set per brand, not per garment. All six FABRIPPLE listings state Rs. 1,999 and badge 70–73%; all three MQ Denim listings state Rs. 1,599 and badge 42–44%; 38 of the 64 listings state one of four round numbers. Five separate FABRIPPLE cargos are priced at exactly Rs. 539 at 73% off, and four Roadster trousers at exactly Rs. 638 at 77%. Ratings are grouped too — ten Roadster listings share five scores — and 17 of the 64 carry no rating at all.

Myntra's handbag and wallet listing pages, read on 3 September 2026, hold 64 listings running from Rs. 318 to Rs. 3,499, with 37 under Rs. 1,000 and 13 under Rs. 500. The shelf splits cleanly: 33 bags at a median Rs. 1,249 and 50% off, and 31 wallets, purses and card holders at a median Rs. 649 and 60% off. The number that explains the rest is the MRP. Four listings carry an identical MRP of Rs. 3,499 — the Marks & Spencer leather tote sells at Rs. 3,499 with the shelf's only 0% badge, while the Mast & Harbour PU tote sells at Rs. 661 with an 81% badge and 8,329 ratings. Every badge above 77% except that one is a wallet priced Rs. 318 to Rs. 509 against an MRP of Rs. 1,499 to Rs. 2,999, while the ten most-rated listings on the shelf sit at 40 to 61% off. All prices, MRPs and ratings are Myntra's own listing data.

AJIO's trolley, luggage and duffle search results, read on 3 September 2026, hold 206 listings running from Rs. 494 to Rs. 28,000 at a median of Rs. 2,474, with 105 under Rs. 2,500 and 29 under Rs. 1,000. Read by brand, the shelf splits into two MRP systems. TEAKWOOD LEATHERS lists at a median MRP of Rs. 8,199 and sells at Rs. 1,799 (82% off); Nasher Miles, SAFARI, ARISTOCRAT, Stony Brook and Luggero all sit between 74 and 82%. Decathlon lists at a median MRP of Rs. 1,199 and sells at Rs. 1,019 (20% off), with NIKE and AMERICAN TOURISTER at 25%, TOMMY HILFIGER at 35% and Puma at 36%. A TEAKWOOD cabin trolley at Rs. 1,499 carries an 82% badge; an AMERICAN TOURISTER at Rs. 4,349 carries 25%, from a similar stated MRP. AJIO publishes no ratings on this shelf.

We read AJIO's and Myntra's luggage shelves on the same morning, 3 September 2026 — 206 listings against 96 — and the comparison refuses to pick a winner. AJIO's median listing is Rs. 2,474 and Myntra's Rs. 2,494, a gap of Rs. 20, at median discounts of 62% and 61%. Fourteen brands appear on both; AJIO's median is lower on nine and Myntra's on four, but six of those brands are represented by a single listing on one side, so most gaps are noise. The two comparisons with real sample on both sides — TEAKWOOD LEATHERS and SAFARI — favour Myntra slightly, by Rs. 250 and Rs. 201. AJIO's shelf is deeper and stronger in Indian hard-luggage brands; Myntra's runs wider, from a Rs. 250 duffle to a Rs. 49,099 trolley. The real difference is evidence: Myntra publishes ratings on 51 of 96 listings, AJIO on none.

Croma's laptop searches, read on 3 September 2026, returned 98 machines — and the most useful thing in the data is not a price. Eighty-three of the 98 carry no customer rating at all, and the highest rating count on any of the rest is three. There is no customer evidence on this aisle to read. On price: across the 68 laptops from the two general searches (the MacBook-specific search is counted separately, since it over-represents Apple by construction), prices run Rs. 37,490 to Rs. 2,45,490 at a median of Rs. 1,03,990 and a median 19% off, and only two machines sit under Rs. 50,000 — an Acer Celeron at Rs. 37,490 and an HP Core i3 at Rs. 39,994. Discount is a brand fact: HP and Acer at a median 28%, Asus 25%, Dell 22%, Lenovo 19%, and Apple at either 7% or 3% across all 45 of its listings, never anything else.

We read both laptop shelves on the same afternoon, 3 September 2026: 52 machines from Amazon and 68 from Croma. Amazon lists 14 laptops under Rs. 50,000; Croma lists two, and under Rs. 60,000 it is 23 against four. Median prices are Rs. 63,090 and Rs. 1,03,990 — a difference in what each retailer stocks rather than in what each charges, because not one model code appeared on both shelves, so no like-for-like comparison was possible and none is claimed. Where the same series appears on both, prices nearly meet: an Acer Aspire 5 is Rs. 500 apart and a Lenovo LOQ Rs. 210. Amazon is meaningfully cheaper on the budget thin-and-lights it stocks more of — Aspire Lite at Rs. 51,999 against Rs. 65,990. The gaps on TUF, Nitro 5 and OMEN are configuration differences, not savings. And Croma's aisle carries no usable ratings: 83 of 98 listings have none, and the highest count is three.

Eight Vijay Sales kitchen appliance category pages, read on 3 September 2026, hold 131 listings running from Rs. 249 to Rs. 25,800 at a median of Rs. 3,360 and a median 37% off, with 62 under Rs. 3,000 and 12 under Rs. 1,000. The air fryer is the shelf that has moved: it starts at Rs. 2,615, carries a median 44% off, and five of the aisle's six deepest badges are air fryers — against a median mixer grinder price of Rs. 6,318. Hand blenders are the opposite, cheap to enter at Rs. 699 but the shallowest discounts on the aisle at a median 19%. By brand, Lifelong runs a median 70% off and KENT 54%, while Philips runs 24% across its 20 listings and Ninja 14% at a median Rs. 10,999. Vijay Sales publishes no ratings on these cards, so price and stated MRP are the only numbers available.

Amazon's oven searches, read on 3 September 2026, hold two shelves under one category name. Across the 62 listings we kept, OTGs run Rs. 1,749 to Rs. 18,367 at a median Rs. 4,499 and a median 47% off, with 18 of 29 under Rs. 5,000 and 20 of 29 badged 40% or more. Microwaves run Rs. 4,890 to Rs. 46,290 at a median Rs. 13,580 and just 15% off, with only four under Rs. 8,000 — the best-rated machine on the shelf, IFB's 30 litre convection, is 9% off, and LG's 20 litre solo is 4% off. The discount is attached to the appliance type rather than to any sale. Two cautions from the data: several brands display one shared rating across models (Pigeon's 9L, 20L and 50L OTGs all show 3.4 from 7,617), and nine listings stated MRPs at 100 times their selling price, rendering as 99% badges; all nine were excluded here.

A living tracker of Udemy's 2026 sale cadence: platform promos fire two-to-three times a month at the Rs. 449-699 floor, a back-to-school window is expected 25 Aug-5 Sep, and Black Friday in late November brings the annual catalogue-wide floor. Explains when full price is ever worth paying, Personal Plan vs sale-priced ownership, and coupon-stacking rules. Re-verified weekly.

We read Croma's own results for smart watch, smartwatch and fitness band on 2 September 2026 — two pages each, no filters, no account — and got 80 distinct listings from Rs. 999 to Rs. 85,490. Sorted by price the shelf has a hole in it: the most expensive budget watch is Rs. 7,999 and the cheapest Apple is Rs. 17,994, with nothing in between. That gap separates two completely different pricing regimes. Apple is 38 of the 80 listings — nearly half the shelf — and its discount runs 2 to 15 per cent with a median of 4, twelve listings sitting at exactly 4. Noise (17 listings) runs 25 to 83 per cent, boAt 65 to 77, GOBOULT 69 to 76. The badge identifies the brand, not the bargain. Ratings cannot break the tie either: only 37 of 80 listings carry one and the largest count on the whole shelf is 31. Below: every brand grouped, everything under Rs. 3,000, the thin Rs. 3,000-8,000 band, and the Apple half priced out.

We read both smartwatch shelves on the morning of 2 September 2026 — Amazon.in's popularity-sorted results for three queries (52 watches after dropping two resistance bands the fitness-band query returned) and Croma's results for the same terms (80 listings). Amazon's median is Rs. 2,249 at 52 per cent off with 62 per cent of the shelf under Rs. 3,000; Croma's is Rs. 21,492 at 15 per cent off. Nearly all of that 9.6x gap is one brand: Croma lists 38 Apple Watch variants from Rs. 17,994 to Rs. 85,490, and Amazon's results returned none. On the five brands both stock, Croma was actually cheaper at the floor on three — noise at Rs. 999, GOBOULT at Rs. 1,199, Samsung at Rs. 4,799. The difference that should decide it is evidence: Amazon's most-reviewed listing carries 134,959 ratings and ten clear 10,000, while only 37 of Croma's 80 listings show a rating count at all and the largest on the shelf is 31.

Forty-eight listings read from reliancedigital.in's own search results on 2 September 2026 — twelve each of air conditioners, televisions, refrigerators and washing machines — with every price, MRP and discount as Reliance Digital displays them. The four shelves behave nothing alike. Every split AC is between Rs. 24,990 and Rs. 48,990 and none is under 22 per cent off, with two LG 1.5-tonners at 51 and 56 per cent. Televisions run from Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 53,490, and the deepest badges belong to Foxsky, Soyer and VYN while Samsung's 55-inch is 19 per cent off. Refrigerators span Rs. 11,000 to Rs. 1,17,990 — and two of the twelve results are Samsung door panels rather than fridges. Washing machines are the flattest shelf in the store, a 23 per cent median, including an IFB front loader marked down by 1 per cent.