Philips is 15 of the 33 air fryer listings we kept from Amazon's search results on 6 September 2026 — and it is not on the shelf at one price. The 4.2-litre 2000 Series appears three separate times at Rs. 7,175, Rs. 7,390 and Rs. 7,930, each with its own badge and its own rating pool, with a fourth 4.2 L Philips at Rs. 8,199 — while a different Philips 4.2 L sits at Rs. 4,706 with 5,904 ratings. Two Philips 6.2-litre listings are priced at Rs. 34,763 and Rs. 40,464 against a same-capacity Philips at Rs. 6,495. The shelf runs Rs. 2,126 to Rs. 40,464 at a median 40% off, per-litre costs run Rs. 644 to Rs. 1,811, and five listings claiming 99% off had MRPs stated at 100 times their selling price and were excluded from every figure here.

We read 46 in-stock air conditioners from Croma's own search API on 4 September 2026 — 42 split units, four window units. The shelf runs Rs. 26,490 to Rs. 55,090 at a median of Rs. 35,642 and a median 28% off. Holding capacity constant at the 1.5-ton size that is 29 of the 46 listings, the 3-star median is Rs. 37,740 and the 5-star median Rs. 49,990 — a Rs. 12,250 premium for one efficiency grade, and the badge gets shallower as you pay it. The discount is a brand policy rather than a markdown: Carrier and LG badge 41–50% while Croma's own label badges 12–28%, and both land near Rs. 33,000. And the ratings are unusable — a median of three votes per listing, with 17 perfect 5.0 scores, 15 of them from fewer than five people.

We read both air-conditioner aisles the same morning — 36 Amazon listings and 46 from Croma's own search API, on 4 September 2026. The gap sits in one size: at 1 ton the shelves are Rs. 250 apart (median Rs. 32,740 against Rs. 32,990), while at 1.5 tons Amazon is Rs. 4,990 cheaper (Rs. 34,500 against Rs. 39,490). The more useful finding is that each retailer publishes one field you cannot use, and it is a different field. Croma's star ratings sit on a median of two votes, with 27 of 35 rated listings under ten. Amazon's MRP field is broken on six of 36 listings — four showing an MRP exactly half the selling price, and one showing Rs. 30,99,100 against a Rs. 30,991 machine, rendered as “99% off”. On Amazon, read the reviews and ignore the badge; on Croma, read the price and ignore the stars.

We read 127 in-stock listings from six of Vijay Sales' own category pages on 4 September 2026 — fans, air fryers, chimneys, geysers, dishwashers and air purifiers. The shelf runs Rs. 1,799 to Rs. 72,990 at a median of Rs. 10,999 and a median 36% off, but the single number that matters is which aisle you are in. Fans and air fryers run a median 44% off; chimneys 40%, geysers 37%, air purifiers 21% and dishwashers 18%. Every one of the eight deepest badges on the whole shelf is an air fryer, topping out at 76%. At the other end, two Dyson HushJet purifiers are marked down by one rupee and Rs. 43 from a stated Rs. 29,900, and an IFB dishwasher by 2%. None of the 127 listings carries a customer rating.

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.

We read Amazon.in's popularity-sorted results for water purifier ro, water purifier under 10000 and ro uv water purifier on 2 September 2026 — 47 rows, 34 distinct products. Six of the 34 carried a 99 per cent discount badge, and in every one of those six the MRP printed on the search tile was exactly one hundred times the selling price. We opened all six product pages and read the M.R.P. field there: not one matched. The KENT New Grand's product page says Rs. 23,000, not Rs. 13,89,900; the Pureit Classic says Rs. 3,500, not Rs. 2,99,900. Set those six aside and the shelf is readable: 28 listings from Rs. 3,956 to Rs. 18,499, median Rs. 8,739 at 46 per cent off, 20 of them under Rs. 10,000. Aquaguard, KENT, Pureit, Livpure and Havells sit at 20 to 57 per cent off; Aqua X Pure, PROVEN, AquaUltra and Addyz at 71 to 83. Below: the full 100x table, every brand grouped, and both price bands listed out with review counts.

We read both water purifier shelves on the morning of 2 September 2026 — Amazon.in's popularity-sorted results for three queries (34 products, six excluded for showing an MRP exactly 100 times the price) and Croma's results for two queries (55 listings). Amazon's median is Rs. 8,739 at 46 per cent off with 71 per cent of the shelf under Rs. 10,000; Croma's is Rs. 19,490 at 26 per cent off with 16 per cent under Rs. 10,000. The 2.2x gap is not markup. Five brands priced Rs. 3,956 to Rs. 5,690 — AQUA D PURE, Aqua X Pure, PROVEN, AquaUltra and Addyz — appear only on Amazon and pull its median down, while AO Smith and Croma's own brand appear only on Croma, which also stocks each shared brand further up its range. Where both carry the same brand it splits: Havells was cheaper on Amazon with no overlap between the ranges, and the Native M0 was Rs. 13,499 on both.

Sixty-three refrigerator, washing machine, microwave and OTG listings from croma.com's own search on 2 September 2026, with every price, MRP, discount, rating and rating count as Croma displays them. A fridge and a washing machine cost about the same at the median — Rs. 17,690 and Rs. 18,190 — while microwaves sit at Rs. 9,990 and the OTG shelf starts at Rs. 1,849. The discount percentages track the maker rather than the category: Croma's own-brand appliances run 0 to 54 per cent off, and 19 of those 20 listings carry an MRP that is an exact round thousand, against two of the 43 brand-name listings. The largest brand-name discount on the page is 34 per cent and the largest rupee saving is Rs. 24,000 on LG's Rs. 67,990 466-litre fridge. Only 15 of 63 listings have ten or more ratings behind their score.

Amazon India's fan listings held 46 unique products on 1 September 2026, from Rs. 599 to Rs. 4,099, and splitting them by motor type gives the number that actually decides the purchase. A BLDC 1200mm ceiling fan runs a median of Rs. 2,999; a conventional induction 1200mm fan runs Rs. 1,712. That is a premium of about Rs. 1,287, roughly 75 per cent, bought for a stated 28–35 W draw against roughly 70 W. The discount badges run the other way to the price: table fans, the cheapest group, carry the deepest median cut at 48 per cent, and BLDC fans the shallowest at 41. And one fan makes the case against reading badges at all — the atomberg Renesa Enzel appears twice at the same Rs. 3,849 price with two different stated MRPs, showing 25 per cent off on one listing and 32 per cent on the other, with the identical 48,409 ratings on both.

Amazon India's cookware listings held 89 unique products on 1 September 2026, from Rs. 314 to Rs. 12,999 — and 20 of them state an MRP that cannot be a list price. Sixteen are the same pattern: the stated MRP is the selling price divided by the number of pieces the title says the set contains. A Bergner “4 Pcs” set sells at Rs. 2,196 against a stated Rs. 549, exactly a quarter; a Vinod “25-Piece” box sells at Rs. 7,399 against Rs. 295. The other four state exactly 100 times the price and display as 99 per cent off. Across the 69 listings with a usable MRP the median is 29 per cent off, a flat shelf by Amazon standards. Hawkins discounts 5 to 7 per cent and holds the largest rating pool here — 39,751 on one cooker — while Pigeon runs 5 per cent on some listings and 54 per cent on others.

We pulled Amazon India's popularity-sorted air purifier results on 30 August 2026 and read 22 machines priced Rs. 1,299 to Rs. 84,485. This shelf inverts the usual pattern: the customer evidence sits at the expensive end. The WINIX 5500-2 at Rs. 15,998 carries 27,490 ratings at 4.6 and the Coway Airmega 150 at Rs. 16,999 carries 6,532 at 4.7, while the five listings under Rs. 5,000 average between 3.2 and 3.7 and the cheapest, at Rs. 1,299, states neither a coverage area nor a HEPA grade. Coverage runs from 160 to 1,881 square feet and does not track price — a Rs. 8,410 Philips states more coverage than a Rs. 13,990 Cuckoo. One listing carries a broken struck price of Rs. 217 against a Rs. 9,130 selling price, which we flag as a data defect.

We pulled Reliance Digital's air purifier listings on 30 August 2026: eleven results, ten of them purifiers running Rs. 5,159 to Rs. 58,849, and not one publishing a rating. The eleventh is a Philips HU4706 at Rs. 790 carrying the biggest badge in the results, 87 per cent — and it is a humidifier, not a purifier, so we flag it rather than count it. The badge shrinks as the price rises: LG's Rs. 58,849 Puricare is 2 per cent off and Philips' AC3220 4, against 48 per cent on the Rs. 5,159 Honeywell Touch V1. Read against Amazon the same day, the catalogues barely overlap — Dyson and LG here, WINIX and Coway there — and where a model appears on both, the Eureka Forbes 270 is Rs. 9,099 at each while the Philips AC4221 is Rs. 2,052 cheaper on Amazon.

We pulled Amazon India's popularity-sorted water heater results on 30 August 2026 and read 29 machines priced Rs. 949 to Rs. 8,599. The shelf splits into instant geysers of 1 to 6 litres, which suit a sink or a bucket and run Rs. 1,599 to Rs. 4,163 from known brands, and storage geysers of 10 to 25 litres, which is what a shower needs, at Rs. 3,197 to Rs. 8,599. The biggest badge in the pull is 99 per cent, on an AO Smith at Rs. 4,199 against a struck Rs. 4,19,900 — exactly a hundred times the price, which is a units error rather than an offer, and we flag it as such. The crowd sits with the national brands: Crompton's 25-litre has 29,408 ratings at 3.9 and Havells' 3-litre 14,030 at 4.2, while everything under Rs. 2,500 has between zero and seven.

Three refrigerator searches on amazon.in on 28 August 2026 returned 46 unique listings from Rs. 11,990 to Rs. 53,990. Converted to rupees per litre the shelf splits cleanly: 15 single-door direct-cool models at a median Rs. 14,190 and Rs. 76 a litre, against 12 frost-free double doors at a median Rs. 26,640 and Rs. 112 a litre - a 47 per cent premium on every litre before capacity is counted. Three product lines appear at more than one BEE star rating, so the price of a star is readable directly: Rs. 500 and Rs. 800 a step on Haier's 190 L, Rs. 600 on Godrej's 180 L, but Rs. 2,270 on Voltas Beko's 183 L. The badges do not track the evidence - the best-reviewed fridge here, Samsung's 183 L 4 star at 4.3 from 4,560 reviews, badges 23 per cent, while one SHARP listing badges 99 per cent on an MRP printed a hundred times too high.