Socks are sold in packs, which is how a shelf hides what it charges. We read AJIO's sock shelf on 28 September 2026 and divided every price by the pack count the listing itself states. The cheapest pair works out at Rs. 17.80 and the dearest at Rs. 149.50 - a factor of 8.4. The discount badge predicts that rate almost perfectly and predicts it backwards: everything above 80% off is Rs. 18 to Rs. 32 a pair, everything below 40% off is Rs. 80 to Rs. 136 a pair. And one stated MRP of Rs. 999 turns up on seven listings covering packs of three, four, five and six - so the same claimed list price is doing duty for twice as many socks.
We read all 36 of AJIO's umbrella listings on 28 September 2026, priced Rs. 299 to Rs. 1,499. Four of them carry the identical printed title 'DESTINIO Windproof Strong Rain Proof Compact & Portable Umbrella' - and sell at Rs. 525, Rs. 750, Rs. 753 and Rs. 1,230. The stated MRPs behind them move independently, so the Rs. 750 tile shows 75% off and the Rs. 753 tile shows 42%. Across the shelf, Decathlon's 11 listings show a 31% median badge against 63% for the other 25 - while costing Rs. 299 more at the median. The cheaper half claims the larger list price. And none of the 36 publishes a rating.
We read both men's sandal shelves on the same morning, 28 September 2026 - 36 listings on AJIO and 32 on Myntra. The median prices are Rs. 717 and Rs. 701, and the median stated MRPs are Rs. 2,199 and Rs. 2,245 - both pairs within 2% of each other. The discount badges, however, read 53.5% and 67%. The badge gap is not a price gap. The difference that should actually decide it: AJIO published no rating at all on any of its 36 listings, while Myntra published one on 27 of 32 at a median of 989 ratings and 4.19 stars. Three brands sell on both, and an El Paso slide is within nine rupees on each shelf while showing 76%, 77% and 81% off.
We read Flipkart's chair shelf on 28 September 2026 - 153 distinct listings from Rs. 2,099 to Rs. 69,990, with 25 seated here. The 68 gaming chairs cost a median Rs. 12,716 against Rs. 4,761 for the 85 office and study chairs - 2.67 times - while carrying a smaller median badge, 49.5% against 64%. And 31 of the 68 gaming chairs publish no rating at all, against four of the 85 office chairs. One chair sells at Rs. 4,749 on three listings that share 1,859 ratings and state three different MRPs, advertised as 81%, 76% and 75% off. Five listings sell at exactly Rs. 13,022 under four seller names, badged 31% to 41%. Two chairs are discounted by one rupee.
We read both bedsheet shelves on the same morning, 28 September 2026 - 68 listings on Flipkart and 49 on Myntra. Flipkart's median price is Rs. 335 and not one of its 68 listings costs more than Rs. 585. Myntra's median is Rs. 681, with 27 of its 49 above that ceiling and five over Rs. 1,000. Both shelves inflate the strike-through: Flipkart's median stated MRP is 5.20 times its price, Myntra's 4.01, and no bedsheet on either site sold at its stated MRP. Only one brand appears on both shelves, so no like-for-like is possible - and Flipkart's apparent five-times feedback advantage shrinks once you notice one rating count sitting on nine separate listings.
We read 203 listings across six of Myntra's non-apparel shelves on 28 September 2026. Home furnishing shows a median discount badge of 62%; men's grooming shows 11.5%. But three of those six medians are not describing a category at all. ARMORO holds 25 of the 32 storage listings - three product names across 25 tiles, seventeen of them at exactly 14% off. The other seven listings have a median badge of 79%. SWASUM holds eleven identical kitchen tiles, all at Rs. 399 and exactly 33% off. And the two shelves a single seller has filled are the two where almost nobody has left a rating: 3 of 32 each, against 28 of 32 on men's innerwear.
We read 78 curtain and cookware listings on tatacliq.com on 28 September 2026, priced Rs. 326 to Rs. 17,425. The 32 listings from Prestige, Hawkins, Bergner and Borosil carry a median discount badge of 20%. The other 46, overwhelmingly curtains, carry 48% - and the cookware is the dearer half. Hawkins is the tightest brand in the read: its ten badges are 2, 10, 12, 12 and 13 per cent six times, and one 5 litre cooker is discounted by Rs. 51. The clincher is DDecor, a furnishing house whose six curtain listings show only 10% and 25%. And the whole shelf is nearly unrated: 40 of 78 listings publish a rating, at a median count of two.
We read Myntra's hair care shelf on 28 September 2026 - 50 distinct listings from Rs. 93 to Rs. 2,970, with 25 seated here. The median discount badge is 27%. On five other Myntra shelves pulled in the same run that same morning it was 75% for bedsheets, 75% for men's watches, 64.5% for sandals, 57% for handbags and 45% for mixer grinders. Twelve of the 50 hair care listings are under 15% off and the shallowest is 2%. The feedback runs the other way: 42 of the 50 publish a rating, at a median of 4,550 each, topping out at 88,256. Three brands show one rating count across two or three tiles - one sells the same shampoo at Rs. 786, Rs. 787 and Rs. 794.
We read Flipkart's school bag shelf on 28 September 2026 - 114 distinct listings from Rs. 121 to Rs. 1,291, with 23 seated here. The median listing states an MRP 4.34 times what it charges, and 73 of the 114 state at least four times. The widest gap is Rs. 283 against a stated Rs. 2,999, shown as 91% off. The four bags from luggage brands you can name all state less than the median - American Tourister asks Rs. 1,099 against Rs. 2,600, a smaller list price than an anonymous label charging a quarter as much. Four brands show one rating count across two or three listings, and two sellers list the same bag at the same Rs. 1,291. The biggest crowds sit at the cheapest prices: 77,600 ratings on a Rs. 239 plush bag.
We read 150 Tata CLiQ listings across five searches on 28 September 2026. The 39 helmet listings have a median discount badge of 7%. Every other shelf in the same pull runs between 30% and 50% - footwear 50%, apparel 40%, trimmers 34%. The reason is one brand: TVARRA holds 18 of the 39 listings, all stating an MRP of Rs. 2,950, and eleven of them sell at Rs. 2,949 - a discount of one rupee, displayed as 0%. The other 21 listings are Decathlon cycling and climbing helmets at Rs. 1,099 to Rs. 8,199, median 15% off. And only four listings publish a customer rating - each of exactly one.