We read both water purifier shelves on the same morning, 27 September 2026 - 27 listings at Vijay Sales and 21 on Flipkart. Where they overlap, they are startlingly alike: the Urban Company Native M1 sells for Rs. 15,999 on both, against the same stated Rs. 20,999 MRP, wearing the same 24% badge. The one difference is that Flipkart publishes 4.5 stars from 15,077 ratings and Vijay Sales publishes no rating at all - on that listing or any of its other 26. The headline discount gap (72% against 29%) is a catalogue difference: 12 of Flipkart's 21 listings sell under Rs. 5,000 and Vijay Sales stocks nothing there. Compare Rs. 7,000-plus machines only and the medians are 40% and 28%. And one machine at Rs. 19,499 on both sites wears two different badges, because the two shops struck through two different MRPs.

We read Amazon India's rice cooker, roti maker and electric lunch box shelves on 27 September 2026 - 79 distinct listings, 24 seated here. Capacity is the cheapest thing on the cooker shelf: 1.8-litre models work out at Rs. 1,166 to Rs. 2,111 a litre while 1-litre models cost Rs. 1,619 to Rs. 2,197 a litre. One brand sells a 1-litre single pot at Rs. 1,619 and a 1.8-litre at Rs. 2,099 - 80% more rice for 30% more money. Two listings state an MRP exactly 100 times the selling price (Rs. 2,898 against Rs. 2,89,800), and five state an MRP below it; all seven are excluded from our medians. Two separate Panasonic cookers display the same 10,473 ratings, and the 'roti maker' search returns Rs. 159 manual jali roasters.

We read Myntra's tie and cufflink shelves on 27 September 2026 - 66 distinct listings, 34 ties and 32 cufflinks, 24 seated here. The badge on this aisle tracks who is selling, not what is being sold. The four shirt houses - Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Louis Philippe, Peter England - run a median badge of 11% across 16 listings. Five jewellery labels run a median of 78% across 16. Nine listings sit at exactly 11% off and all nine are shirt-house tiles. Forty of the 66 publish no rating at all, against 13 of 69 on Myntra's gown shelves the same morning. Six listings sell at exactly their stated MRP, and one Rs. 319 pair of cufflinks carries a stated Rs. 2,999.

We read Myntra's two gown shelves on 27 September 2026 - 69 distinct listings, 24 seated here. Every single one sells between Rs. 374 and Rs. 1,740, with 63 under Rs. 1,500 and 40 under Rs. 1,000. The stated MRPs behind them run from Rs. 799 to Rs. 8,000, a median of 3.54 times the selling price and a peak of 7.96x. Twelve listings declare exactly Rs. 1,999 and sell anywhere from Rs. 468 to Rs. 1,014; nine declare exactly Rs. 4,999 and sell from Rs. 672 to Rs. 1,630. Ratings are pooled across colourways - three tiles of one dress all show the same 6,128 - and 13 of the 69 publish no rating at all. Exactly one listing in 69 carries no discount.

We read Flipkart's pet-food shelf on 27 September 2026 - 210 distinct listings across five queries, of which 48 are dry dog bags whose pack weight Flipkart prints in the title, with 26 seated here. Priced per kilo of food rather than per bag, the shelf runs Rs. 95 to Rs. 641 a kilo, a 6.7-fold spread, median Rs. 213. The clearest finding sits inside a single recipe: Pedigree Meat & Rice was on sale in four pack sizes at once, and the 1.2 kg bag costs Rs. 255 a kilo against Rs. 172 for the 20 kg - 48% more for the same food. The discount badge cannot help you here: the median across these 48 bags is 12%, while ten other Flipkart shelves read the same morning ran 46.5% to 79%. This is a shelf where you have to do the division yourself.

Flipkart runs three overlapping reward schemes and the names get used interchangeably. We read Flipkart's own published description of all three on 27 September 2026 and set out only what it actually states. SuperCoins: Rs. 100 spent = 2 SuperCoins, with Plus members earning up to 25 coins per purchase and cashback offers running as high as 1 coin per rupee. Plus Silver: 10 orders a year, a 12% instant discount during early sale access. Plus Gold: 20 orders a year, 15%. Flipkart Black: a paid subscription with free YouTube Premium and 5% SuperCoins cashback on Flipkart and Flipkart Minutes. With Big Billion Days early access on 8 October per Flipkart's own store page, the tier you hold that day is the part that matters. We also list the six figures Flipkart does not publish - including what Black costs.

We read Flipkart's baby diaper shelf on 27 September 2026 - 260 distinct listings across five queries, 257 of which print a piece count on the tile, with 25 seated here. Priced per pant rather than per pack, the shelf runs Rs. 5.29 to Rs. 47.20 a pant, an 8.9-fold spread, median Rs. 9.66. Brand medians: Pampers Rs. 14.09, Huggies Rs. 10.09, MamyPoko Rs. 9.11, the value labels Rs. 6.42 to Rs. 7.51. The sharpest finding is a duplicate: three listings called 'Pampers Premium Care - M' all display the same 39,677 ratings and work out at Rs. 11.59, Rs. 24.07 and Rs. 26.00 a pant - one of them sells two fewer pants for Rs. 755 more. The badge cannot warn you: here the biggest percentages sit on the cheapest pants.

We read Myntra's nail polish and makeup brush shelves on 27 September 2026 - 64 listings, 32 each, with 26 seated here. These are the two aisles where Myntra stops discounting. The nail shelf's median badge is 21% and the brush shelf's is 16%, against 65% for men's t-shirts, 76% for women's kurtas and 66.5% for men's casual shirts in a second read taken the same morning. Sixteen of the 64 listings state an MRP identical to the selling price - a badge of exactly zero - against 2 of 98 apparel listings. One brush range name sells at Rs. 80 under the brand's own label and Rs. 425 under a reseller's, both against a stated Rs. 400. And a millilitre of nail polish costs Rs. 3.22 or Rs. 31.25 depending on which bottle you tap.

We read Amazon India's omega-3 and collagen shelves on 27 September 2026 - 78 distinct listings, 36 fish oil and 42 collagen. Per capsule, fish oil runs Rs. 3.32 to Rs. 19.98, a six-fold spread. But five listings state their EPA and DHA per capsule, and on that basis the ranking inverts: a Rs. 999 pack works out at Rs. 18.50 per 1,000 mg of stated actives and a Rs. 383 pack at Rs. 21.28. Collagen powder runs Rs. 2.80 to Rs. 18.64 a gram, with one brand occupying three different rates in a single read. This shelf publishes no usable MRP - the figure in that position is Amazon's own per-unit rate - so there are no discount percentages here. Prices only: no health claim is made or implied.

Flipkart has opened its Big Billion Days 2026 Apple store page ahead of the 9 October sale, and it already puts numbers on four iPhones: the iPhone 17 at an effective Rs. 79,999 (Rs. 84,999 sale price, less a Rs. 2,000 ICICI or Axis credit card discount and up to Rs. 3,000 exchange bonus), the iPhone 15 from Rs. 63,999, the iPhone 18 Pro from Rs. 1,58,900 and an EMI-led offer on the iPhone Air. This tracker puts each banner price next to what the same phone costs on Flipkart today, and walks through the iPhone Privilege Calendar that unlocks a new offer every day from 27 September to 2 October.

We read AJIO's jacket and winter-wear shelf on 26 September 2026 - 151 listings across four queries, every one carrying a selling price and a stated MRP, with 21 seated here. The finding is that the discount badge is set by whose label is on the garment: one brand's listings declare a median 9.09 times what they charge, while a sports label on the same shelf declares 1.18 times and a department-store label 1.25. One declared figure of Rs. 2,499 covers 12 listings selling anywhere from Rs. 275 to Rs. 849, and six garments from a single label all sit at Rs. 570 against one Rs. 2,999. Not one of the 151 listings publishes a rating, so the badge is the only number on the tile - and it is measuring the seller's convention rather than your saving.

Flipkart's festive shelves are up ahead of the Big Billion Days, which its own store page dates to 8 October for early access and 9 October for everyone else. We read 285 distinct listings on 26 September 2026. One hundred and sixty-eight of them — 59% — publish no rating at all, including 69 of the 80 gift hampers. Of the 37 dry fruit boxes that state an unambiguous weight, the rate runs from Rs. 450 a kilo to Rs. 7,340, median Rs. 1,504, with one brand spanning Rs. 745 to Rs. 3,676. String lights print their LED count and length: Rs. 3.56 to Rs. 339 a metre. And 65 listings from 22 brands declare the same Rs. 999 MRP.

Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday 8 November, with the five days running 6 to 10 November — cross-checked against three published almanacs on 26 September 2026. That makes it a late Diwali, and it rearranges the shopping calendar. Flipkart's Big Billion Days is confirmed on Flipkart's own page for 8 October (Plus and VIP, from midnight) and 9 October (all users) — roughly four weeks before the festival. Amazon's Great Indian Festival page was live on 26 September and published no dates at all, so we name no window for it. Black Friday is 27 November and Cyber Monday 30 November, by calendar arithmetic. No Indian merchant has announced a November 2026 sale to us. This page carries current price baselines from our own shelf reads so you can judge a festive discount when one appears.

Flipkart prints the shelf count on every wall shelf listing, in the grey subtitle under the title. We read 249 distinct listings on 26 September 2026 and divided. The median comes to Rs. 99 a shelf. The cheapest is Rs. 14.38 — eight shelves for Rs. 115, with 1,659 ratings. The dearest is Rs. 1,688, which buys one shelf and carries three ratings. Single-unit listings cost a median Rs. 151 a shelf against Rs. 63.75 for a four-piece set. Fifty-four listings from 45 different brands declare the same Rs. 999 MRP while selling from Rs. 89 to Rs. 695, and one seller publishes the same 807 ratings on three listings at three prices.

We read Myntra's own listing data for four home decor paths on 26 September 2026 and kept the 96 listings that are genuinely decor. Nine are badged at 80% off or more and seven at 10% or less — and both groups contain ceramic vases and wooden photo frames. Art Street lists Rs. 399 vases against a stated MRP of Rs. 3,000 and a Rs. 499 frame set against Rs. 4,000, all four unrated, while Pure Home and Living sells vases at Rs. 999 and Rs. 1,149 at no discount and Home Centre's frames sit at a flat 10% off. Photo frames are the least-reviewed part of the shelf: 20 of 32 publish no rating, against 10 of 34 vases.