Hi Ajit. Am your neighbour and have watched the phenomena you mentioned. While I agree that these people will have no idea of all the global forces you mentioned they know that their life is changing and if they dont adapt then they will miss the boat. So they are changing in their own way. Patel stores has realised that small can also be good. He is reducing his inventory size and also keeping more of the type of impulse purchase you may not get at Sahkari Bhandar. Also if Sahakari Bhandar will only do home delivery for goods worth more than Rs 300, Patel will do so for Rs 5 stuff also. As u said Teenage library is an old hat in adapting to change. As for the Taxi drivers,while still refusing to ply short distance the taxi driver is willing to pick me up from my office if I call him on his mobile with 30 to 40 minutes notice. And he buys his prepaid cards from the shop which has taken space next to the teenage library (i havent spoken to the folks at the library but I have a hunch that this is their expansion plan!). And did you notice Ajit, the Unisex salon is undergoing a transformation too. It is being converted into a gent's salon!
RE:Patel Stores
by Vivek on Sep 14, 2007 04:07 PM Permalink
COULD HAVE BEEN A Good article. Ajit, time permitting, why don't you write BETTER ARTICLES(more often)
Our retailing is quite mature and highly price competitive. These retail chains are fleecing customers by providing goods at high prices and of course inferior servicing to customers.
In a store you get everything at MRP in kirana shop you get a good discount and personalized service and replacement. I bought a small tou game from a store for 75 rupees when I opened at home it had half of the stuff to play, now if i drive back to return i will end up burning more petrol than the price of the toy, kirana shop you ring and he will come and replace or you replace in evening while taking a stroll.
RE:Retail stores are NOT good for India
by Vivek on Sep 14, 2007 03:59 PM Permalink
Ha Ha Ha.. thats all as a response i can post for your view. It seems you stay in fantasyland.. Please give me the address where you live.. i,d love to come & stay there
Why should producer ( manufacturer or farmer) /consumer suffer in the hands of the middle man .These organised retailing gives wealth to farmers & save the consumer from dictate of middle man.If some politician is advocating for banning of retail chain then he should understand that thay are few producer & large no. of consumer( even producer is consumer) .Difference between middleman & consumer .The middleman gives money to the politician to fight election & consumer gives vote to win election.Who is more powerful the coming election will decide?
RE:Welcome retail stores
by anuj agarwal on Sep 14, 2007 03:43 PM Permalink
This is a misnomer and the spin doctors have generated these stories. The middle man is there, do you think mukesh ambani will go and buy and sell to consumers, they also need middle man and their own highly paid but inefficicent employees.
Middle man here adds value to the trade and gets a fair share, he is not a middle man of the defence deals type.
The retail chains will bring high cost stores with AC and the burden of their staff overheads will be borne by the consumers like you and me. Pl understand the profit mentatlity and drive of a large business house is 100 times more than a locan shop owner.
RE:RE:Welcome retail stores
by Indian on Sep 14, 2007 05:38 PM Permalink
ONE very good reason for Salaried person shop from this big store is that BIG STORES will pay taxes to government like Salaried persons themselves.Except the salaried person and corporates everybody is evading government taxes.
RE:Welcome retail stores
by Vivek on Sep 14, 2007 03:56 PM Permalink
Anuj, You either seem to be middlemen or spurious product selling kinara wala. Remember whatever is better qualty & cheaper will sell with good service beingan add on. So u dont worry much & let the consimer decide. the Indian consumer is not so naive as you think.
"When Wal-Mart attempted to open its first store in New York recently, a noisy coalition of corner stores, green activists, neighbourhood groups, and labour unions thwarted them. So New York lives even today without a Wal-Mart store."
You have got the info wrong , there are Walmart stores in New york in East Meadow, NY 11554,Piscataway, NJ 08854 18. Airmont, NY 10901,Westbury (Li), NY 11590 9. Uniondale, NY 11553
Excellent Ajit. We all do appreciate and applaud the economic boom that India is going through. But somewhere we can question if the developements, say retail, real estate boom or any sphere happening around has a control or is it happening the way it should be? I feel the growth or change should be controlled by independent bodies in respective field. Bureaucracy & curruption should be kept out of it. We have seen big corporates change government policies to ensure their projects sail through swiftly. We need a larger involvement of common man in policy making.
RE:What next?
by anuj agarwal on Sep 14, 2007 03:46 PM Permalink
The real estate prices have gone so much up that an average indian can not think of a decent house in his life time. So may become case with ordinary consumables. Atta if you buy from a kirana shop is cheaper than the retail stores and you know all branded atta has rice dust as a major component which is an adulteration, rice dust come for 2 rupees per kg. kirana shop can not do like that. If he does no one will buy from him
RE:What next?
by Vivek on Sep 14, 2007 03:53 PM Permalink
Atta cheaper at kirana stores ....ha ha ha..LOL. A spurious product selling karana shop owner has probably posted this. You can get pure wheat grinded to atta infront of you at Food bazaar or anywhere - talk about quality.
Hey Ajit!! Are you trying to start a mini revolution? Or are you trying to see how many retailers read your article? Or are you trying to see where an online retailer can fit in here?? What exactly is on your mind.
Well, one has to change...we did not (rightly) pay heed to the unions clamouring against computerisation and there is no need to make so much noise over the 'Mom & Pop' stores. As a resident well outside the northern suburbs of Mumbai, I have seen these so called 'Mom & Pop' stores taking their consumers for a royal ride - poor quality, wrong quantity, over charging well over the MRP and you name it...Let the consumer benefit from large format retail. Why do we in India always shed tears for the small vocal minorities (salaried unionised employees, et al) while not worrying about the 70 per cent of Indians who are outside the pale of this newly emergent India?
A UPite is an Indian and no matter where he works in India, it is his birthright to be called a citizen of that place.The Constitution allows that ! Calling them refugees is in bad taste and goes against the law of the land !
