Mr Krishnamurthy, Let me tell you why K-Mart should NOT enter India. Reason 1 is Economic: As a consumer (you may not realise) without Wal-Mart you have umpteen choice of where to buy your foodstuff from. And u pointed rightly, you have developed some sort of relationship with this seller. Wal-Mart entry will undoubtly drastically reduce your CHOICE as a customer- of where you can buy your stuff from. Small business will not be able to sustain. Reason no. 2 is equity: Considering our huge diversiy only a certain class of people (middle-rich) will be able to buy their stuff from Wal-Mart. 'Co-existence' as you pointed out is healty when things exist together in the same place rahter than spatially different places. Why should certain areas of the city look like fancy Wal-marts and others as decrepit, run-down places of small-businesses? We mut aspire for socially equitable places - where all types of people are welcome. This currently happens on our streets where hakers etc. provide for all setions of society. Reason no. 3 is Evironmental: Superstores like Wal-Mart will consume high amount of power in their air-conditoned mega-boxes. Compare that with samll shops like Mother Dairy food/grocery outlets or hawkers which do the same job in a much more environment friendly way. Moreover superstores encourage driving to them rather twalking as you currenly do. In the est, communitie are trying to do the dificult job of get small businesss work. And sm to be going in the opposite direction- not leaning from their mistakes. Big and small is beautiful but unfortunately they belong to opposite ends of the societal power structure.
