Retail Industry & India

Retail industry in India is all set to boom, with all major players set foot in it.
Bharti - WalMart, Reliance, Goenka's and 'n' number of small players in the line. 3 Reliance Fresh stores were shut in Kerala and couple of them were ordered to close down in UP. These are done to keep the middle-man happy.

The middle-man in turn make huge profits and the real farmers don't reap any benefits. Alternatively these Retail majors say that they will directly source from the farmers and by eliminating the middle-men. Initially I feel, they will eliminate the middle-man and farmers will get benefited. Once the middle-man are gone, farmers will be forced to sell their products to these people, dictated by these majors. This will be even more worse and the poor farmers will be left at their major. If this can be addressed, then it will be a win-win situation for every one including consumers.

India Today was telling that wastage of the commodities will become less due to the storage facility these majors have. That's true.

Govt on the other hand should appoint a watch-dog committee and should ensure fair competition between all the majors and there by ensuring the benefits to be passed on to end-farmers and consumers.

PS: there is a RelianceOne Fresh opened right at the door-steps of my house. I had an opportunity to buy, the place was absolutely crowded and people were jostling for space and the commodities displayed in the shelves were flying like anything. I didn't see any major price difference between a local kirana stores and RelianceOne, infact I found few items were over-priced in RelianceOne than the local stores. The place was too small and they have tried to stock all available items in less space. Then can address this.

CIAO until next time