11 ms·

India's salesmen face ruin as Ambani targets mom-and-pop stores

101 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

spoonjim 5y ago
Fantastic. They’ve been ripping off people who couldn’t afford it for decades, they deserve to suffer in penury.
zinekeller 5y ago
Ironically, it feels like Walmart's tactics are used here: I do think it's market manipulation if Jio cannot prove that it's still selling above wholesale prices, which if true they should be able to prove to the detriment of the distributors. Even if it is above the wholesale price, I get giddy in general when the reason for lower prices is due to low-paid gig workers.
- sremani 5y ago
  It is consolidation of small time middlemen with a mega-corp. Some people do not have a dog in this fight, but Reliance is already so big in India, I do not see it as positive in long run but the infusion of technology and just in time supplies would change the retail landscape.
KorematsuFredt 5y ago
This is a terrible headline. This sort of nonsense is promoted in India for last many decades. Pizza hut was not allowed in India using similar grounds. Big Bazar, D Mart and many others have succeeded well in the country without ruining smaller stores. And even if they get ruined it is not much of problem as these smaller stores are often dishonest, exploit their own labour and poor illiterate customers, employ child labor and so on.
- balaji1 5y ago
  To your points: I have only seen these small store shopkeepers working really hard and helping out the local folks more than just running a shop. The local folks also had a collective power over the shop - quality of products, prices, etc. The customers will be exploited more now. These big chains you mention Big Bazar, D Mart, etc flood their stores with low quality things we don't need. However - The article is about salesmen who supply these small stores. Your comment is off-topic.
  - lupire 5y ago
    Why do you buy low quality things you don't need?
  - KorematsuFredt 5y ago
    > things we don't need. Very simple. Don't buy if you don't need. No one has forced you to buy stuff you don't need but in general these store offer much wider variety of products at very good rates, are better regulated and have better works ethics.
Andrex 5y ago
> "As Reckitt's distributor, I used to be like a prince in the market," said Shah. "Now the buyer tells me, 'See how much you've been ripping us off!'" > "We will employ guerrilla tactics," said Dhairyashil Patil, president of the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation, which represents 400,000 agents of local and foreign consumer firms. "We will continue to agitate," he told Reuters, "we want (consumer goods) companies to realise our value." > Back in Sangli, traditional distributors said they have at times chased down Reliance vehicles and confronted drivers, alleging unauthorised deliveries. It's difficult to have sympathy for the middle-men skimming 5-10% in this story, especially with excerpts like these.
- crooked-v 5y ago
  The article talks a lot about Reliance specifically, but the events described just sound like modern ordering and distribution methods coming into the picture. Of course door-to-door salesmen are going to be displaced by efficient direct ordering, the same way as has happened literally everywhere else as technology has advanced.
- blackoil 5y ago
  Distributors don't have such high margin on FMCG, maybe the whole chain has between company and retailer. I would not be surprised if Reliance is dumping by treating all logistics cost as 0 to get marketshare.
- shubb 5y ago
  It is difficult to understand the value added by these 'sales' distributors, but I am not sure excessive profits explain the 5-10% price difference, because the article also says these middle men make 2-3% - that's an unexplained 12%. The price difference may be explained by different prices at the manufacturer due to different market power - supermarkets have forced the prices they pay down everywhere by being 'bigger than the manufacturer'. But it may also be Reliance cross subsidizing from its retail business - selling at a loss in order to force rivals out of the market. That would be an amazing play because they can destroy the existing distribution channel, then replace the small shops at the end of it in a few years by rolling out their own small stores with very low prices and while increasing the wholesale price they now control so the family owned small stores can't compete. This is a big 'problem' in the west too, where venture funded 'startups' can often out compete small scale traditional rivals in price temporarily by providing goods to the market at much less than cost, burning investor money until the rival way of doing things is broken, then jack the prices back up and reap the profits as a local monopoly. I say problem because I'm not sure if in the end it is good or bad. Bigger market players have options to destroy smaller players is a tale as old as time. Local monopolies are bad though, and I think government needs to take a stronger role in regulating these like they would a larger scale monopoly.
petra 5y ago
This isn't happening just in India or consumer retail. "Amazon business" does the same for B2B products across every sector, and globally. Revenue is $25B. Actually, they also operate in India, so this disruption would have happened anyway.
square_usual 5y ago
Regardless of what you think of this (I tend to agree with the others ITT in that the salesmen here are middlemen just barely above rent seeking), there are two important points: 1. Middlemen form a large part of India's economy, and ripping the band-aid off can send ripples through the rest of the economy (that this will be a negative isn't guaranteed, though.) 2. Continuing from 1, middlemen are also a large bloc, and just like we've seen with the farm laws a strong push from them could lead to new laws to curb Jio's power, despite Ambani's strong links to the ruling party. We've already seen similar pushes against e-com companies leading to some success.
- carlmr 5y ago
  #1 was the reason for ALDI's success in Germany and later the world. They cut out some middle-men and created a lot of value for consumers.
  - franga2000 5y ago
    And, if it's anything like the ones around here, by selling worse products and intentionally under-staffing their stores. Everything they sell is pre-packaged and you only interact with a human for 30 seconds at checkout (after having waited 20 minutes in line because there's only one checkout open most od the time). They have a "cheap and efficient at all costs" attitude, with the costs being: overworked employees, terrible user experience and a whole bunch of unnecessary waste from packaging (especially with their stupid half plastic half paper bread bags that only exist to cust costs, but that a friend in the recycling industry tells me are basically unrecyclable despite both the materials being recyclable on their own).
    - carlmr 5y ago
      I find the user experience amazing, it's really efficient to go through an Aldi. Check out is fast, shopping is fast due to standardized layout, not so many similar choices to overwhelm you so you don't have to decide which cherry tomato to buy etc. Also I'm not sure where you get the unnecessary waste from packaging. They just put everything on the shopping floor as it's shipped to them. That's not extra packaging. Other stores just hide this from you. On the half plastic half paper bags I agree, but that's the same in the other big chains in Germany, so it's at least not more wasteful than the others. Also I've been to America, the other stores really had a lot of extra plastic packaging. Like unpeeled fruit. That's horrific.
Epitom3 5y ago
middlemen are the biggest problem in India. Adding no value for the amount they add to the final price. This would be good for the consumers.
amriksohata 5y ago
Hardly ruin, this is what happened in the UK when corner shops were replaced by big stores. The corner shops still exist but in lesser numbers and the stores still need staff!! So they just work elsewhere now
- thewhitetulip 5y ago
  Reduction in corner shop numbers = ruin of those who had to close shops
  - ryanlol 5y ago
    Kind of their fault for not doing anything when they saw this coming, no? Some people just don’t have what it takes to run a business, what can you do? It’s not like any of these things happen suddenly, the warning signs show up years ahead.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    Reduction in obviated product or service = ruin of seller of obviated product or service.
    - thewhitetulip 5y ago
      So I guess nobody anymore buys groceries and milk that corner shop aka mom & pop shops provides.
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        People still sell horses, but I do not see horse drawn carriages much anymore.
        thewhitetulip 5y ago
        So walmart sends the next generation of milk as compared to the regular milk of mom & pop stores
baybal2 5y ago
India, and Ambani here is relatively late to the party. Both Pakistan, and Bangladesh had analogous widely adopted small wholesale B2B apps for a while (bazaar, dastgyr,) and nothing has happened.
- chupchap 5y ago
  India too has a lot of these apps for over 6 years, Grofers, Dunzo are two that I can recall. So it's not new here either.
  - d3nj4l 5y ago
    Those aren't B2B - India's B2B supplier is Udaan.
kylehotchkiss 5y ago
Good riddance. During the covid lockdown last year, CAIT and friends petitioned the government hard to prevent home delivery of “non-essential goods” because they didn’t want Amazon taking business while stores couldn’t open to customers. Indian population suffered even harder because government was trying so hard to appease mom and pop stores. Like people couldn’t even get laptops for working remotely because of that nonsense. Ambani’s other projects like Jio have been a huge service to India too by providing affordable data to many and bringing the country online.
- throw63738 5y ago
  Amazon, large supermarkets and public transport do not spread covid. Only small mum and pop stores. Logic.
- thewhitetulip 5y ago
  Jio is a huge service? Sure was the case a year ago Now the cost needed to have a subscription keeps going up every other day Earlier to keep a number active we needed 45rs min recharge and it is now 100Ra I'll gladly go back to the old way..
  - stillblue 5y ago
    old way? Have you forgotten how much airtel vodafone etc., charged before jio came on to the picture?
    - thewhitetulip 5y ago
      Umm are you blind that a basic recharge to keep phone active costs 100rs per month? Or that unlimited calling & 1gb per day costs 250 per month? 1.5GB costs 300 per month? Or are you too high on 10rs per day? I remember having docomo sim where I had 1 paisa per second calling. I used to have balance like 50rs per 6 months. Now I gotta pay 100rs per month to keep my secondary sim active and 300 or so per month to have data + unlimited calling
      - 5y ago
throwawaysea 5y ago
> "We will employ guerrilla tactics," said Dhairyashil Patil, president of the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation, which represents 400,000 agents of local and foreign consumer firms. "We will continue to agitate," he told Reuters, "we want (consumer goods) companies to realise our value." This sounds a lot like the farmers protests: a segment of workers who are not keeping up with an increasingly competitive world are demanding to continue to be paid at an unreasonable (above market) rate for the services they provide, effectively asking for protection from competition at the cost of everyone else. And since their chosen line of business is not working out, they are resorting to illegal tactics and “agitating”, which is code for protesting/rioting or other illegal tactics (like blocking delivery vehicles).
- alarak 5y ago
  With the farm laws repeal, it has essentially been proven that you can now stifle the population and infrastructure and get your way. So I won't be surprised if this ends up working, unless the government grows a spine.
  - thewhitetulip 5y ago
    Govt won't grow a spine they have to win elections.
ummonk 5y ago
From the numbers in the article it seems like the main issue isn’t the cut that the traditional salesmen get, but rather the price that their distributors get compared to Reliance. Seems like there needs to be antitrust action to make sure Reliance isn’t able to negotiate lower prices than other distributers, and to make sure they aren’t killing off the competition by operating at a loss.
bravenous 5y ago
It is a mixed back. Crooks and angels are both in big and small business. Some examples 1) During Covid Amazon seller doubled the price of oximeter and artificially created shortages. Besides classifying non delivery as customer return. Complained in writing but AMZN took no action. Amazon is just learning the patterns and using proxies to kill mom and pop shops as recent Reuters revelations have shown. 2) Ambani is no different using subsidized Jio phone, forcibly turning on location tracking and breaching SSL connection to locate/learn consumer activity pattern. 3) Some local businesses are stellar and consumer oriented. But others sell faulty Chinese oximeters for nearly 100 dollars and charge double price for a local wine bottle.
quiffledwerg 5y ago
In this world, all that matters is money. Preferably going to large companies. I do not make my shopping decisions on price alone. Sadly many people do.
stillblue 5y ago
This is an amazingly welcome move and it will benefit everyone except the ones who're crying about this. I've dealt with these middlemen and if you think Reliance is gonna have a monopoly and raise the prices, you should see what these folks do now. I have no sympathy for anyone here. It's an old boys club and anytime someone disrupts they suddenly go the "we're the good guys, the newcomers are the bad ones" route. Fuck these people.
heisenbit 5y ago
Rather than showing schadenfreude about greedy middlemen being taken out of business I think it is worthwhile to contemplate what allowed these middle men to exist before and what all has changed besides the influx of a large investment by a major player. Sales people fill a role: They first and foremost know the customer. They inform the customer and they file orders. They may act as a distributor keeping inventory and handling communication. It is the ubiquity of digital communication allowing manufacturers and large scale distributors to be reachable. Advertisement allows big players to reach customers. Digital catalogues are generally superior to print and word of mouth. Digital sales processes have come to a level where a lot can be run with little human intervention making it a lean option for a big player. Logistics has improved making delivery possible from centralized locations. Digital payments, integration with sales processing and the ability to take many small risks are in favor of big players. A lot has changed over the years. Overall prices will come down. But well paying jobs are gone and small shop keepers will in the future not haggle with a despised middle salesman but have to deal with prices dictated by a giant. Differentiation for shop keepers will become more difficult. The power differential to their supplier has increased and whatever the spoils of the innovation are they are likely to accrue on the bigger players side. Probably a lot more than the bigger players share of the total innovation that enabled this disintermediation.
tzs 5y ago
Is there any good reason for Reliance not to skip more of the chain? If Reliance is set up to deliver in a day after a mom-and-pop store orders through their app, it is not much of a leap for Reliance to expand to deliver straight to consumers. The big online retailers like Amazon are probably going to greatly diminish mom-and-pop stores anyway, so I'd expect Reliance to be aiming at being another Amazon rather than being the company that owned distribution to mom-and-pop stores as those died off.
rep_movsd 5y ago
So whoever tries to bring prices down is "ruining livelihoods" ? What about all the people who are even poorer than the kiraana stores? They don't deserve a discount? Typical "BIG BUSINESS BAD REEEEEEE" article.

101 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

Fantastic. They’ve been ripping off people who couldn’t afford it for decades, they deserve to suffer in penury.

Ironically, it feels like Walmart's tactics are used here: I do think it's market manipulation if Jio cannot prove that it's still selling above wholesale prices, which if true they should be able to prove to the detriment of the distributors. Even if it is above the wholesale price, I get giddy in general when the reason for lower prices is due to low-paid gig workers.

sremani 5y ago
It is consolidation of small time middlemen with a mega-corp. Some people do not have a dog in this fight, but Reliance is already so big in India, I do not see it as positive in long run but the infusion of technology and just in time supplies would change the retail landscape.

KorematsuFredt 5y ago

This is a terrible headline. This sort of nonsense is promoted in India for last many decades. Pizza hut was not allowed in India using similar grounds. Big Bazar, D Mart and many others have succeeded well in the country without ruining smaller stores. And even if they get ruined it is not much of problem as these smaller stores are often dishonest, exploit their own labour and poor illiterate customers, employ child labor and so on.

balaji1 5y ago
To your points: I have only seen these small store shopkeepers working really hard and helping out the local folks more than just running a shop. The local folks also had a collective power over the shop - quality of products, prices, etc. The customers will be exploited more now. These big chains you mention Big Bazar, D Mart, etc flood their stores with low quality things we don't need. However - The article is about salesmen who supply these small stores. Your comment is off-topic.
- lupire 5y ago
  Why do you buy low quality things you don't need?
- KorematsuFredt 5y ago
  > things we don't need. Very simple. Don't buy if you don't need. No one has forced you to buy stuff you don't need but in general these store offer much wider variety of products at very good rates, are better regulated and have better works ethics.

Andrex 5y ago

> "As Reckitt's distributor, I used to be like a prince in the market," said Shah. "Now the buyer tells me, 'See how much you've been ripping us off!'" > "We will employ guerrilla tactics," said Dhairyashil Patil, president of the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation, which represents 400,000 agents of local and foreign consumer firms. "We will continue to agitate," he told Reuters, "we want (consumer goods) companies to realise our value." > Back in Sangli, traditional distributors said they have at times chased down Reliance vehicles and confronted drivers, alleging unauthorised deliveries. It's difficult to have sympathy for the middle-men skimming 5-10% in this story, especially with excerpts like these.

crooked-v 5y ago
The article talks a lot about Reliance specifically, but the events described just sound like modern ordering and distribution methods coming into the picture. Of course door-to-door salesmen are going to be displaced by efficient direct ordering, the same way as has happened literally everywhere else as technology has advanced.
blackoil 5y ago
Distributors don't have such high margin on FMCG, maybe the whole chain has between company and retailer. I would not be surprised if Reliance is dumping by treating all logistics cost as 0 to get marketshare.
shubb 5y ago
It is difficult to understand the value added by these 'sales' distributors, but I am not sure excessive profits explain the 5-10% price difference, because the article also says these middle men make 2-3% - that's an unexplained 12%. The price difference may be explained by different prices at the manufacturer due to different market power - supermarkets have forced the prices they pay down everywhere by being 'bigger than the manufacturer'. But it may also be Reliance cross subsidizing from its retail business - selling at a loss in order to force rivals out of the market. That would be an amazing play because they can destroy the existing distribution channel, then replace the small shops at the end of it in a few years by rolling out their own small stores with very low prices and while increasing the wholesale price they now control so the family owned small stores can't compete. This is a big 'problem' in the west too, where venture funded 'startups' can often out compete small scale traditional rivals in price temporarily by providing goods to the market at much less than cost, burning investor money until the rival way of doing things is broken, then jack the prices back up and reap the profits as a local monopoly. I say problem because I'm not sure if in the end it is good or bad. Bigger market players have options to destroy smaller players is a tale as old as time. Local monopolies are bad though, and I think government needs to take a stronger role in regulating these like they would a larger scale monopoly.

petra 5y ago

This isn't happening just in India or consumer retail. "Amazon business" does the same for B2B products across every sector, and globally. Revenue is $25B. Actually, they also operate in India, so this disruption would have happened anyway.

square_usual 5y ago

Regardless of what you think of this (I tend to agree with the others ITT in that the salesmen here are middlemen just barely above rent seeking), there are two important points: 1. Middlemen form a large part of India's economy, and ripping the band-aid off can send ripples through the rest of the economy (that this will be a negative isn't guaranteed, though.) 2. Continuing from 1, middlemen are also a large bloc, and just like we've seen with the farm laws a strong push from them could lead to new laws to curb Jio's power, despite Ambani's strong links to the ruling party. We've already seen similar pushes against e-com companies leading to some success.

carlmr 5y ago
#1 was the reason for ALDI's success in Germany and later the world. They cut out some middle-men and created a lot of value for consumers.
- franga2000 5y ago
  And, if it's anything like the ones around here, by selling worse products and intentionally under-staffing their stores. Everything they sell is pre-packaged and you only interact with a human for 30 seconds at checkout (after having waited 20 minutes in line because there's only one checkout open most od the time). They have a "cheap and efficient at all costs" attitude, with the costs being: overworked employees, terrible user experience and a whole bunch of unnecessary waste from packaging (especially with their stupid half plastic half paper bread bags that only exist to cust costs, but that a friend in the recycling industry tells me are basically unrecyclable despite both the materials being recyclable on their own).
  - carlmr 5y ago
    I find the user experience amazing, it's really efficient to go through an Aldi. Check out is fast, shopping is fast due to standardized layout, not so many similar choices to overwhelm you so you don't have to decide which cherry tomato to buy etc. Also I'm not sure where you get the unnecessary waste from packaging. They just put everything on the shopping floor as it's shipped to them. That's not extra packaging. Other stores just hide this from you. On the half plastic half paper bags I agree, but that's the same in the other big chains in Germany, so it's at least not more wasteful than the others. Also I've been to America, the other stores really had a lot of extra plastic packaging. Like unpeeled fruit. That's horrific.

Epitom3 5y ago

middlemen are the biggest problem in India. Adding no value for the amount they add to the final price. This would be good for the consumers.

amriksohata 5y ago

Hardly ruin, this is what happened in the UK when corner shops were replaced by big stores. The corner shops still exist but in lesser numbers and the stores still need staff!! So they just work elsewhere now

thewhitetulip 5y ago
Reduction in corner shop numbers = ruin of those who had to close shops
- ryanlol 5y ago
  Kind of their fault for not doing anything when they saw this coming, no? Some people just don’t have what it takes to run a business, what can you do? It’s not like any of these things happen suddenly, the warning signs show up years ahead.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Reduction in obviated product or service = ruin of seller of obviated product or service.
  - thewhitetulip 5y ago
    So I guess nobody anymore buys groceries and milk that corner shop aka mom & pop shops provides.
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      People still sell horses, but I do not see horse drawn carriages much anymore.
      - thewhitetulip 5y ago
        So walmart sends the next generation of milk as compared to the regular milk of mom & pop stores

baybal2 5y ago

India, and Ambani here is relatively late to the party. Both Pakistan, and Bangladesh had analogous widely adopted small wholesale B2B apps for a while (bazaar, dastgyr,) and nothing has happened.

chupchap 5y ago
India too has a lot of these apps for over 6 years, Grofers, Dunzo are two that I can recall. So it's not new here either.
- d3nj4l 5y ago
  Those aren't B2B - India's B2B supplier is Udaan.

kylehotchkiss 5y ago

Good riddance. During the covid lockdown last year, CAIT and friends petitioned the government hard to prevent home delivery of “non-essential goods” because they didn’t want Amazon taking business while stores couldn’t open to customers. Indian population suffered even harder because government was trying so hard to appease mom and pop stores. Like people couldn’t even get laptops for working remotely because of that nonsense. Ambani’s other projects like Jio have been a huge service to India too by providing affordable data to many and bringing the country online.

throw63738 5y ago
Amazon, large supermarkets and public transport do not spread covid. Only small mum and pop stores. Logic.
thewhitetulip 5y ago
Jio is a huge service? Sure was the case a year ago Now the cost needed to have a subscription keeps going up every other day Earlier to keep a number active we needed 45rs min recharge and it is now 100Ra I'll gladly go back to the old way..
- stillblue 5y ago
  old way? Have you forgotten how much airtel vodafone etc., charged before jio came on to the picture?
  - thewhitetulip 5y ago
    Umm are you blind that a basic recharge to keep phone active costs 100rs per month? Or that unlimited calling & 1gb per day costs 250 per month? 1.5GB costs 300 per month? Or are you too high on 10rs per day? I remember having docomo sim where I had 1 paisa per second calling. I used to have balance like 50rs per 6 months. Now I gotta pay 100rs per month to keep my secondary sim active and 300 or so per month to have data + unlimited calling
    - 5y ago

throwawaysea 5y ago

> "We will employ guerrilla tactics," said Dhairyashil Patil, president of the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation, which represents 400,000 agents of local and foreign consumer firms. "We will continue to agitate," he told Reuters, "we want (consumer goods) companies to realise our value." This sounds a lot like the farmers protests: a segment of workers who are not keeping up with an increasingly competitive world are demanding to continue to be paid at an unreasonable (above market) rate for the services they provide, effectively asking for protection from competition at the cost of everyone else. And since their chosen line of business is not working out, they are resorting to illegal tactics and “agitating”, which is code for protesting/rioting or other illegal tactics (like blocking delivery vehicles).

alarak 5y ago
With the farm laws repeal, it has essentially been proven that you can now stifle the population and infrastructure and get your way. So I won't be surprised if this ends up working, unless the government grows a spine.
- thewhitetulip 5y ago
  Govt won't grow a spine they have to win elections.

ummonk 5y ago

From the numbers in the article it seems like the main issue isn’t the cut that the traditional salesmen get, but rather the price that their distributors get compared to Reliance. Seems like there needs to be antitrust action to make sure Reliance isn’t able to negotiate lower prices than other distributers, and to make sure they aren’t killing off the competition by operating at a loss.

bravenous 5y ago

It is a mixed back. Crooks and angels are both in big and small business. Some examples 1) During Covid Amazon seller doubled the price of oximeter and artificially created shortages. Besides classifying non delivery as customer return. Complained in writing but AMZN took no action. Amazon is just learning the patterns and using proxies to kill mom and pop shops as recent Reuters revelations have shown. 2) Ambani is no different using subsidized Jio phone, forcibly turning on location tracking and breaching SSL connection to locate/learn consumer activity pattern. 3) Some local businesses are stellar and consumer oriented. But others sell faulty Chinese oximeters for nearly 100 dollars and charge double price for a local wine bottle.

quiffledwerg 5y ago

In this world, all that matters is money. Preferably going to large companies. I do not make my shopping decisions on price alone. Sadly many people do.

stillblue 5y ago

This is an amazingly welcome move and it will benefit everyone except the ones who're crying about this. I've dealt with these middlemen and if you think Reliance is gonna have a monopoly and raise the prices, you should see what these folks do now. I have no sympathy for anyone here. It's an old boys club and anytime someone disrupts they suddenly go the "we're the good guys, the newcomers are the bad ones" route. Fuck these people.

heisenbit 5y ago

Rather than showing schadenfreude about greedy middlemen being taken out of business I think it is worthwhile to contemplate what allowed these middle men to exist before and what all has changed besides the influx of a large investment by a major player. Sales people fill a role: They first and foremost know the customer. They inform the customer and they file orders. They may act as a distributor keeping inventory and handling communication. It is the ubiquity of digital communication allowing manufacturers and large scale distributors to be reachable. Advertisement allows big players to reach customers. Digital catalogues are generally superior to print and word of mouth. Digital sales processes have come to a level where a lot can be run with little human intervention making it a lean option for a big player. Logistics has improved making delivery possible from centralized locations. Digital payments, integration with sales processing and the ability to take many small risks are in favor of big players. A lot has changed over the years. Overall prices will come down. But well paying jobs are gone and small shop keepers will in the future not haggle with a despised middle salesman but have to deal with prices dictated by a giant. Differentiation for shop keepers will become more difficult. The power differential to their supplier has increased and whatever the spoils of the innovation are they are likely to accrue on the bigger players side. Probably a lot more than the bigger players share of the total innovation that enabled this disintermediation.

tzs 5y ago

Is there any good reason for Reliance not to skip more of the chain? If Reliance is set up to deliver in a day after a mom-and-pop store orders through their app, it is not much of a leap for Reliance to expand to deliver straight to consumers. The big online retailers like Amazon are probably going to greatly diminish mom-and-pop stores anyway, so I'd expect Reliance to be aiming at being another Amazon rather than being the company that owned distribution to mom-and-pop stores as those died off.

rep_movsd 5y ago

So whoever tries to bring prices down is "ruining livelihoods" ? What about all the people who are even poorer than the kiraana stores? They don't deserve a discount? Typical "BIG BUSINESS BAD REEEEEEE" article.