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Talking in general, It's just that people value walkability and just a couple of loss leaders in a distant supermarket may not be sufficient incentive to get th

Talking in general, It's just that people value walkability and just a couple of loss leaders in a distant supermarket may not be sufficient incentive to get there by larger vehicles. Two-wheelers don't make sense here. You really need to weigh up the travel and opportinuty costs. Super markets might work in dense urbanized areas, but not everywhere. Certainly not when you consider the cost in absolute terms against the income levels. Maybe you'd call it a debt-trap or even stockholm syndrome but these folks will sell to you on credit and even deliver to you. This is the hub-and-spoke that actually works. These are not your faceless cashiers pointing you at a shelf. The logistics is also a real value-add and people actually take this into account, it is not something they do out of ignorance.

kamaal 5y ago
Well fortunately in most cities here in Karnataka, even more so in Bangalore almost every area has these small-medium large buildings where you can set up these stores, and these are reachable through two wheelers. You need to understand why Kiranas existed at the first place. People buying stuff at Kiranas are generally buying shampoo sachets, and chickpea flour in 250 gm quantities, this was needed because people didn't have the cash liquidity to benefit from buying a 1 litre shampoo bottle for 50% cheaper price than you would have to buy in sachets to make up for a litre of shampoo. Same goes with things like Atta(wheat flour), detergent, soap, biscuits, t-shirts, cheese or whatever. If you have the cash to buy 6 kgs of Surf Excel, DMart bundles another 3 kgs extra for free. If you pick up two bags of Atta, they offer that for you at 50% discount. The other part one needs to understand, I remember the early days of credit cards in India. Before that there was no way of getting a cheap, low collateral loan. The only way was going to the local marwari sait pawn broker, and pledge your jewellery for a insane interest, and often under shady terms. When the credit cards got hold, the pawn brokers went out of business almost over night. I personally know of a friend whose dad's business went out of business this way, they have a Lassi shop today. It was a net positive for India. In time people will realize mass retail super markets are a net positive.

kamaal 5y ago

Well fortunately in most cities here in Karnataka, even more so in Bangalore almost every area has these small-medium large buildings where you can set up these stores, and these are reachable through two wheelers. You need to understand why Kiranas existed at the first place. People buying stuff at Kiranas are generally buying shampoo sachets, and chickpea flour in 250 gm quantities, this was needed because people didn't have the cash liquidity to benefit from buying a 1 litre shampoo bottle for 50% cheaper price than you would have to buy in sachets to make up for a litre of shampoo. Same goes with things like Atta(wheat flour), detergent, soap, biscuits, t-shirts, cheese or whatever. If you have the cash to buy 6 kgs of Surf Excel, DMart bundles another 3 kgs extra for free. If you pick up two bags of Atta, they offer that for you at 50% discount. The other part one needs to understand, I remember the early days of credit cards in India. Before that there was no way of getting a cheap, low collateral loan. The only way was going to the local marwari sait pawn broker, and pledge your jewellery for a insane interest, and often under shady terms. When the credit cards got hold, the pawn brokers went out of business almost over night. I personally know of a friend whose dad's business went out of business this way, they have a Lassi shop today. It was a net positive for India. In time people will realize mass retail super markets are a net positive.