On Thu, Aug 09, 2007 at 05:56:07PM +0430, Deepa Mohan wrote: > I think, as a consumer, I am extremely lucky to live in a country > where this kind of retail model exists. This is, for me, the best > grocery retail system. My shopping is not "fun" it's not "chaos", real > or artificial, either. But it is, all the same, a very good > experience.
and if enough people think like that, such shops will survive. corner shops went out of business in europe because supermarkets sold products at a better price (due to bulk purchase), quality (due to controls and turnover) and time (since corner shops would stay open for limited hours, due to labour laws or laziness). indeed, where permitted by law, corner shops are pretty successful (e.g. in parts of britain, or belgium) when they're run at odd hours by hard-working south asian families, but then they can in fact afford to charge a premium for timing and access. in india the biggest change is likely for fresh produce, where the current system is incredibly bad, leading to enormous amounts of waste and spoilage (and people going hungry, as a result). this doesn't necessarily rule out local vegerable vendors catering to the "last mile", but the bulk of the distribution chain will be taken over by a system that can provide better prices and quality. for dry goods with a long shelf life, it may be possible that local shops can provide better value. in maastricht, i have within 500 m of where i live, great specialised shops for fruit&veg, meat, cheese, chocolates, bakeries and organic / health products, among other things. they are sometimes more expensive than the supermarket (1 km away) but often better quality; i usually go to the supermarket for bulk durable purchases or (very european problem) when the local shops are shut. -rishab
