Shoprite in Mumbai !!
General August 29th, 2008
Shoprite a popular Super Market in the North East, atleast in NY, NJ, PA, CT .
Imagine a Shoprite, with same layout and sections, displaying RICE in huge open containers, Vegetables in containers for Indian Cooking, Cafeteria counter serving Bhelpuri, Samosa, Kachori, Sandwiches, Dosas,…etc along with all indian non veg dishes. Displaying processed meat in the cold storage section and a separate counter for Veg Cold storage products like Malai Paneer, Taaza Milk, Lassi, Butter Milk etc.. Add to this an exclusive Indian sweets counter, a la Brijwasi sweets shop type.
Yes this Shoprite exists in Mumbai at Nirmal Lifestyle and I am not sure if the owners are the same but the layout and products displayed are absolutely the same. It surely gives a NJ Shoprite feeling with all Indian flavours.
I wonder why Shoprite can’t have same format in NJ with a Indian flavour. I am sure this will give Patel Bazaar a run for money.
Economies 2.0
Good to see you keeping the Blog active.
I agree, Shoprite in India is a trend worth noticing. I look it differently than a GAP, Rolex or Kelvin C in India. Its the cross section of MNC retail style with Indian Middle class. It can/will grow exponentially instead of incrementeally. I am impressed by the way, they mixed with mid class Indian culture.
My only concern is that such core localization of international chains will fuel the inflation further - At least in the short run, which could last for next few years. As Retail Chains are touching more products, services, its bringing the correction in service delivery and prices. This correction is touching the liquidity all the way back to the farmer/producer of food. So one side the standard of living is improving for several but inflation is burning the hole in other’s pocket.
I dont see it as evil thing but the pace of it, gets me concerned. I wish India had a way to manage/time the growth, instead of letting it happen on its own.
Keep watching!!
Neeraj,
You are right. That brings a important subject to spot light - Do we need big FDI in Agriculture ? As we know farming is a risky business and it depends on too many variables soil fertility, seed quality, fertilizer quality, water, sunlight, slope, access to big market, cold chaining,…etc
I think contract farming is a way ahead but needs to be carefully evaluated.
I haven’t seen anyone writing on recent Mumbai attacks. This incident is unfortunate and we are yet to ascertain its magnitude. Here, I am trying to gauge (in my own limited understanding) its magnitude on business.
I list few dimensions here and wait for others to comment.
1. Folks at Dalal street were anyway scared by the R world, now their fear will grow in magnitude to make R bold and underlined.
2. Fuel prices kept aviation and tourism in red (or on edge) and now that will see strong color. The attack happened at the time of peak tourist season and will hit next 3 months of business directly.
3. Aftereffect - New intelligence teams will be formed, new equipment will be bought, new investments will be done…..more money would inevitably be spent on beefing up our networks in other countries. I don’t know if we will be able to predict the next attack or not but we will sure burn few billions in getting our act together. I am sure, people on other side of border are intelligent enough to see that so they would spread their focus from one city to other and so as our investment to secure that. It will make us run on treadmill. Given with our borders, shared so much with our good friendly neighbors, we will keep investing a huge part of our GDP on securing ourselves. Also this investment has an interesting trail..from US/global equipment companies to US government to pakistan… to right needy people (bold and underline).
4 . Every service (hotel/ restaurant, mall etc) would hire almost black cat commandos for their security. So next time, if you pay rs 20/- more for your Pizza in a mall, dont wonder, its the price of that extra guy, who you don’t know exists or not.
5 . It will sure deflect some part of outsourcing business from India. Of course, there are safer places in world than Mumbai/ Bangalore and companies are not out to enjoy life risking adventurous sport.
So clearly the problem is big and can stretch even to a bigger magnitude so our solution also needs to be big/ stretchable, ongoing sustaining….
thoughts!!!
Neeraj