Supermarkets Vs Small kirana stores

Abstract

With the emergence of supermarkets, kirana stores have been depleting day by day. Government is in the grave situation to decide whether to allow 50% FDI or not in the retail sector. There are certain retail outlets such as Walmart, Metro which are better in quality, cheaper in rates, and offering a range and variety of products under one roof. These malls have entered in India but they are into cash and carry business only and not in the multi brand retail sector. Many of them have entered through joint ventures. If government allow them to enter in India, it can be said that all the small shops and kirana stores will not be able to stand in the market. They cannot compete with them. Now the question arise how the kirana stores can be saved from these big giants in the market. It is the need of the hour today to save these kirana stores because in a developing country like India where the income of an average man is low, such types of small business can make them able to earn their living. The present research is an attempt to find out the weaknesses of kirana stores as compared to the malls and to find out the solutions for the betterment of the stores. The research is conducted on various kirana stores in Punjab. The study identifies the problems being faced by kirana merchants such as recovery of credit, inventory management, goodwill in terms of quality, low space, and lack of variety etc. But during the research it has been found out that there are certain areas where these kirana stores have an edge over the market such as emotional attachment with the customer, to fulfil the timely need of credit of the customer, easy availability etc. It is concluded that both kirana stores and malls are important to the Indian economy. FDI is important for the growth of the economy but it should come for the rescue of the existing business and not as a threat. Secondly government intervention is seeked to make improvements in the functioning of the kirana stores. If kirana stores starts using their strategic advantages to the optimum level, they can make can make their existence strong in the market.