While there is a huge hue and cry on FDI in multi-brand retail and how it will subsume the kirana stores, what most people forget is the role a kirana store play in an Indians decision making. In India if a technology has to succeed it has to be first accepted by the kirana as a good enough business. This is what i term the kirana effect and i think its role cannot be subsumed by any large player. Kirana stores i have seen are more flexible than their bigger counterparts and know the pulse of the customer much better than any large format store.
I remember how wall clocks from Ajanta became a craze as it started occupying all the space in the near by kirana store or how telecom became a rage as the PCOs started off in the kirana store. Education in India changed a lot with the kirana store allowing me to photostat the friends notes through their ubiquitous Xerox machine. Internet was introduced to India through the kirana browsing centers. Today we see kirana store moving away from clocks, PCOs, Xerox machine and browsing centers to keeping new mobile handset and recharge coupon. The prepaid telecom revolution in India has much to do with the kirana store than any policy action. Slowly i am seeing DTH sets donning their display boards and i am sure it will be as successful as the mobile telephony.
Even today i see that the kirana provision store from where i buy most of my items has all the items i need from the boiled rice to the right spices compared to their larger counterpart. Though i find larger counterpart are cheaper for few items but the sheer exhaustion at the billing counter and having to again visit my kirana store to pick the missing item makes me to skip the larger format store.
Another aspect of kirana store is that the relationship with the person who owns the store is not just a buyer-seller relation but that of an extended friend and a personal bonding. Any item which i want but cant procure will be procured by him specifically for me in a day or two and even home delivered even though he may suffer a loss in that particular deal. He also helps in making me decide among the multiple choices by mentioning the fast moving items and his opinion are more trusted by us the buyers than any other advertisements or research material.
The third aspect of the kirana effect is the location. Kirana store will always be the nearest to you as they need very little space as they know the customer and procure accordingly. The small space also means he will pick the item you want for u and at the same time he keeps track of all the items which moves in and moves out of is store. This makes it highly efficient as there is very few inventory. Also as i spend very little time in my kirana store (more because he picks up items for me and i need not remember all the location), it need not have all the air conditioning and lighting as in modern large retail store, which makes the cost of operation at the large store multiple fold higher than the kirana store which subsumes the cost saving due to large scale procurement. The kirana i think is as efficient as the multi-brand FDI store.
Even if the FDI is allowed or not I think the kirana effect will survive as it is as much part of Indian culture and has reached the level of customization which will be hard for a large format store to replicate in a large and diverse country like India.
Large stores
I remember how wall clocks from Ajanta became a craze as it started occupying all the space in the near by kirana store or how telecom became a rage as the PCOs started off in the kirana store. Education in India changed a lot with the kirana store allowing me to photostat the friends notes through their ubiquitous Xerox machine. Internet was introduced to India through the kirana browsing centers. Today we see kirana store moving away from clocks, PCOs, Xerox machine and browsing centers to keeping new mobile handset and recharge coupon. The prepaid telecom revolution in India has much to do with the kirana store than any policy action. Slowly i am seeing DTH sets donning their display boards and i am sure it will be as successful as the mobile telephony.
Even today i see that the kirana provision store from where i buy most of my items has all the items i need from the boiled rice to the right spices compared to their larger counterpart. Though i find larger counterpart are cheaper for few items but the sheer exhaustion at the billing counter and having to again visit my kirana store to pick the missing item makes me to skip the larger format store.
Another aspect of kirana store is that the relationship with the person who owns the store is not just a buyer-seller relation but that of an extended friend and a personal bonding. Any item which i want but cant procure will be procured by him specifically for me in a day or two and even home delivered even though he may suffer a loss in that particular deal. He also helps in making me decide among the multiple choices by mentioning the fast moving items and his opinion are more trusted by us the buyers than any other advertisements or research material.
The third aspect of the kirana effect is the location. Kirana store will always be the nearest to you as they need very little space as they know the customer and procure accordingly. The small space also means he will pick the item you want for u and at the same time he keeps track of all the items which moves in and moves out of is store. This makes it highly efficient as there is very few inventory. Also as i spend very little time in my kirana store (more because he picks up items for me and i need not remember all the location), it need not have all the air conditioning and lighting as in modern large retail store, which makes the cost of operation at the large store multiple fold higher than the kirana store which subsumes the cost saving due to large scale procurement. The kirana i think is as efficient as the multi-brand FDI store.
Even if the FDI is allowed or not I think the kirana effect will survive as it is as much part of Indian culture and has reached the level of customization which will be hard for a large format store to replicate in a large and diverse country like India.
Large stores
