The Power of Retail

Each time I visit India, I am struck by the change that is taking place in the retail sector. Unfortunately, I am not all that thrilled at the way some retailers are going about doing business and that is most apparent in the food retail sector, a part of the retail industry that is the fastest growing and most competitive ones. Take Reliance Fresh for instance, their stores are usually empty, have only stale and old vegetables and fruit on offer (although they do have some fresher ones at the back, which they resist displaying until the old ones are close to rotting), several stores also never bother with the air conditioning, which is a really fast way of driving away customers.

What I have described is not a recent thing, since I myself have witnessed this at a Reliance Fresh store nearby, which opened in August or September and was worth visiting only till November or so. Since then, it’s a waste going there and best to head to the local mandi instead, who will have better veggies, fresher ones and offer better service too. The prices might be slightly higher, but we’re talking of a difference of only Rs 2-3, which is as good as nothing. A lot of organized retail stores only use the marginally lower price as a marketing gimmick to attract customers, but are not able to offer anything else of value to keep them coming back.

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