Supermarkets versus kiraana shops

Supermarkets versus kiraana shops

Business houses have taken our the supermarkets route to sell consumer goods and groceries taking on the small kiraana shops head-on. We have supermarkets selling everything – grocery items, vegetables/fruits, consumer electronics, clothes, etc. This trend has come from more developed countries where retail is big business and only supermarkets now exist with kiraana shops/ neighborhood shops vanishing completely. The discounts that the supermarkets offer cannot be given by the small shop owner as the supermarkets get special discounted rates from the product manufacturers and also have the advantage of larger scale. The can sell at lower rate and lower margin still earning profits.

For buying groceries the young Indians now go to a Reliance Mart, Spencers, More, Vishal Mart, Heritage fresh, Easy day etc. These stores come out with weekly offers giving discounts on many items and spend quite a bit on marketing as well. Consumers also find it more convenient as they step into a store, take a cart, checkout items from many manufactures and compare price, quality and other factors making a choice as per their requirements. There are big superstores like Hypercity, Reliance Megamart, More superstore, etc. In such stores even auto accessories, furniture etc are also available.

Kiraana shops are meant to work on a large scale. One has to wait till the shopkeeper or his assistance is catering to the other customer who has come before you, taking the list of items from them and adding the prices on a sheet of paper or a calculator. If the number of people who come to shop are large the wait time increases. Another inconvenient thing is that the customer does not get to choose and many a times kiraana shopkeeper is the one giving item from a particular manufacturer if that is only item available.

The era of supermarkets has arrived bringing in many benefits – convenient, choice amongst manufactures, price comparison, discounts, offers. One more benefit could be if you want you can walk for many hours in a superstore giving you good exercise help you shedding some weight.