Personal (wedding; new house) coupled with professional (new retail clients; need for a better understanding) reasons have prompted me to observe my own interactions with the category a lot better. It’s quite funny how much we can understand about any particular topic or category by just concentrating on our own behavior. However, that’s probably a topic that merits another blog. Coming back to the topic; I firmly believe from my observations that large format retail stores in India are going to see a gradual decline. And in the next four paragraphs; I’ll try to explain why.
My interaction with the category is primarily through four different retail formats: Sai Siddhi (my local kirana waala; exactly 10 seconds from my house) Foodland Fresh (about 5 minutes walking distance from my house), Big Bazaar (about 7 minutes drive from my house; in a mall) and the other specialist stores for clothes, consumer electronics, etc.
Sai Siddhi is pretty much my Man Friday. He delivers stuff to my place, he’s cheap and I can count on him. However; my purchases from him are need based and hence impulse driven. I never purchase groceries from him to stock for the entire month. I definitely make purchases from him three times a day but these are primarily water; veggies and sometimes fruits. I also never purchase juices; cereals, etc from him although chances are high that he stocks these too. And the primary reason for my behavior is a store called Foodland Fresh.
Foodland Fresh is a small/medium format organized retail store. Not three times a day but at least three times a week; I visit this place to buy juices, soaps, shampoos, fresh fruits, biscuits, etc. And everytime I go there; I need up spending three times more than my designated expenditure at the place. The place is clean, well organized, is small enough for me to find the things I want and large enough to stock everything I need. I end up buying half the things I normally buy from Sai Siddhi from this guy and that too in bulk. More importantly, Foodland Fresh has made a once very large resource for my household seem redundant; i.e Big Bazaar.
There was a time when we used to go the Center One; the mall just to buy our weekly groceries from Big Bazaar. But with the convenience that Foodland provides; even if I am in Center One; we no longer find it necessary to visit Big Bazaar. It’s just too much of a hassle; too crowded; tough to find things; the service is not as efficient as Foodland and I just don’t feel like carrying such a huge weight back home (although we have a car; such a perception exists). The advantages of a Food land far outweigh those of Big Bazaaar: closer, cheaper (perception not reality), more organized, better service and cleaner.
The bottom line pretty much is that the small/medium format stores that provide the convenience of a kirana with the efficiency of an organized format appeal more to the Indian mentality. They genuinely help in making life seem easier while adding significant value to the purchase experience. Hence it’ll be the Reliance Fresh & Foodland that will appeal more to the Indian psyche rather than Big Bazaars. Even Walmart; if at all it decides to replicate its global model of being a large format store in India; will face a similar issue. In days and years to come; I think the lines at Big Bazaar are set to become a lot shorter!! What say!!
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