Who says the corner store will go?

It’s 9 p.m. and I am struggling with a particularly knotty article when the wife calls. I explain my precarious deadline to her. It cuts no ice. Never mind, she says, but there’s no cereal for the kids breakfast tomorrow; pick up a pack of cornflakes or honey drops on your way, she hangs up. So much for that game changer article for tomorrow!

Unlikely to make it to any store before they shut down by ten, in desperation I call my local annachi kadai (neighbourhood store). By the time I reach home, there’s a large pack of cornflakes waiting for me with the watchman.

I’m sure this scene is being played out in hundreds of homes in our cities. The corner store coming to the rescue. Home delivery, monthly credit, exchange stuff, return it, spoilt coconut, get a fresh one…why, once when I didn’t have money to pay the vegetable vendor, I even borrowed money on the tab! They are already into biometrics — your face is your password to credit.

The small picture

In all this debate over the big picture, big retail et al , I thought I should look at the small picture, at our own shopping habits. After all, one is a microcosm of the great Indian shopper. So, I asked the wife how she likes to shop. Rice, dals and such stuff come in bulk from a local mom-pop-and-several-children store which delivers at the drop of a hat.

For the better quality rajma, sooji , there’s the local Nilgiris. And, in-between is the local grocer for all the branded stuff — from toothpaste and soap to breads and biscuits.

And, come to think of it. He’s not so ‘local’ any more. The stores in the area where I live, not to mention in most other parts of the city, have got their act together. They stock a bewildering variety of stuff now. Mayonnaise? He’s got it.

Peanut butter and cheese spreads in different flavours, yes. Why, he’s even got knick-knacks that no big retail stocks — from scissors to trim moustaches to those racquets to whack mosquitoes like shuttlecocks.

Nor has our local store been cowed down by Indian-owned big box retail. The local More outlet closed down, there’s a Spencer’s round the corner, a Nilgiris across the road, not to mention other sundry supermarkets. But the local store does roaring business. With a number of schools in the vicinity, it stocks confectionery for 50 paise to a variety of stationery.

Buy, and stock where?

A straw poll of the womenfolk in the office shows that they can’t do without the local kirana even though many make forays to a Big Bazar now and then and stock up in bulk. I did that once, coming home triumphantly with six packs of toilet cleaners as I got them on an offer.

The wife gave short shrift to it with an icy, “And, where will I keep it?” So, if one has to sally forth and buy lots at big retail because prices are better, remember to buy some stocking space as well.

Given the size of most Indian homes, can they really buy and stock in bulk? A question to ponder.

So, if foreign big retail come, where will they set up shop? Most cities are squeezed for space; so it will have to be on the outskirts. Our roads are going to be even more gridlocked with more new cars hitting the roads.

Given that the price of petrol is going to be always on the way up, I wouldn’t fancy driving anywhere when the cost of petrol will outweigh whatever gains you make on discounted shopping.

So, it’s the local kiranas and the corner stores that will continue to thrive.

The doyen of advertising, the late Mani Ayer, said that India operates on many levels and you can market to each level differently.

So too with shopping, I guess; there will be shoppers for each level of market.

But, don’t ignore pester power. My kids don’t fancy the local store. For them it’s the large air-conditioned stores where they can go berserk in the aisles, raiding the shelves for all manner of stuff one doesn’t need and emptying out pockets.

An interesting retail future beckons.

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