Small town blues

These days I seem to have found a new topic of conversation with my friends who live in other cities - The variety of organized retail. This isn't as deep or serious as it sounds actually, but only comparing the number and names of the various malls and other such retail and entertainment places.

Its not a comparison really, because Dehradun city is still far behind other regional capitals when it comes to attracting the big names in malls. My former hometown, Lucknow, has witnessed a boom of sorts too. Despite it being Ulta Pradesh and all that, I must say that 2 decades ago, the planners of the city had the vision to carve out a new, satellite town that will take the pressure of the main town. Gomtinagar is built across the river Gomti, and this is where all the action is taking place.

Its kind of sad that I am judging my city's progress with the advent of organized retail, but to tell you the truth, there's nothing else really. And from my cursory look, organized retail is good for the country! A lot has been said against opening up of the Reliance Fresh stores in UP, MP and Uttarakhand, but I don't think simple protests, even if they are extremely violent, have enough in them to stop its coming. For one, I feel that there's a lot more good in organized retail than without. I was talking to somebody about the Reliance Fresh store, and their one store employs around 50 people.

I saw that hypocrite Uma Bharati once on tv saying that organized retail in fruits and vegetables will kill the 3 crore vendors and hawkers. I knew it was bullshit then, and I know it is bullshit now. I think one point was the who will buy from the mandi's, when people will buy from stores such as Subhiksha and Reliance Fresh because they have their own logistics and warehousing, and I realized there is still a huge market that will probably continue to buy from Mandi's, and in bulk - the hospitality industry. There are thousands of small restaurants and eateries in all our big cities, and I am sure they will continue to look at mandi's and other traditional places for their raw materials. In addition, we need to look at the profile of the people who will shop at Reliance Fresh. Most of them will probably be the upscale, higher and middle income families without any concern for savings. The lower income classes will probably never shop at a Reliance Fresh.

In addition, the biggest advantage that will take place behind the scenes is the strengthening of the logistics involved in the food sector. India wastes more fruits and vegetables than that are consumed by the UK in an entire year. This unacceptable levels of wastage is prevalent in our food grain procurement and storage as well. We read of bumper crops, yet we are importing wheat! Of course, most of India's malaise is from the corrupt and unaccountable running of India's subsidy schemes and the inglorious Food Corporation of India, but thats another story.

Thus organized retail isn't that bad. It creates upward mobility for our youth because it brings training and best practices into the country, and its great for the consumer, but of course, in India, every good thing has to wait for the opposition to subside first.