Big Box vs Mom n Pop Store

Abhijit anand

Colloquium

Semester 7

Knitwear design, mumbai

It all started during my internship with ADIYA BIRLA retail ltd. as a buyer and a
merchandiser. However, as a consumer also I observed my changing
preferences of my daily buying. Shopping was no more a quick buy but an
experience. All blame goes to the trolley that runs smooth on the shiny marble
in a huge space with dust free range of products stacked on parallel racks
catering to my demands and giving me the variety almost making me king. My
needs grow and so my budget.

I remember when I was a child how I used to go to the local mom n pop store
and ask for exactly what I wanted. And he used to greet me with a smile or show
some love by saying “are Bitlu beta, kaise hain aap”. And after giving me the
stuff he used to pamper me with those sweet little orange candies. The shop that
I have spent my childhood with, the shop which has catered me to all my needs
since my childhood, are the shops which has been crushed majorly by these big
stores which has given us more than what we require or need, adding on to our
lifestyle.

So this evolution of mom n pop store to super market or hypermarket is good

but somewhere it has badly hit our poor fellow citizens who were running a
small but friendly small shop to support their living. So I here I go with my deep
study and research of the consequences faced by these “do-or-die”
entrepreneur and how they will find ways of taking on the MNCs/large retailers
and beating them at their own game.

India is often referred to as “a nation of shopkeepers”. In the last few years, as

modern retail concepts begin to make an appearance across urban India, the
debate on their impact on the traditional Indian retail businesses including the
so-described “mom & pop” stores and the neighbourhood kirana stores gets
shriller.