Amazon, Walmart Learn to Live With Indian Stores, Not Kill Them
Mom and pop shops known as kiranas have legions of loyal customers and account for 90% of the country’s consumer purchases.
Nagaraju Bhoganatham, 49, works inside his Bhagwan Traders, a grocery store in Bengaluru, India.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh
Measuring barely 200 square feet, Nagaraju Bhoganatham’s tiny store in Bengaluru is packed to the rafters: Bulging burlap sacks of rice and lentils are heaped against overflowing tubs of peanuts, dried red chiles, and clumps of jaggery. Fragrant spice-mix masalas, bottles of honey, tiny jars of pungent asafoetida spice, detergents, shaving cream, hair conditioner, and instant coffee compete for room on crowded wooden shelves. There’s even a rack in the corner for mops, brooms, and other cleaning gear.
The grocery in the heart of the city’s dense Chunchugatta Gate neighborhood is one of India’s 20 million mom and pop stores, called kiranas, which have been fixtures in the country’s retail landscape for decades. In much of the world, small merchants have been driven out of business by huge retailers such as Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.