Creators of Jobs in India or Destroyers of Small Enterprises?
The old saying goes, “A Shopkeeper should always wear a smile.” But it is not easy, even for a seasoned shopkeeper, to maintain a smiling countenance while looking at the retreating backs of his former customers walking towards the huge mall right across the road.
India boasts of 12 million shopkeepers, though for how long it can boast of it is anyone’s guess. Times are a-changing and the customers are ready to give up the pleasure of bargaining and matching their wits with a sometimes-indignant-sometimes-pleading shopkeeper, in exchange of a real bargain and rock-bottom prices of quality, branded goods.
The ball started rolling the day Manmohan Singh presented the budget in 1991 that proposed widespread economic reforms. Combined with globalization, liberalization and revolution in the field of communication these reforms paved the way for the growth and development of big business in India. Indian companies got the support from the government as the government banked on the private sector to create a lot of <a href=”http://www.parttimejobsproindia.com” title=”Jobs in India”><b>jobs in India</b></a>. Private enterprise and its energy transformed all the major Indian industries, and retailing, with the huge Indian market and almost total absence of any organized competition, attracted big players like a magnet.
Various big businesses have entered the retailing field and last few years are seen the building of hundreds of malls. Following the model discovered by Wal-Mart, infusing thousands of crores of rupees in the business, buying goods in huge quantities and cutting prices down to a level a general kiryana shopkeeper just can’t afford, these corporations have come and conquered the market just as they had foreseen. Homegrown corporations and MNCs have entered the Indian retail market and captured a huge chunk of the retail revenues.
Consumer is the King in such an environment—he can finally get a lot of decent goods for low prices. Malls have arrived in big Indian cities and have become a weekend destination for the Indian middle class. The government loves and politicians garner votes, pointing gleefully at the <a href=”http://www.parttimejobsproindia.com” title=”Jobs in India”><b>jobs in India</b></a> created by the malls. TATA, Reliance, RPG group, Subhiksha, Carrefour, METRO, Marks & Spencer and many others have cornered a huge portion Indian retail market, while the shopkeepers are continuously losing ground.
Malls and discount rates in goods have made it impossible for general stores to make profit. The huge corporations create jobs, but most of it is menial work. Anyone who has encountered the blank eyes of a bored salesman at a mall can imagine how unchallenging the work offered in such places is. On the other hand, the shopkeepers and small entrepreneurs in the retail business cannot manage to beat the powerful organizations with their wits, and many shops are closed every day.
There is no denying the fact that malls offer goods at a cheap rate, but is it not possible that we are paying too high a price for ‘attractive’ rates? The malls seem to create a lot of <a href=”http://www.parttimejobsproindia.com” title=”Jobs in India”><b>jobs in India</b></a>, but they are also snuffing out a lot of already running businesses. Diversity and multiplicity is being replaced by a robot-like, automated process. Is this what we really want? I fear that too many will answer in affirmative.
<b>About the Author:</b>
Shah Jigar is the author for online job portal that offers <a href=”http://www.parttimejobsproindia.com” title=”Jobs in India”><b>jobs in India</b></a>. Nowadays job opportunities have become so vast for <a href=” http://www.parttimejobsproindia.com/Search.aspx?enc=r0i66CRLKk0m8gihawgmlb0NUcvXHtX/sDXRZ9kwooWIsw2ev1tnLaUnZ5JDe1mpjX2EXjauP9WO7xOY70YsOg==” title=”Reatailing Jobs”><b>Reatailing jobs</a></b>. The portal provides <a href=”http://www.parttimejobsproindia.com” title=”Jobs in Gujarat”><b>jobs in Gujarat</b></a> to the graduates and professionals. Free registration for Job Seekers and Employers at http://www.parttimejobsproindia.com/.
Processing your request, Please wait....
