My Kirana Store (mom-and-pop Store)

I come from Ranchi, a small industrial town in India. There was a small kirana store; small by the standards of the new mega retail formats. Shop owner knows every one in the neighborhood by name, their birthday, and anniversary. He mostly offers the regular customers good discount and extend credit for a few weeks.
The kirana store, till late eighties was doing good business but it started losing customers a decade back, as first generation employees of Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd., started moving to suburbs on retirement. The new modern retailers had also eaten up some of his customers. The kirana store was losing customers and finding it difficult to win new. The Kirana Store owner discussed his problem with Mr. Rabindranath Choubey, an employee of Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd. and a good friend of the shop owner. He suggested kirana store owner to take the trouble of making home deliveries. This small gesture not only helped him win back his old customers but also helped him attract a few new one.

This story clearly identifies that the kirana store will continue to coexist with the modern forms of retailing, but will need to innovate and change strategies. The kirana store will co-exist for three key reasons:

Relationship: Kirana stores enjoy very close relationship with their consumer. In India Kirana store always enjoy deeper relationship than just the buyer-seller relationship

Credit: The Kirana shop keeper also offers credit for a couple of days to weeks for the purchase
made at his outlet. He can afford to do so since he himself enjoys credit from his suppliers.

Convenience: The majority of India’s urban consumers have the convenience of buying small lots & ordering everything over the phone. They even have the luxury of ordering a single small item like a toothbrush delivered at their home at 9:00pm. Until convenience stores like 7-Elevens proliferate though, the kirana stores will continue to play an important role.

Retailing - Report

In India, after agriculture, retail is the largest single sector both in terms of turnover as well as employment. Globally Retailing is the largest industry with annual sales of over US$6.6trn. There are nine retailers in the Fortune 100, which highlights the importance of the retail sector. While writing this report I could manage to get latest data of Image retail which shows that the Food and Grocery is the biggest segment of the Indian Retail Market, followed by the clothing, Jewellery, Catering, Consumer Durables, Pharma, Furniture and Home Decor, Entertainment, Telecom, and others.

Overall retail market scenario:
Food and grocery 59.5% share, valued at INR 7,92,000 crore
Clothing and accessories with a 9.9% valued at INR 1,31,300 crore.
Out-of-home food (catering) services valued at INR 71,300 crore with 5.4% market share
Jewellery valued at INR 69,400 crore
Consumer Durables valued at INR 57,500 crore
Health and pharmaceuticals valued at INR 48,800 crore
Entertainment valued at INR 45,600 crore
Furniture, furnishings and kitchenware valued at INR 45,500 crore
Mobiles and accessories valued at INR 27,200 crore
Leisure Retail valued at INR 16,400 crore
Footwear valued at INR 16,000 crore
Health and beauty care services valued at INR 4,600 crore and
Watches and eyewear valued at INR 4,400 crore



The fastest-growing segment in the overall retail pie in 2007
Clothing & fashion accessories registered growth of 22.7%
Mobile and accessories registered growth of 25.6%
Out-of-home food (catering) services registered growth of 25.1%
Books, music & gifts leisure category registered growth of 23.3%
Jewellery retail registered growth of
Footwear retail registered growth of 12%
Furnishings and furniture retail registered growth of 7%
Food and grocery retail registered growth of 2.3%


The modern Indian retailing which is still in the evolution phase accounts for around 4.6% of an estimated US$230-280bn Indian retail market. It is estimated that the segment will realize a 30-35% CAGR over the next five years to gain an 11% share of the retail market. Apart from metros and mini metros India’s top 69 cities, with populations of over one million, will drive this retail revolution.

Organized retail market scenario:
Clothing and fashion accessories has a market share of 38.1% valued at INR 29,800 crore,
Food and grocery with 11.5% valued at INR 9,000 crore,
Footwear 9.9% valued at INR 7,750 crore
Consumer durables 9.1% valued at INR 7,100 crore
Time wear (48.9%)
Footwear (48.4%)

The fastest-growing segment in the organised retail pie in 2007
Health and beauty care services category registered growth of 65%.
Entertainment registered growth of 53.8%
Mobile phones and accessories registered growth of 55.2%
Food and grocery retail registered growth of 55.2%.
Fashion and accessories retail registered growth of 35.5%.
Jewellery retail, registered growth of 31%
Timewear category registered growth of 16.6%,
Footwear retail registered growth of 42.3%
Health and beauty care registered growth of 57.5%
Furnishings and furniture retail registered growth of 29.7%