This week in our introspective on India’s cultural revolution, we take a look at the evolution of India’s retail industry and the emergence of western-style malls and shops

Grocery shopping is one of the many weekly chores in every American household. While each household has their own choice store, the modus operandi stays more or less the same. Park the car, take a shopping cart, load the cart, head to checkout, pay for purchases, and back to the car again. Pretty elementary and broken down to a mechanical operation that kids learn to bemoan and adults learn to schedule time for.

Now, imagine a setting where instead of air-conditioned stores and clean, organized aisles, consumables are shelved on burlap sacks. Big mounds of vegetables and fruits sit sectioned off mostly by pieces of cardboard boxes, while packaged products sit lined up on shelves usually demarcated off by the lack of burlap. The entire shop is on one level--similar to a train corridor. Checkout time is defined as when your arms are no longer able to contain another item of groceries. Thereupon, the cashier, usually the shop owner or a helper, punches in prices from a mental list and quickly bags everything, and you are ready to go. Bar codes don’t exist here nor do such other alien technologies as an itemized list of description and pricing, ahem, receipts.

This scenario is of a grocery store, or “shop,” as they are more commonly known in India. Although a description from the late 20^th century, it characterizes most kinds of stores in India, a country where unskilled labor remains cheap and unemployment widespread, and most businesses are mom-and-pop operations. “Malls” refer to markets, meaning open areas of land where vendors hawk their products on wooden carts.

In the slightly more affluent shops, cashiers are employees (not owners); products line the pavement outside the shops, and negotiation defines every purchase. Most shop owners will also add, “If you pay cash, you’ll save a percentage” with the percentage being anywhere from 10 percent on up. Of course, credit isn’t an option for the majority of the market even today. India has been a cash economy for decades and despite the surge in availability of credit cards and equity lines, rural India and the middle-class, which form mainstream population, remain cash buyers.

Now, enter Wal-mart, the world’s biggest retailer by volume. It announced in early 2005 that it would be seeking to open its stores in India. With the country’s restrictive foreign investment policy geared towards protecting the farmer, many market analysts noted apprehension in its success. And rightfully so, as by the middle of 2006, Wal-mart said although Indian operations were still in the pipeline, they were no longer going to be an aggressive goal. The retailer did, however, open an IT and back-end operations office in Bangalore.

While Wal-mart failed to make an entry, Indian corporations jumped on the idea of catering to the affluent cities and providing the metros with the option of shopping in the ease of air-conditioned, clean and hygienic stores where organization was priority and a comfortable shopping experience replaced negotiations and haggling. With millions of rupees flooding in and affluence becoming more the norm than the exception for many, malls sprung up overnight in major metros like Delhi and Mumbai and vendors grabbed store space quickly.

Known as “shopping plazas,” these behemoth buildings became a haven of comfort and glittery temptation for shoppers and retailers alike. While the stores remained private establishments, convenience became priority and customer service was introduced as a skill. Shopping carts were introduced, ramps installed for easier navigation and a hiring system put in place along with technology and computerized checkout booths. Itemized receipts became important and efforts shifted to consumer-oriented practices. Fresh produce now sits in wrapped packages, pre-weighed and priced. Durable products sit in organized baskets and containers with price labels and consistent replenishment. Some stores have even taken up the weekly sales gambit and post specials on their shelves on a regular basis.

Also introduced a couple of years ago was the concept of a ‘dollar store.’ However, while in America, Dollar General boasts of $9.5 billion in sales in 2007 and more than 8,000 stores, and operates on the premise of selling basic discounted goods with most items costing $1, this single store in India chose to put a twist on things. Currency conversion puts $1 equal to anywhere from 40-45 rupees depending on the market. So, ideally translated, the store would charge anything and everything for 45 rupees, right? Wrong. The store did adopt the extremely popular concept but instead retails all its items for 100 rupees. Its inventory: anything that is made in America. With the spellbound magic American products still have in India, consumers were delighted to finally be able to go to one store and purchase their beloved chocolates and delicacies stamped ‘Made in USA’

Yet another attempt to translate a successful western concept, this experiment to target the label-conscious, big shoppers of Made in USA products of the new India has been, so far, successful. However, while the younger generations are the frequent shoppers at the malls, the older segment continues to favor small businesses. The “corner shop,” as the small family-run shop is commonly called, remains an integral part of communities and suffers little from the competition offered by the shopping plazas. Most offer home delivery for free and keep open tabs for frequent shoppers. Since the practice of the monthly paycheck is still the norm, these small concessions offer convenience and flexible payment arrangements to the working class.

Whereas shopping plazas gain in popularity, with the convenience of having everything you need in one place, it would be wrong to call India’s first ever modern stores “supermarkets,” for they lack in variety, area and sheer volume. They do, however, make up for these shortcomings by having marketed themselves accurately to the younger age groups and so have gained wide appeal among all generations. Shopping plazas may still not be affordable for a significant percentage of society, but India’s economy promises that they will soon become the standard.

Does this threaten the small businesses who remain an important part of the villages, towns and cities? The pattern that India has followed from moving from an underdeveloped country to a developing one tells us otherwise. India’s culture and the stark dichotomy it is currently reeling under--of modernization and a ritualistic, traditional past--will take this in stride as it has many other developments and progressions.

Next: Indian marriages—the loosening of traditions or an American way of living?