othing quite captures the meaning of the word 'unorganised' as India's traditional retailing scene does. And within that, the classic representative of old times is the neighbourhood kirana store: small, untidy, stacked from floor to ceiling not only with a welter of brands but with every conceivable stock keeping unit besides. That the shopkeeper could manage so much in such a small space was as much a tribute to his local relationships as to India's manpower cost, which allowed distributors to supply him with small quantities of goods on a regular basis.

Even as Indian industry began to open up from 1991 onwards, there was surprisingly little change on the retail front for many years. It is hard to imagine that just five years ago, the shopping mall was a rarity, the odd one being the Spencer's Plaza in Chennai or Ansal Plaza in Delhi. Today, the shopping mall is not only a part of the shopping scene, it is part of a city dweller's entertainment options and as the cynics might say, it is more of the latter than the former: lots of footfalls without enough sales.... more