The Power of Retail

The retail scenario in many countries in South East Asia is developing at a rapid pace. Where at one time it was just a home grown marketplace, now more and more there are chains of stores who are replacing them, although not entirely. Wherever modern retail has made inroads there have been protests and fear about how it will impact the local mom-and-pop stores, but in most places these have not been affected adversely, although they have had to make changes in the way they operate so as to become more competitive with these new formats.

In India there are 12 million mom-and-pop stores which employ millions of workers, most of whom are not educated and not capable of working elsewhere, so the worry has been quite intense. There has to be changes made in the way these businesses operate but many stores are scared of making any changes to the way they operate. Change is good, change is required, change is what makes business grow, so we should not resist change.