As I frequently say, the intellectual mind tries to analyze and simply things and in the process creates complex hypotheses and concepts beyond comprehension of the common man. Most things are really not that complex.
Ok, getting back to the point of the cyclic nature of retail industry. Here we go:
Initially we had one common market (Haat) for a few villages and one or two common markets per town as per the size of it. When the towns grew in diameter, it was inconvenient for people to travel long distance for shopping. Hence, the concept of separate smaller markets (haat) that catered to a certain area or part of town. Gradually came up the corner-side stores to provide more convenience to the consumers. These stores stocked FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) which are required in the consumer’s day-to-day lives. But there were a few people who preferred to sell their product (mostly fruits, vegetable, fish and other perishables) directly to the doors of the consumer.
Conclusion:
1. Products/services required on a day-to-day basis should be sold/ made available near the place of consumption.
2. Green groceries should be either centralized to offer value for money or absolutely door delivered for convenience to consumers.
Coming back to the cyclical nature of retailing……..
When a few retailers wanted to sell products in an already competitive market, they found out a unique solution….. “ambience and buying experience”. This is how shopping malls came into picture. They were and are no doubt a huge success. But soon the customer’s priority changed once again from ambience and fancy shopping to convenience when it was time to buy day-to-day requirements and green groceries. Hence, there arose a chain of specialty retail stores, often called as retail formats. These are smaller sq. feet stores which cater to only day-to-day commodities like cereals, green groceries, pharmaceuticals, beauty care, etc.(Spinach, Food Bazaar) Most of these are not located inside malls but are distributed across the length and breadth of the townships.
These specialty retail stores are nothing but glorified departmental stores catering to specific needs. Definitely these specialty stores also have limited reach. Hence the most recent and emerging trend among established retailers, is to open “no-frills” stores (Shubishka, KB’s Fair Price). These are nothing but corner-side retail shops.
Soon enough we’ll see these no-frills shops taking orders on phone and doing door-delivery of goods to provide convenience to customers. But isn’t this what the corner-side retailer already does?
So, we can now see how the entire retailing industry takes a complete circle and arrives at the same place where it started. Though, we might experience a few value additions here and there.
Having come a full circle, what next to break the clutter of competition? Well, to build even bigger shopping malls with greater range of products and services, covering much larger area, providing more sophisticated or thematic ambiance. Build the brand name and then again follow up with convenient outlets.
This is what I call in my common man’s parlance as the “Cyclic Nature of Retailing”.
