Quo Vadis Indian Retail?

It was not so very long ago that Albert Einstein declared that “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” Cut to the present. Reading about and listening to developments in the highly charged world of the Indian retail sector, the race and clamor for naked market dominance have all but drowned out everything else. Be it the Flipkart-Myntra acquisition, Tata-Big Basket deal, the Reliance-Future group arrangement, and the countless financial investments from across the world in India’s retail market, all are testimony to the current narrative. What is missing is the focus on the spark that caused India’s retail to flower and burst out in its promise and potential. Perhaps, there is no more opportune and apt juncture than now to bring our attention to bear on the entrepreneurial and true national-growth-oriented labors put in by the real captains and pioneers of this sector.

The headlines scream out mergers and buyouts, acquisitions and expansions, tie-ups, and cross-holding deals: it seems there is only a transactional melee afoot.?In this stormy free-for-all ruckus, an important element of the story has been ignored and it is necessary that this error be righted. Today, India’s retail is not all areas and merchandise value or even big deal dollars and the starry epochs of moneyed giants. The real sinews of the retail story are the individuals, the people who lie at the very core of the industry and whose growth, welfare, and lives need to be understood with utmost care and sensitivity before any meaningful outcomes of the trade megawars can even be imagined. It is the arc of the individual, of those on whose shoulders and through whose sweat, blood, and toil India’s organized retail industry stands. An urgent action agenda celebrating and continuing the legacy of enduring hard work will help in making India better and prosperous.?

The present context begs the question: are we dealing with the death of entrepreneurship and individuality? Will the big fish and small fish episodes not matter on a granular level? And, if there is a price to pay, who really foots the bill? Questions, answers to which we must seek in the throngs of the normal and the usual, and not always among the boardrooms of the rich and famous. If there is a step forward that adds weft to the retail fabric, one should welcome and encourage this. Uncalled for, non-serious interventions that threaten this result must be closely guarded against. A case in point definitely being the Amazon stand in attempting to sully the Reliance-Future Group arrangement. It does seem that a deal that is beneficial to employees, to banks, to vendors, to the nation, and to the involved parties should be allowed to legally fructify. In short, one must first factor in the metric of stability and sustainability for people and only then anything else.

For instance, let’s take the case of direct employees of the retail sector. Today, India’s economy rests heavily on retail. The retail sector in India, currently valued at Rs 63 lakh crore accounts for about 10 percent of the nation’s GDP and employs more than 40 million people. The direct employees, who themselves constitute huge numbers in the mix, ranging from verticals and functional areas such as customer care, sales, and marketing support, accounts, HR, etc. these people have highly evolved specific skills and form the very backbone of the industry.

A loss of livelihood from lay-offs and unplanned mergers viciously affects these innocents. In fact, in smaller cities, it is these people that add immeasurable value to both the local commerce and local employment. Add to this the crucial logistics arm of the retail industry and the direct employees extend their numbers even more. From truckers to transporters and stevedores and loaders, the logistics superstructure and the people that make it so holds Indian retail afloat.

On the side of indirect and tertiary employment, the numbers and variety are equally mindboggling. Be they security personnel or housekeeping staff, their role and contribution are second to none. While the high-street shops and the usual Kirana stores may not have any need for these services, a properly organized retail store just cannot do without them. Then, of course, there are the thousands upon thousands of local brand owners, regional to national distributors, manufacturers, and other suppliers, etc., who contribute significantly to the retail ecosystem. Needless to say, the fate of this cohort too hangs in the balance whenever good deals between corporations come to be threatened.

The retail ecosystem in India is adding strength and acquiring a world-class character now. It is, with all its constituents and stakeholders, a well-oiled, efficient machine. It is a system that has matured to an extent where hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods are now inextricably hitched to the sector’s fortunes. Needless to assert that it is only with the utmost wisdom and vision that matters affecting this industry be tackled. With the future of the country’s citizenry, its economics, its social integrity depending on how lives are built and fostered, it is the call of the hour that Indian retail and the extended ecosystem not be disturbed but be carefully preserved and nurtured.