“Retail therapy”, July 12, is a one-sided view of the impact of organised retail on the sector. The author says that the overall share of organised retail is around 4 per cent and this shows how kiranas are not affected by organised retail’s spread. This is an all-India figure and averages tell us nothing. In big cities, the share of organised retail is already up to 20 per cent, and kirana shops are finding it impossible to survive in such a scenario. In order to survive, they have to further cut their margins. As Pravin Khandelwal has pointed out (“Is FDI in retail a good idea?”, July 14), if organised retail is so much more efficient than kiranas, why don’t such stores sell their goods at prices lower than kiranas?
Nor does the government have any plan for how it will tackle the resultant unemployment. Today, the retail sector is the biggest employer in the country. If this sector goes into the hands of organised retailers, the employment-intensive kiranas will find it difficult to survive; what will the government do then?
Ashish Gupta, New Delhi