India is the land of controversies. We have tens of them, if not more, at any given time. Yes, we like to keep busy and love to argue with each other over matters that we really can’t do much about. One of these is the recent entry of India’s biggest industrial house, Reliance, into retail sector. This has become such a big issue in the political arena that entire local governments are afraid to take a stand on something which will certainly prove to be in the interest of the common consumer.
While Reliance has entered into the retail market with a very broad spectrum of goods, I am targeting the fresh vegetable division in this particular blog entry. My wife loves it. There is no constant bargaining with vegetable vendors and the prices are less than what she pays for after fifteen minutes of voice and language intensive negotiating. Then there is the hygiene part. The vegetables from the vendors have to be washed very carefully because the water most of them use to sprinkle their vegetables with is often of dubious origins. She had interviewed the management of Reliance Fresh (the brand name of the venture) for quite a while and now she is convinced that the water sprinkled on their vegetables to keep them from drying up is of acceptable quality. With so many water borne diseases rampant in India, it is some consolation that in this case we can rely on their water quality.
Then there is the convenience. Everything is under one roof. The street vendors sell their wares in small push carts so both the amount and the variety of vegetables each vendor can carry is very limited. Often when she wanted a particular vegetable, Eva would be coerced into hovering around our main gate near the time when the vendors usually come in the evenings and call them out if she spotted the particular vegetable. Not a very efficient way to do things. Now everything is there in one place and the range is incredible.
The vendors in our area often quote prices based on perceived affluence of the buyer. So the same vendor may charge someone ten bucks for a particular vegetable and charge someone else down the road fifteen if he thought they would pay. That to me is unfair but it is a fact of life. Many times while we went shopping for vegetables, Swati would make me stop the car a ways away from the vendor and then walk to him to buy vegetables. If they see you getting out of a car, I have seen many vendors demand a higher price then if you just walked to them.
Most of all, the advantage with Reliance Fresh is the quality. They take pains to get the best possible quality from the farmers in the area. The difference is far too great to turn a blind eye keeping the livelihood of a small vendor in mind. You can choose what you purchase and since you weigh the items on your own, there is no cheating as is often the case with street vendors.
While I sympathize with economically marginalized vendors just trying to make a living, they themselves are partially to blame for their predicament. The points I am making are valid in my own middle class experience and I see no reason why my money or my family’s health should be willfully subject to reduced standards when I have a choice.
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