In the era of upcoming malls and discount stores with new offers every other day, that claims to fill your basket for less, you should be handy with a protective gear and prefarably, have a bodyguard accompanying you.

With the recent incident of attack on Reliance Fresh stores in Ranchi, followed by protest in Indore, things are looking murkier for chains like Big Bazaar, Subhiksha, Reliance Retail and the planned entrant Bharti-Walmart. As owing to their better management practices and economies of scale, they are able to sell cheap to consumers, who are surely not complaining.

But what happened at Reliance stores, Nandigram and Singur, is not what the original propenents of economic liberalisation ordered. Do we as consumers in a free-market economy, does not have the right to get cheap and quality products in comfort? The governmen should take immediate steps in this regard to prevent any such further incident otherwise it would be a huge loss to the consumers, government and companies.

As regards, the point of view of the vendors, and ‘mom and pop’ stores, their existence would still remain in a country like ours. If you take examples of other Asian counterparts like Malaysia, Thailand where these stores have co-existed alongside the retail chains presents a good argument in this regard.

I doubt, you will ever forget your local kirana shop or the odd subzi-wala, who is well accustomed to your taste and preferences, and give you the best solution to your daily needs. And the other mantra to make everyone happy is spend more, consume more.