The Bandwagon Effect

"Organized" retailing is now all the rage. So are malls, fast foods, and multiplexes. Suddenly, it seems, there is an explosion of new business opportunity and new business models by the corporate sector. Sure, there is a time and place for every economy to find its level of sophistication - evidenced, at its ultimate, in a stockmarket listing to raise capital. The question is: do these qualify as examples of innovation?

In the West, these ideas and forms of business have existed for decades so it's not as if the Indian entrepreneur has hit upon something novel. It is also interesting to observe that some of these are actually on the wane in many countries and newer concepts are beginning to emerge. Let's take grocery stores as an example. In the developed market, the average run-of-the-mill supermarket/grocery chain spans 100,000 sq feet, with Wal-Mart even topping 250,000 sq feet. Such size is geared for high volume and high throughput, one that is equally possible in the Indian context. They have also co-existed beside convenience stores that catered to a different market segment. However, Tesco is now believed to be experimenting with a convenience store concept in the west coast of the US that would be a "mini" grocery store stocking fresh fruits and vegetables and aiming at the same customer segment as the larger stores. Now that could be termed an innovation since it is a different take on the ubiquitous convenience store and differentiates itself from grocery stores while targeting the very same customer base.

Could the concept of the local mom-and-pop kirana store be borrowed - accessibility being a major plus for it - while offering a superior buying experience, one that Tesco is now attempting to pursue in a far more mature market? With a few exceptions, that's not what's being rolled out across India as big box affairs keep popping up in the metros. It's not enough to simply copy a concept from elsewhere; innovation lies in creativity, imagination, and evolving something that fits local sensibilities.

In this context, malls are another example of a retail concept that is already on a decline in the developed economies, giving way to other forms such as the box store (such as Costco, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc in the US), the discount store, and, importantly, in some cities and towns that wish to preserve a Main Street experience that has long since been eclipsed by suburban sprawl, a modified downtown revival.

The trouble with malls is that they are monuments to high-decibel, high velocity,
eco-unfriendly shopping indulgence. Concentration of stores is the mantra and it does little or nothing to uplift the ambience or aesthetics of a town or city. The alternative - one that is being experimented with a view to revive a local community feel in several towns across the US such as Mountain View in California, Annapolis in Maryland, Petersburg in Virginia, and Portland in Oregon - points to an idea that would make shopping on Brigade Road, for instance, a pleasure. The central mall feature, name-brand national chain stores as anchors, is present here in full force but housed in quaint buildings with facades that hark back to the early 20th century. Pedestrian-only streets, walking promenades, wrought iron grillwork, streetside entertainment, open foodcourts, and designer street lights all add to wholesome experience that is enjoyed by tourists and locals alike.

Our cities would do well to get over their new-found love for the impersonal malls.
Bangalore - or any other Indian city, for that matter - don't need malls, in my humble opinion, but they could do with a great many community retail developments that are friendly to the residents, easy to access, do not shut themselves from the city within airconditioned walls, and inject a sense of aesthetics.