Swiggy, Zepto: Are 10-minute online deliveries killing the Indian corner shop?
The corner shop Ramji Dharod has manned for over six decades is now on the brink of closure.The store sits in a bylane in the central Indian city of Mumbai's busy shopping precinct, and has served the community for 75 years.Dharod began coming to the shop with his father when he was just 10. These days, he mostly sits idle, waiting for an occasional customer to walk in.Behind him, cardboard boxes of unsold biscuit packets and snacks show a "stock clearance sale" sign posted on them."I wouldn't get a minute to breathe a few years ago, but now I rarely get anyone coming," says the septuagenarian wryly. "They are all shopping online. I've decided to retire and down the shutters."As 10-minute online deliveries by "quick commerce" apps like Zomato, BlinkIt and Zepto pervade urban India, hundreds of thousands of neighbourhood stores across cities have closed down.A lobby group of consumer product distributors estimated that number to be 200,000 last October, while the municipal body of the southern city of Chennai estimated 20% of small grocers and 30% of larger departmental stores had shut down in the city in the past 5 years.
Sunil Kenia who runs a provision store right beside Dharod's shop says he's still in business only because his family owns the shop. Those on rent are no longer able to stay afloat, he says."It started going downhill after the Covid lockdowns. Business is at 50% of what we did before the pandemic," Kenia told the BBC.Most of his revenue now comes from wholesale customers – hawkers or those selling street-side snacks. The retail customer has all but "vanished", he says, because of the convenience of mobile deliveries.Mumbai-based graphic designer Monisha Sathe is among the millions of urban Indians who've stopped their weekly run to the market because of the ease of quick commerce."Lugging groceries back home was a big pain," says Sathe. And occasionally, when she took out her car, navigating narrow market lanes and finding a parking slot would be a challenge.Sathe says she misses the human interaction she had with the grocers and vegetable vendors and even the variety of fresh produce on sale – but for her, the balance still tilts in favour of online deliveries because of how much easier it has made her life.A recent survey by consultancy PwC shows some 42% of urban consumers in India's big cities think like Sathe, especially preferring quick delivery for their urgent needs. And these shifts in buying behaviour have led to three out of 10 retailers reporting a negative impact on their business, with a 52% drop in essential goods sales.
But to what extent is quick commerce really hollowing out the Indian high street?There's no doubt general trade – which includes grocery stores, corner shops and even big retail outlets – has come under threat, says Ankur Bisen, a partner at Technopak retail advisory. But at least for now "quick commerce is still a three-four city story", he says. Nearly all of their sales come from these cities.Lightning fast deliveries bucked the global trend and became successful in India largely due to a large concentration of people staying in urban clusters.They are serviced through low-rent "dark stores" - or small shops dedicated to delivery and not open to the public - in densely populated areas, enabling economies of scale.But the precarious nature of demand and fragmented demographics of smaller towns could make it expensive for quick commerce players to expand and make money beyond the metros, says Mr Bisen.There's little doubt though that these online deliveries will disrupt trade in the longer run.Bain and Company expects quick commerce to grow at over 40% annually through to 2030, driven by expansion across "geographies".And this has made traditional retail nervous.Trade organisations - like the Confederation of All India Traders, or the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation which calls itself the voice of India's 13m retailers - have made urgent and repeated pleas to the government against this breakneck expansion.They allege that these companies are using billions of dollars in venture capital funds to engage in anti-competitive practices like "predatory pricing" or "deep discounting" which has further distorted the playing field for mom-and-pop shops.The BBC spoke to several small retailers who shared these concerns. Mr Bisen too agreed there's evidence of such practices in the clusters that quick commerce companies operate.
Swiggy, Zepto and Blinkit, who primarily control this market, did not agree to comment on the BBC's queries on these allegations.But a source within one of the quick commerce companies told the BBC the discounting was done by traders on the platform and not by them.The source also said that contrary to the binary narrative of the "big guy versus small guy", online deliveries were solving real-world challenges for people for whom going to the market was a "traumatic" experience."Think of women or senior citizens - they don't want to be harassed or navigate potholes and traffic," the source said. "Also consider the small brands that sell on our platform - they never get shelf space in physical shops where only the big names are displayed. We've democratised the market."Analysts say, the sheer diversity of India in terms of its stages of development, levels of income and infrastructure will mean that in the end all retail models - small corner shops, organised big retailers and quick commerce platforms - will cohabit in the country.This is not a "winner takes all market", says Mr Bisen, giving the example of e-commerce which came into India in 2010 and was meant to sound the death knell of local retailers.Even after all these years, only 4% of all shopping is done online in India.But the ripples caused by quick commerce should be a warning for physical retailers, say analysts, to improve their marketing and integrate technology to use both online and offline channels to give their consumers a better shopping experience. Competing with click-of-a-button delivery means it can no longer be business as usual for the millions of corner shops who've existed for decades, with little or no innovation. Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook.
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Scottish Sun
16 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Our iconic market ‘will be GONE in months' thanks to huge shopping centre & new flats plan – it's a ghost town
DEATH KNELL Our iconic market 'will be GONE in months' thanks to huge shopping centre & new flats plan – it's a ghost town Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) AN ICONIC market could be gone in months as redevelopment plans go ahead amid crippling competition from a major shopping centre. Shepherd's Bush Market, in West London, dates back 111 years but its future is uncertain as developers plan to build 40 flats as part of a nine-storey complex, and new shops. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 10 Many traders worry they could be priced out, pushed aside, or left behind Credit: Paul Edwards 10 Others are worried the character of the market won't survive the changes Credit: Paul Edwards 10 Sue French, 60, who has worked at Ellis's Pet Store for 43 years, blames the decline on competition Credit: Paul Edwards Hammersmith and Fulham Council approved Yoo Capital's £5million proposal to regenerate the area in late 2023, leading to gentrification fears among traders. The housing development will be located on the Old Laundry Site land opposite the market and includes the demolition of an apparent former homeless hostel. The council will manage the homes, with the scheme to include the revamp of sections of the market space itself, leaving many traders worried they'll be ushered out. However, many say the death knell was already sounded back in 2008, when the gargantuan Westfield shopping centre first opened. The modern mall covers 2,600,000 sq ft and cost £1.6 billion, featuring high street giants like John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Next and Primark - meaning footfall at the market has been declining for years. And that's to mention the rise of online shopping, with people preferring to shop at Amazon - which is also causing devastating problems for more established outlets, and was accelerated during the Covid pandemic. 'Growth and potential' For stallholders like Bobby Singhy, 45, whose family has been part of the market for over five decades, the place holds deep personal value. 'The market is wonderful, great characters, always here to help one another,' he told The Sun this week. 'There's a lot of growth and potential in this area. My stall has been here for 55 years—my grandad, then my dad, then me.' Others are worried the character of the market won't survive the changes. Wrecking machines move in to demolish 'ghost town' Scots estate dubbed 'Britain's Chernobyl' Sue French, 60, who has worked at Ellis's Pet Store for 43 years, blames the decline on competition. 'The market has changed a lot over the years," she said. "This used to be busy but when they made Westfield that killed us." 'At the moment, Yoo Capital are trying to fix it.' Traders say footfall has plummeted in recent years. 'I've seen lots and lots of people just walk past the market,' said Sue. 'The bus doesn't even stop near the market. People can't afford to rent stalls here… they're here for a few months and leave. "This is the only original part of Shepherd's Market that is left.' This used to be busy but when they made Westfield that killed us. Sue French Joanna Lee, 58, a lifelong local, fears that too much is being lost to development and that the market's unique character is under threat. 'They can't build over this — you can't take away this market… I believe we're witnessing the death of the market,' she said. 'I've grown up on this market and I don't want it to change because that's how it starts. "This used to be the place to go. There were lots and lots of shops all selling different things, and now the stalls are one by one packing up and closing." 'Now it doesn't matter' One jewellery stall worker, who has been at the market for 40 years, but asked not to be named, fears promises won't be kept. 'The market is very quiet – in the old days, weekends were packed - but now it doesn't matter,' she said. 'Yoo Capital said they won't gentrify and will regenerate it instead… I'm not worried as long as it's not gentrified.' 10 Market trader Bobby Singhy, 45, operates a stall previously occupied by his grandad and dad Credit: Paul Edwards 10 Abdul Idris, 60, believe the area needs a change Credit: Paul Edwards 10 Tony Lucky, 67, said online shopping and parking price rises are killing the market Credit: Paul Edwards The developers' deal struck with the council will see new homes and shops at one end, and investment in the rest of the market space. But not everyone is convinced it will be a good thing. 'There's a danger of Shepherd's Bush Market becoming gentrified like Brixton Market. There's been a lot of changes over the years,' said the unnamed local. 'This market is so multicultural and has a lot of life. "We have a wave of Asians, Afghans, Arabs and any changes may put people off from entering. "And that includes any major changes Yoo Capital makes." Online has defeated us and people going straight to Amazon and ordering from China. There's no parking and that's been the most challenging thing – it's acting like a deterrent to a lot of customers. Tony Lucky Tony Lucky, 67, owner of ZamZam Luggage, blames high parking charges and online competition. 'Online has defeated us and people going straight to Amazon and ordering from China,' he said. 'There's no parking and that's been the most challenging thing – it's acting like a deterrent to a lot of customers. Every hour it costs £5 or you get a parking fine of £80. 'Yoo Capital want to build more flats and don't care about the market,' he said. 'This market has been here 100 years and no problem – but now they want to break all this and rebuild the flats.' 'We need a change, but the right one' Abdul Idris, 60, has worked at his home goods stall since childhood. 'Tesco and other big stuff have been taking the spotlight away from shops in the market,' he said. 'We need a change of things. Development is happening but I don't know when – we need a change, but the right one.' For many, there's still hope. Laura Sakstein, 67, who runs 'This is Nuts', a family-run store her father opened in 1933, believes the market has life left in it. 'Back in the day it was packed – you couldn't get in the market,' she said. 'It's not just Shepherd's Bush, it's retail everywhere today.' 'Walthamstow used to be a fabulous market but I don't think it is what it was. "It's got potential, this place, but we need new variety,' she said. 'Community spirit is what it's all about. Westfield shouldn't be competition to the market. Retail everywhere is suffering.' According to Yoo Capital, the redevelopment is meant to protect the market's future. Redevelopment plan A 9-storey commercial building will be built on the Old Laundry Site next to the market, with 40 council-managed homes and upgrades to existing stalls. A spokesperson for Yoo Capital stated: 'Our commitment to the Market remains as strong as when we acquired the site in 2020. "Following the granting of full planning permission at the end of 2024, we have been hard at work, formulating the most cohesive plan for construction. "This allows us to not only look forward to the best final result – where traders can enjoy an upgraded market that better supports their needs – but also considers the effect of construction, minimising disruption to trade and ensuring the Market remains open throughout, as it has done for the past 111 years.' Louise Page-Jennings, a spokesperson for Yoo Capital, also shared with The Sun: 'We are carefully curating the Market and will introduce new tenants through the Market Academy during the construction process.' The Academy will offer free training to traders on merchandising, marketing, and business skills. She added, 'The Market will remain open throughout the works, with efforts in place to minimize any disruption.' Ms Page-Jennings said traders will be offered support worth over £5 million, including rent-free options during construction, sabbaticals, or lease buyouts. Those choosing to stay can access compensation of £7,500 to £12,500, plus up to £50,000 in profit-loss support, she added. A minimum of £7,500 financial support for traders that wish to open during construction. And no rent or service charge during Market construction Traders on sabbatical may receive up to £3,000 a month in payments and get brand new units or funds to upgrade existing ones. Rents will be fixed for five years after construction ends — but the market will eventually be opened to private buyers. Critics say that leaves uncertainty about what happens next. Paul Bardini, 69, whose grandfather first worked in the market in 1919, sees the other side. 'The investment could give the market a face-lift and bring in new customers,' he said. As traders wait and watch, hope hangs in the air — alongside fears of losing something irreplaceable. The Sun has contacted Westfield and Hammersmith and Fulham Council for comment. Do you know more? Email 10 Laura Sakstein, 67, is remaining positive and believes the market still has a place in today's world Credit: Paul Edwards 10 The market first opened 111 years ago Credit: Paul Edwards 10 Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush opened in 2008 Credit: The Sun
Telegraph
19 hours ago
- Telegraph
The City should ditch Pride celebrations and focus on its real job
The multi-coloured flags are not flying as prominently as they once did. The LinkedIn pages are no longer festooned with symbols and the company's X page no longer reminds everyone of its solidarity with the cause, while at the same time corporate donations to parades and fairs are collapsing. We are already halfway through Pride month, designed to promote the LGBTQ+ community, and it is already clear that the City and the wider corporate world is dialling down the celebrations. In reality, it is about time. Sure, we all agree that everyone should be treated equally regardless of their sexuality. But the City is in steep decline – and it should get back to deal-making before it is too late. The Pride celebrations are definitely quieter than usual among businesses this year. Law firms such as DLA Piper and Linklaters have all abandoned Pride logos on their LinkedIn pages, although in the past they were prominently displayed over the course of the month. Likewise, PwC has chosen not to update its logo and so have EY and Deloitte, while KPMG only did so after being contacted by this newspaper. Meanwhile, corporate funding for the events planned around the country is in free-fall, with corporate sponsorship of Pride events down by 50pc this year according to the UK Pride Organisers Network. There are reports of local events being cancelled after the contributions from companies dried up. Indeed, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that 75pc of organisers had seen a fall in corporate backing and that Pride in London, the largest event in the UK, was at risk as businesses politely backed away. One reason for that, of course, is US president Donald Trump. In the US, his administration has clamped down on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) spending –in many cases forcing companies to abandon their support for liberal causes or face exclusion from government contracts and applying moral and financial pressure on others to scale back their commitments. The tactics might be rough but it is working. It is noticeable, for example, that many of the law firms that are no longer visibly backing the Pride celebrations have significant operations in the US. And since the internet does not respect national boundaries, they may well have decided that it is prudent – and law firms are always cautious – to scale back their commitments on this side of the Atlantic just in case. Trump may well have gone too far, as so often. And yet, it is surely right for the City to drop the high-profile support for Pride. Sure, we can all agree that staff should be treated with respect, and treated equally, regardless of their sexuality or gender. But the high-profile 'rainbow-washing' of Pride month – which even many gay people now feel has been hijacked by extreme activists – had also become a distraction from the real work of the Square Mile. In reality, the City is in a very perilous position right now. The initial public offering (IPO) market has collapsed and listings are moving elsewhere. We saw that confirmed earlier this month when Wise, one of the most consistently successful technology companies in Europe, decided to move its primary listing from London to New York, And the Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein – which may be controversial but is still a major company – decided to list its shares in Hong Kong instead of London. The number of companies listed in the UK's capital has fallen from 2,400 a decade ago to 1,600 now. There are virtually no new listings to replace them, with 18 listings last year raising a mere £770m, an 18pc fall on a year earlier, and plenty of companies are still giving up and accepting takeover offers. On current trends, the London market will go the way of the Liverpool and Manchester stock exchanges. It will be absorbed into New York in the same way that regional markets were absorbed into the City a hundred years ago. Meanwhile, the non-doms are all leaving following the ending of tax breaks in the UK. And much of the hedge fund and wealth management industries will go with them. The foreign exchange markets are still under threat from the European Union's determination to move trading and settlement within its own borders. Even pension funds may not be safe for much longer as Chancellor Rachel Reeves eyes them up as one of the few remaining pools of money she can raid, as she desperately searches around for more money to feed into a government machine with an insatiable appetite for more cash. Indeed, it is getting to the point where the City's only remaining major business is financing and rolling over the Government's vast and growing debts. Everything else is facing an accelerating decline. Those are the real challenges and a rainbow flag, no matter how well intentioned, does not do anything to fix any of them. In reality, the City has always been a place that tolerated just about anything except losing money, You could be gay, bi or straight, wear what you liked, dress anyway that made you feel comfortable, get up to anything you felt like at the weekend and spend your bonus money any way you chose to so long as the profit and loss account was in good shape at the end of the week. But the City no longer has the luxury of indulging fashionable causes or allowing resources to be wasted on issues that, while they may be important socially and some of the staff may personally feel very strongly about them, don't make any significant contribution to the growth of the business. In reality, Pride month was just a distraction from the real challenges of doing more deals, creating new products and opening up new markets. There won't be nearly so many high profile rainbow celebrations this month – and if we are being honest it is unlikely that anyone will miss them.
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Aussie construction leader makes a shocking admission about the state of the country's housing market
This boss of one of Australia's largest builders has declared the housing industry is still under intense pressure, despite an easing in supply chain disruptions, labour shortages and soaring material prices. Metricon Chief Executive Brad Duggan said the collapse of thousands of construction firms in the years following the Covid pandemic had thinned the industry. He said while that was good for his business - there is less competition - it could worsen the nation's critical shortage of dwellings and further spike house prices. Mr Duggan said a home in 2025 had grown about 50 per cent more expensive than a like-for-like home in 2019 and that passing those costs onto consumers had become increasingly challenging because 'people just can't afford those houses'. Half of the rise in price he attributed to material costs and the other half to labour shortages. Worryingly, he claimed that without major reforms, the industry does not have a chance of improving housing supply. '[Builders collapsing] is great from a competitive point of view,' he told The Elephant in the Room property podcast. 'But not from the point of view of the pretty significant housing challenge that Australia faces.' Mr Duggan saw the impacts of industry disruptions firsthand. He joined Metricon midway through 2022 as chief financial and operating officer, when the firm was financially struggling. Since then, Mr Duggan has led an $80 million turnaround, pulling the company back into the black, garnering him a promotion to chief executive role. He said the years since Covid pandemic had been so challenging for the building industry because it disrupted about 20 years of relative stability. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, he explained, companies could reliably predict costs and were empowered to offer customers fixed-price contracts that wouldn't shift through long construction timeframes. 'Then you hit quite a tumultuous and unprecedented time with Covid, we had a war in Ukraine, which is where a large amount of lumber comes from, plus all the disruption of shipping,' Mr Duggan said. 'In effectively 18 months, we saw a 45 per cent increase in input costs. When you put that into an environment where you've guaranteed a customer's price and locked it in for 12 months, it becomes really difficult.' The following construction 'boom', spurred by the HomeBuilder stimulus package, was, as a result, 'profitless', he said. Seven thousand operators went under in the ensuing three years, leaving surviving builders struggling to keep up with housing needs. 'You've got big monsters like Porter Davis in that group, and that organisation alone was building 2500 homes,' Mr Duggan said. 'That's a significant amount of capability that went missing.' Other builders tried to exit contracts or inflate costs in a bid to remain viable, which left Aussie customers in precarious positions. Mr Duggan said that was not an option for Metricon. 'We'd made a lot of commitments to customers and once we sign a contract and we're on site, there's no way we'd even think about trying to reprice,' Mr Duggan said. 'That was a non-negotiable for us. 'The secret to success for us was the grind. We had to find a way to get to the end of that workbook that was caught in the fixed-price contract scenario.' The building boss said he worked with all sides of the business to try buy time for projects. He liaised with suppliers, financiers and trade credit insurers, before even undertaking a restructure of the whole company. Mr Duggan said he was concerned by the greater housing challenge in Australia, despite his own successes in navigating the past three years. 'There are fewer builders out there with the ability to make a difference in [addressing] housing supply,' he said. 'The other thing you can't forget is the impact these builders have in their communities. If a big builder falls over, the consequences … are significant.' Metricon, with Mr Duggan at the helm, has called for a national housing summit to address the challenges in the building industry. He wants the government to ease restrictions on skilled migration to alleviate labour shortages as well as a focus on mental health support to retain workers already in the field. He also believes more innovation and flexibility should be encouraged in the sector, specifically around building practices and management of supply chains.
