Latest news with #Dharod
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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.
Associated Press
17-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Corner Bakery Invests in Long-Term Growth with Nationwide Remodels and Expansions
Corner Bakery Cafe® has recently completed renovations at seven locations, one in Pennsylvania and six in California, reinforcing its commitment to providing guests with a warm and inviting dining experience. Since acquiring the brand in June 2023, Corner Bakery has reinvested over 6.2 million dollars back into the business through 100% self-funded improvements. The more recent remodeled locations in California, completed between October 2024 and January 2025, offer refreshed interiors and exteriors designed to enhance the guest experience while maintaining the café's signature neighborhood charm. 'We want our communities to know that we're here to stay, and our loyal guests deserve cafés that look and feel special,' said Chris Dharod, CEO of Corner Bakery. The Brand's commitment to growth is also reflected in its expansion of self-ordering Kiosks, furthering the company's investment in delivering better guest experience through technology. 'These renovations and technology enhancements reflect our commitment to elevating the Corner Bakery experience' continued Dharod. Renovations include updated seating, flooring, paint, décor, beverage counters, awnings, and patio furniture, all aimed at creating a more modern, comfortable atmosphere for guests. These recent investments are part of a broader revitalization effort. In the first half of 2025, Corner Bakery plans to spend another half of a million dollars to remodel additional locations primarily in Illinois and Pennsylvania, with the goal of updating all its locations by 2027. 'These renovations and new openings reflect our commitment to growth while staying true to what makes Corner Bakery special,' added Dharod. Known for its hard-to-resist Cinnamon Creme Cake and its delicious soups, salads and sandwich selections, Corner Bakery has always been focused on delivering made from scratch menu items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As the self-proclaimed Panini Authority, the culinary team at Corner Bakery takes pride in their passion for creating delicious, mouth-watering flavors from fresh ingredients every day, including the recently launched Green Chile Chicken Panini. In addition to these remodels, Corner Bakery continues its national expansion, with new corporate café investments. Joining Union Station in Chicago and Capital Hill in Washington D.C., both of which opened in July 2024, is the highly anticipated re-opening of the Accenture Tower location on March 24, 2025, in one of the busiest train stations in Chicago. All three locations will mark a total investment of more than 1 million dollars from the brand. This Chicago re-opening will then be followed by a fourth new location for the brand, in Irvine, CA, in May 2025. Besides the addition of new corporate locations, a new franchise cafe in El Paso, TX, recently opened in February under Bakery Ventures led by franchise owner Tyson Duncan. This location marks the 5th Corner Bakery Café in El Paso and 6th overall location for Bakery Ventures. 'Corner Bakery has always been a place where guests can enjoy fresh, handcrafted meals in a welcoming environment,' said Duncan. 'Our investment will ensure we can provide more of what guests have come to love in our community with the addition of this new location.' As Corner Bakery continues its nationwide growth and revitalization efforts, the company welcomes inquiries from prospective franchisees interested in joining its expanding network. For more information on franchise opportunities, please contact [email protected]. ABOUT CORNER BAKERY CAFE Corner Bakery Cafe is a fast-casual restaurant serving kitchen-crafted breakfast, lunch, dinner and catering to guests in 18 states and Washington, D.C. In 1991, inspired by great fresh ingredients, the small neighborhood bakery on a corner of downtown Chicago began creating artisan breads and freshly baked sweets. For the last 33 years, Corner Bakery Cafes have been a neighborhood favorite. Founded on a philosophy of creating a warm and comfortable place for people to relax with friends, family and neighbors, the restaurants feature artisan-inspired, seasonal menu options made with fresh ingredients, while delivering a premier bakery experience in the heart of neighborhoods across the nation. Guests' favorites include the crave-worthy Anaheim Scrambler for breakfast, the grilled-to-perfection Chicken Pomodori Panini for lunch, the kitchen-crafted Pesto Cavatappi pasta for dinner and a slice of rich, flavorful Cinnamon Creme Cake for a sweet treat. The catering menu includes freshly scrambled eggs and Berry & Almond Overnight Oats, baskets of assorted specialty sandwiches, signature pastas and hot and delicious soups. Corner Bakery Cafe is owned by an affiliate of SSCP, a Dallas-based enterprise and an award-winning leader in the restaurant industry. To learn more, visit or follow Corner Bakery CafeⓇ on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok.
