Small change

As Rohatgi settles down to talk about his venture,a few customers walk in asking for a Rs-5 chocolate bar,a Rs-12 juice tetrapack,a mosquito repellent,a packet of chips. “Most people walk in after 5 p.m.,when their workday is over,” says Rohatgi.

So these days,Rohatgi spends much of the first half of his day on the wide pavement outside his store,where he oversees work on his expansion plans—three open-air sections that will house an ice-cream parlour,a vegetable-and-fruit stall and a juice section. Iron frames mark out the sections and an Amul ice-cream freezer is in place. A carpenter is giving shape to a wooden display rack. As Rohatgi walks around this work-in-progress,he discusses with his shop attendant the possibility of setting up a pop-corn machine and a cigarette kiosk on the pavement too. “Hopefully,I’ll be able to attract more customers with all this,” says Rohatgi.

Small traders like Rohatgi were at the centre of the uproar over FDI in multi-brand retail,with the sceptics saying they would take the hardest hit if foreign retail giants set up business in India. But Rohatgi has been so occupied with his store that he has barely formed an opinion on the issue.

Does he worry about a Walmart or a Carrefour eating him up five years from now? “I haven’t thought that far. Right now,I only worry about the existing big retailers. Their presence has not allowed me to earn a profit so far,specially in the first week of every month when they offer huge discounts,” he says.

Rohatgi says he has suffered losses while trying to ape the retail giants. “We have a 475-square-foot space upstairs,which was earlier open to the public. There,we had displayed items on shelves. But without escalators or trolleys,the idea didn’t work. To stop further losses,we shut that space last month,and have turned it into a godown,” he says.

On the ground floor are shelves with neatly-lined CFL-lit shelves that display everything from shampoos and toilet cleaners to muffins and namkeens. The store,with its wooden floor,split AC and CCTV camera,has some of the trappings of modern retailing.

“We tried to be a mall,and failed. But we don’t want to be a traditional kirana store either,where the only access for customers is visual,while standing across the counter behind which everything is kept. We’re trying to be 50-50,” he says.

Rohatgi knows that the only way to handle big competition is by evolving constantly. That’s where the attractive display shelves come from.

“People walking into big retail stores end up spending six times more than what they had planned because of the attractive displays,” he says. Just then,a woman walks in asking for a toilet cleaner,looks around,sees a cumin biscuit box and picks that up too. Rohatgi must have felt vindicated.

Like big retail giants,Rohatgi too sells some of his items at rates below the MRP—like a packet of sugar that he sells for Rs 9 less than its MRP and a shampoo bottle,also for Rs 9 less.

“People think only big retailers sell below MRPs. We try to convince them that we do too,but it doesn’t work most of the time. Most people only buy essential groceries from us. They like to buy their cosmetics and toiletries from big retailers,” says Rohatgi,who advertises his low prices in pamphlets that are distributed with newspapers.

He has more plans—stop stocking up on cosmetics and instead explore another stream of revenue: mobile and DTH recharge coupons. Outside his shop is a Tata Sky board that’s lit up in the evening and customers come asking for coupons. A Dish TV agent walks in and asks Rohatgi if he can sell their recharge coupons. After some negotiations,Rohatgi gives in to the agent’s hardsell. The agent gives him a poster of Dish TV and asks for it to be displayed outside. A shampoo poster promptly makes way for the Dish TV one.

Distributors of various brands walk in. They bring in new stock,take back items that are past their selling date,settle accounts in traditional ledgers,and exchange coloured receipts.

“Big retail giants slash prices when the expiry dates are close. People don’t realise that,” he says. Some brands,he says,also trouble small retailers like him and don’t refund the expired stock. There are other hassles too,like rats. “Our storage systems are not advanced. Just this morning,a rat ate into a gift-pack of sweets and I lost Rs 500,” he says.

At 5 p.m.,Amul milk packs arrive and Rohatgi’s helpers place them on racks outside the shop,along with bread. “Milk and bread give us the lowest margins,but attract the maximum walk-ins,” he says.

Rohatgi gets busy with a steady stream of customers who buy milk from the racks outside and when they walk inside to make the payment,look around the shop to see if they can pick something else. His phone begins buzzing with orders for home deliveries—they form 50 per cent of sales,he says.

Two women bargain over a packet of biscuits and Rohatgi turns them away. A baba in saffron robes walks in asking for money and he too is sent away. “We’ve had characters dressed up as monkeys and fake cops asking for money. That’s a challenge big retail houses don’t face,” he says.