Should Walmart be allowed in India

When I entered the virtual coffee house today, a heated discussion was going on whether Walmart should be allowed to enter India. Naren seems to be a fierce opponent of Walmart. He does not like the idea of Walmart being allowed to open in India.

"They will kill all the small businesses and will push more people below the poverty line", Naren said at the top of his voice. He continued in the same high pitch "Lot of people in India still thrives on small business by selling rice or other goods of daily use. If Walmart is let in, that unemployed young man in the Kirana store will either hang himself or join a militant group."

"Naren is right", said Mudit. He is also not in favor of Walmart. Mudit has been following Walmart for quite a while now. He is not very hapy with the labor policies of Walmart. But
Mudit has another point.

He says "Walmart can never be successful in India. Walmart needs lot of supplies. In India supply is not concentrated in one place, it is distributed among lot of suppliers. Walmart will find it difficult coordinating with all of them. There will be chaos. It will cost them lot of money"

"Well, I do not agree Mudit," Swapan quipped after taking a quick sip of latte. "What might happen is a new line of business might arise out of this chaos. Brokering business will thrive well in this situation. Brokers , who will be a localite and knows the locality well can obtain the supplies from different suppliers and Walmart will have to coordinate with that broker only"

"Well I do not think that will happen", said Mohit. "This will be costly for Walmart and they will lose the opportunity to bargain with the actual suppliers. Walmart is never going to buy this idea, their aim is to keep the price as low as possible and the profit margin as high as possible. Walmart might try improving the current infrastructure of India so that they get access to the remotest parts of India. They can get things very cheap from those areas. I know Tripura is the largest producer of pineapples, but most of the produce cannot reach the market due to inaccessibility. I have seen pineapples rotting in the road side. Walmart may try to reach those places to get the produce and in turn they will help improve the infrastructure".

Their gossip gradually turned to some other topic. But I was still occupied with the Walmart topic. There is definitely going to be a change once Walmart joins the 250 billion dollar retail market of India. Whether that change is going to do any good to India is something that future can tell us.