I know many of you are already bombarded with arguments, opinions, analysis on FDI in retail. I understand the hangover of it but I do have something to say not on crazy studies or opinion polls but on personal experience.Not many of you might know that our government has allowed 51% FDI  in single brand retail, cash & carry wholesale trading back in 2006 itself. We(my family) hailing from Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh were blessed enough that Bharti-Walmart opened a "Best Price" store there. I got an opportunity to visit to that wonderful store.

The journey is filled with lots of surprises. First is to come at the entry itself where few rules and guidelines were put.

1) Only those who are registered allowed. -- Registered means those who have a business of their own.

2) Maximum of 3 people per card allowed.

3) These goods are not meant for personal use and are for resale.

4) Minimum of Rs.1000/- bill

I was once again lucky that my dad happened to run a business and he got card required for entry. I was wondering that if goods sold here are only for resale, why was my mother so insisting on going there. The second shock was soon to come as I stepped into the store. OMG! Never have I watched something so magnificient and huge in a wholesale store. Huge 15+ metres cuboards, cranes moving here and there, crowd in numbers surprising for a wholesale shop.

Secrets are soon revealed as I moved around the store putting things my mom selected in trolly. What the store is selling is no different from what a retail store sells or a small wholesaler. But the point is that goods that are sold here are straight from factory (which you can see in top racks of pic). The prices are sometimes Rs 15/- below the M.R.P making it very attractive for house-wives like my mom and retailers alike. The customers that come here are mostly poeple like my family. We in India have considerable population self-employed. I mean we have many many businnessess of all forms running at all places. Here all of them are eligible to enter Walmart and buy. So the Rule 3 that goods are meant for resale is hardly followed because all are buying for personal needs.They are selling refrigerators, TV's, cell phones, vegetables etc which are mostly for personal consumption along with other goods in the name of re-selling.

I will not draw grand conclusions from here but what point I wished to drive home is that "My mom did not buy this month's share of goods from a KIRANA store that she used to buy for many many years".