[Vision2020] Indian Shop Owners Protest Wal-Mart

[Tom Hansen]

Heck!  India doesn't even want a Wal-Mart Super Center.

>From Business Week at:

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8QTG9580.htm

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Indian shop owners protest Wal-Mart
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG

NEW DELHI 

Several hundred small shop owners, trade unions and activists rallied in
India's capital Thursday to protest a push by Wal-Mart and other foreign
megastores into India's retail market.

Protesters shouted and burned effigies representing Wal-Mart and its local
partner, Bharti Enterprises.

The rally underscored growing tensions in India as the country's economic
boom moves beyond high-technology and other big businesses that employ
relatively few people and begins to transform parts of the economy that
provide a livelihood for hundreds of millions of people.

Since the start of the year, there have been spasms of violence by farmers
angry over land lost to big industrial projects. A communist insurgency has
taken root in southern and eastern India.

Organizers at Thursday's protest said it was time that the country's
estimated 12 million mom-and-pop shops were heard and promised more rallies.

Dhamendra Kumar of India FDI Watch, a group that's lobbying against the big
stores, promised a long campaign.

"Corporate retail is going to crush the spirit of this country," he said.

The protesters' slogan, "Quit Retail," is a play on Mohandas Gandhi's "Quit
India" slogan, a theme of the independence movement when the nation shucked
British rule 60 years ago this month.

New malls and megastores have been welcomed by much of the nation's
burgeoning middle class, yet there are early indications of resistance
against chains like Wal-Mart and similar domestic companies.

"My business is going down. I can't offer discounts the big shops offer. Why
is the government not protecting us? We are not fit for other jobs if we
lose our businesses," said Alok Prakash, who owns a small general store in
Mumbai's busy Dadar market.

The protests against new retailers remain mostly unorganized. Prakash had
not heard of a daylong strike called for city stores.

Other shop owners in Mumbai said they would only close if their competition
did as well -- and that wasn't happening.

"Why will I close when the next shop is open? All my business will go to
him. A strike makes sense only if all participate," said Prem Patel, who
sells grains and other provisions in Mahim, a suburb of Mumbai.

On Monday, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, signed a deal with Bharti
Enterprises to jointly build wholesale outlets that will buy goods from
farmers and small manufacturers and sell to retailers.

Critics say it is a backdoor attempt by Wal-Mart to gain entry to the Indian
retail market, which remains off-limits to foreign competition.

With its 1.1 billion people and growing middle class, India has vast
potential for big retailers. Wal-Mart is not the only foreign chain seeking
to tap a market estimated to be worth more than $250 billion and growing at
a rate of 20 percent a year.

Global retailers like Carrefour SA of France, Tesco PlC of Britain and Metro
AG of Germany have lobbied the Indian government to liberalize rules
protecting the retail market.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Anyone that buys something at Wal-Mart or Target expecting it to last
doesn't know how to spend money."

- Donovan Arnold (October 3, 2006)