Food and grocery retail chain Spinach wants to leverage on the strength of local
kiranawalas for growth.
To understand the daily needs and stock the relevant merchandise, the chain has hired 100 local
kiranawalas from the trading areas to help them in sourcing, procurement and carry out the front-end operations. Spinach employees 500 persons at present.
"Retailing is an applied science, which cannot be entirely handled by MBAs and high flying executives. Local people will be of great help in procuring the produce at the right price and quality in a particular season," said Dippankar S Halder, CEO, Spinach.
The firm has also appointed part-timers from local
mandis in its Bandra-Kurla Complex and Andheri stores. They will be imparted a three-week training in behaviour, etiquette, retailing, product knowledge.
"They are given equal opportunities to grow and paid good salaries. Where big retailers have taken years to build volumes, we have done it in months with the help of these local people," said Halder.
"We want to learn from the experience of the
kiranawalas such as their merchandise mix, pricing strategy and understanding of local needs. If we can take them into confidence, we need not be even bothered about Walmart," he added.
As part of its strategy to run stores in the neighbourhood of residential localities, the firm sets up stores in the
mandis with concentration of local
feriwalas.
"We want to compete with them and sell more than them. It is not that we are killing their livelihoods as we are ready to hire them and give fixed remuneration higher than what they usually get," he said.
Spinach wants to consolidate in Mumbai first before expanding to other parts of
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