EasyDay, a multibrand retailer partly owned by Walmart already has 170 stores in India http://www.bharti-retail.in/
The dilemma of multibrand stores.
Street-side vendors and small family owned businesses are pretty iconic in India, but many fear that this may dramatically change after the federal government passed legislation on September 20th. Aimed at boosting India’s faltering economy, the new laws opened up the market to multibrand retailers such as Walmart.
This change has sparked mass protests and strikes across the country as business owners and their employees feared going out of business. India’s battered farmers are also concerned that they will fetch less for their goods with the new regulations.
Supporters of the opposition party burn an effigy of the prime minister in protest of the new legislation. telegraph.co.uk
I feel that although there are downsides to this legislation, the introduction of these stores will do more good than harm for India. They will help lower food prices that have soared over the past few years in a country that struggles to feed its population, and bring much needed foreign investment.
My observation is that the Indian culture is one rooted deeply in tradition and therefore a lot of the backlash could be because people fear changes to their outdated way of life. India cannot protect its markets from competition and modernization forever, and now looks like as good a time as any to open up.
Spark: India set to allow foreign supermarkets to open stores