Apna Market: The Dilemma of Increasing Footfall

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Apna Market had its genesis in the 1960s when Agarwal used to assist his father in their family owned Kirana store in Burrabazar in Central Kolkata. Agarwal was an avid reader and he was amazed when he read about organized retail in the western countries. He had always felt that customers would like to choose the products they wanted if they had a choice. Thus, with this idea he started Apna Market, a small supermarket in central Kolkata in 1982, where buyers could explore and choose the products on their own. The move was much ahead of its time but it clicked among the upper-middle class families in the surrounding areas.

The initial product assortment was more of packaged goods and FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods). This was because Agarwal did not want to stock perishable products since they increased storage costs and had unpredictable demand.

Sales started picking up and the store generated positive word of mouth. The product assortment started becoming wider. In the mid-1990s, Agarwal found that he needed a bigger space. Moreover, liberalization had led to the inflow of a lot of foreign brands and Agarwal wanted to cash in on that. Thus, in 1996, he went in for a revamp of the store with an increase in floor-space and departmentalization of the store. The move allowed him to not only store more products but also increased the variety in each product category. However, in the early 2000s, the retail landscape started to change. Organized retail arrived and promised to achieve a rapid growth rate in India. Along with new opportunities, it brought new challenges...

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