Retail giants to co-opt mom and pop stores

Instead of posing threat to traditional retailers, retail giants such as Reliance Retail, Subhiksha, Landmark, Fab India and Select Citywalk are going to co-opt them. Bijou Kurien, President and CEO of Reliance Retail (lifestyle) expressed his hope at a panel discussion on ‘Retail – Then and Now’, organized by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) that there is enough scope to grow for both the large and small formats by absorbing traditional retailers through franchise and in supply chain, and by direct linkage with agricultural sector and Small and Medium Enterprises. The industry experts expressed their believe that co-option will add value addition to retail growth instead of competition. In 2007 traditional retail business was $330 billion and modern retail was $13 billion, and by 2015, these figures are going to touch $530 billion and $130 billion respectively.