Within a few weeks of a government-sponsored study favouring big retail chains, Congress General Secretary, Ms Margaret Alva on Monday said the mall culture is damaging the small kirana shops.
"The small kirana shops and establishments run by women are being swept away by the mall culture,'' Ms Alva said addressing the silver jubilee celebrations of the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO).
She said small-scale units, kirana shops which are also run by women, are not able to match the scales of production, finance, sales and advertising of the big retail stores.
"Today we are facing one of the most difficult period in trade, industry and commerce. Doors of the country have been opened and we have to face challenges from anything and everything that is being dumped in the country,'' the Congress General Secretary said.
While the over $450-billion multi-brand retail sector has not been opened to foreign direct investment, there is no restriction on domestic firms running malls and hyper malls, she said.
However, in view of protests from traders against organised retailing in several parts of the country, the Centre had instituted a study to assess the impact of organised retail on small stores.
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