Big mall, big maul
SHALINI BHUTANI
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In the air-conditioned comfort of malls springing up everywhere, we forget that there are livelihoods at stake here.
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Photo: K. Murali Kumar
A new landscape: A celebration of choice or the dawn of a monoculture?
Few neighbourhoods in the city, and for that matter other cities too, are now untouched by the mall mania. If you live in Delhi, you must surely be witness to its changing topography; almost every locality landscape is getting mauled by shopping mall
s. Ever noticed how travel books also now talk of Delhi being a shopper’s paradise and list out the malls in the city?
Not a fair game
Are these then to be the cities’ new social, cultural and architectural scenes? Is shopping to become our national sport, (only after cricket)? But then the game is not fair, and the rules are unjust as the rich become richer and the small don’t matter in the game. Which reminds me, even before the Commonwealth Games come to town, Delhi will be host next year to an Asian Shopping Malls Show at its famed exhibition ground — Pragati Maidan, which, I admit I am surprised, hasn’t been metamorphosed into a mega mall itself! Asia is fast outpacing in size and numbers its North American and European predecessors, with countries like China and the Philippines boasting of some of the largest shopping mall complexes in the region.
In India, well over half the country’s present malls are in Delhi and other metros are fast competing. And the figures India-wide are about to change exponentially very soon. Even small towns across our map are vying for their own departmental stores and food courts all rolled into one mega mall. A drive out on the highways outside the city will show you a host of these giants by the road, a path earlier dotted with the little dhabas et al. While there are those who rejoice a
t the choices that the consumer now gets, one can’t help wonder what happens to those whom one stops buying from?
As far as food buying goes, leave aside eating habits that is fast changing. Your little kirana shop, local bakery, vegetable vendor, fish seller all have big competition. Will not the mall boom spell their doom? As is the clich
3;: big fish eat small fish, so are these mega marts going to swallow without a burp the small carts. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailers and one of the largest corporations in one of the largest markets, India; makes sense does it? Not if it displaces the largest number of peoples from their livelihoods. Big brands in food retail are poised to make the most of the market that Shining India offers. Self-proclaimed guardians of Indian culture should then also be fighting the entry of such Western influences as mega names in the U.S.’s mega food industry can have equally devastating impact on our food culture!
Huge odds
Enough and more is being done to make the small timer go without food. Our city has seen many a picture of small shops being bull-dozed, of farm land in peri-urban areas being sold to mall developers. And changing food laws, requiring industry standards of quality, hygiene and packaging are fast making the small food seller mega worried.
An advert on a delivery truck to one such food mall read, “Fresh frozen foods”. Now either the food can be fresh or it can be frozen, or the buyer is presumed to be so stupid that s/he can’t tell the difference as long as it’s being sold in a fancy, music-filled, air-conditioned environment. Not to mention that if you are sweating it out back home after your shopping spree in your local neighbourhood mall, it’s because the power supply which ought to have come to your house just went to keep those frozen foods fresh!
Growing indifference?
It is ironic that what sustains us — our very food, the small farmer who grows it and the small vendor who brings it to our doorstep — is often given the least thought. As one heads out to shop with a food list, one could easily become part of the maul culture. Where one picks up fruits and vegetables — that small and simple decision of place of purchase can literally keep some one’s daily bread. For, the only way the informal economy is going to survive this mauling is if we shop (from them) before they drop out due to the malling.
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