Will Walmart help India or destroy it?

Millions of shop owners in India are fighting for their survival, as the threat of outside competition knocks at the door. While entry for international supermarket giants has been shelved for now, there are those who argue the move would be good for consumers and employment. RT's Priya Sridhar investigates.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• RT
• Priya Sridhar
• Anissa Naouai
• New Delhi
• India
• retail stores
• Singh Chauhan
• small business
• Tesco
• Walmart
• Reebok
• foreign companies
• farmers
• consumers
• supply
• Suresh Bhardawa
• tradition

[manofsan]

I'm Indian - what that shopkeeper isn't admitting is that he and his family survive on the backs of others who are denied consumer choice. They are forced to pay higher prices with him, whereas WalMart could lower the costs they pay for their goods, including basic food staples. Shopkeepers who survive by denying others consumer choice are only living on the backs of other peoples' deprivation.

[Fenria14]

@tehatemachine The "positive" effects of free trade are that all manufacturing leaves your country for slave labor overseas, your products are cheap crap made by slaves, the main streets that emphasized your culture disappear, and corporations get filthy rich. Yeah, those sure are positive! I love it when working class people advocate for their own demise, it's hilarious.

[LordKaisen]

i say go for it. If walmart can provide a cheaper good then the consumer will chose Walmart. But maintain the free market, watch out for monopolies, if the govt begins to favor walmart destroy it!

[aeromindz]

First of all, Walmart and Tesco will destroy India by taking cutting off and ultimately destroying the occupation and income of lakhs of small outlets and retailers. Secondly and most importantly, they will drain the revenue generated out of India to USA and UK respectively.. so a big NO to Walmart and Tesco.

[peacerebelgirl]

@manofsan i'll help you get started: 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price' and Frontline's 'Is Wal-Mart Good For America?'.

[peacerebelgirl]

@manofsan pardon me but a fool is someone who blindly supports a malign corporation like walmart without getting all the facts. do your research rather than asking someone to do it for you.

[manofsan]

@peacerebelgirl, why don't you give me these reasons directly, rather than citing unnamed documentaries like a fool. Please state to me how a more efficient supply chain which provides lower prices to consumers is undermining the economy. There are far more consumers than shopkeepers, and so there would be a net gain from WalMart mass-retail entities. Otherwise, you are depriving a larger number of consumers just to protect a smaller number of shopkeepers. That's not fair.

[peacerebelgirl]

@manofsan you are sadly misinformed and delusioned about walmart. there are some good documentaries that detail how walmart is not good for the economy, the people or small family owned businesses.

[tehatemachine]

@greaterwhiter1 Because as you may or may not know. The only thing that most regulations and minimum wages do not impact as much, Are the larger businesses sitting up top. In fact some of them VOTE for maintaining regulations, Because it keeps many competitors at bay or prevents other smaller businesses from achieving huge success. Because by then. The bigger guys would of bought the little one out because of financial instability due to heavy taxing regulations.

[tehatemachine]

@greaterwhiter1 it and many other governmental agencies are responsible for many of those ridiculous prices that have now resulted and FORCED people to be on some type of insurance program that would guarantee the hospitals and pharmaceutical companies stable income.

And again i'm not defending businesses that try to get politically involve to protect it's self somehow from competition. We would have far more smaller buisinesses competing if we got rid of most regulations.

[tehatemachine]

@greaterwhiter1 Our very own healthcare system is becoming more expensive BECAUSE of government being heavily involved. The FDA so far has failed in achieving it's initial goal by protecting people. It has blocked some and many bad drugs. But it has also blocked many more good drugs while heavily stalling advancements within the medical field.

[tehatemachine]

@greaterwhiter1 Also it's funny how so many people have been tricked by our very own government that the free market has failed, Health insurance costs are rising as a result of a failure of the free market. Both of which are completely false. They where quite successfully in spouting rhetoric about the free market being unstable and unable to work on it's own. It's the high misconception that has tricked so many people into voting for more regulations without looking at evidence