"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman down simply by spending his money elsewhere."

Sam Walton, Founder ofWal Mart stores Inc.

A recent survey of Indians revealed that most of us consider shopping a form of entertainment. No wonder then that India has a shopping market of Rs. 14,85,000 crore, rapidly growing at a rate of 13%. Interestingly, a large share of this can be attributed to the kirana shops that currently dominate the Indian bazaars. These stock an assortment of goods and brands and can be found at every street corner. In fact India has close to 1.5 crores shops of all kinds.

The modern era is retailing has barely begun with a few big supermarkets and hypermarkets, but this sector is poised to take off tremendously. Large corporate groups such as lTC, Reliance, Tata, Raheja, Pantaloon Retail and Bharti are infusing staggering amounts of capital into the organized retail sector, and by 2015, the modern retail market is estimated to be worth Rs. 10,75,500 crore, nearly as large as the entire market today. The joys of modern shopping, the likes of which we have so far experienced only during visits abroad, will be available to us at every street corner. Not only that, retail also offers large scope in terms of employment opportunities, as it is one of the largest employers worldwide.