Reuters reports:
Tens of thousands of small shopkeepers went on strike across India on Thursday to protest a government decision to allow foreign retail giants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc to enter the country's $450 billion retail market.
Global supermarket groups see a huge opportunity in India, Asia's third-largest economy with a fast growing consumer class. For millions of shopkeepers, though, the prospect of competing with Walmart and other multinational retail brands is daunting.
"I only earn about 2,000 rupees ($39) a week and I have 7 children to take care of," said 42-year-old Rakesh Kumar, who owns a small curtain store in a narrow alley in Karol Bagh market in central Delhi.
"If these foreigners waltz in here and take away whatever I earn, how will I get my little girls married in the future?"



dont have so many @!$%#ing kids then
"dont have so many @!$%#ing kids then"
Damn straight!
If only they would succeed to stop the greed. This is exactly how it all started here. Small businesses were smashed in the process, nobody seemed to believe that it could get any worse. It did. Look at us today...
"how will I get my little girls married in the future?"
Mr. Kumar, you could work to change the archaic practice of dowry brides that treats women like property. If you educate and empower your daughters instead, spend your money on THEIR future, YOUR future will look a lot brighter. Multi-national corporatism is something we are all going to have to adapt to, unfortunately.
Yes he should switch to the American Family System where 50% of children are born to unmarried parents, 50% of marriages dissolve. Where certain groups (Blacks) have 70% percent of their children born to single mothers. Where we have an entire complex set up around the dissolvation of families. Where we can't decide what a mans role is, whats a womans role is, whether they should even have roles. We have to legislate to insure families operate properly, child support, alimony, spousal support. Archaic though it may be at least his family is defined in what it must do, I've seen what ourfamily policy gets us, if we want to do something we can build a school offer free meals and encourage him to send his daughters other than that until we have something that works we should leave his family alone both for his daughters and his sake.
That's a ridiculous comment. You're basically saying that until we're perfect we can't make any comments. There is clearly civil and human rights violations going on in a country that we support in many many ways. Either we exit completely and let them earn their own money or we have a responsibility to try to push for freedom's reforms.
I'm not aiming for perfection. Maybe proficiency. Definitely understanding. But last I checked 50% is an F. People scoring Fs shouldn't operate as subject matter experts. As for a responsibility to intervene we too clearly commit civil and human rights violation from our own perspective as well as the world's perspective. Whether something is a human or civil rights violation is partially based on the eyes of the on lookers. Some Americans see nothing wrong with abortion, minimum wage funded families, lack of universal health care, living together before marriage or without marriage however to onlookers say if the roles were reversed and Saudi Arabia was the influencer how would we respond to having their views shape us, likewise if the Influencer was a European country pushing their social justice reforms how would our nation react. Unfortunately attempting to implement "freedom's reforms" without understanding the culture has been documented see The Black Family: 40 Years of lies There is something tragically wrong with our system lets not do like Microsoft and use the world as a beta test.
@ jaguar & base
Pipe down with the lesbian "feminist" propaganda, would yuh? Some of us straight women want to be treated like women and don't tolerate being told we have to "grow a pair" to be respected. You people are mysoginists feigning to be my gender's saviors... Sorry, but it's not fun to be a woman in America at all. We grow up being punished, shunned, etc. for being female, and at the same time get the same treatment if we do anything the same sexists think is masculine while actually unisex, like exercise... Then, after we hit a certain age, then the sexists start saying we have to "grow a pair," and can no longer act on our natural instincts. We get told we have to want a career, when we don't. We get told we have to fear love and men, when we want a loving man in our life. And, we get told to be whores, when we want a man to prove himself before getting access to our eggs and possibly ditching us with the offspring. All of this is thoroughly proven scientifically. Women want to be women, and to be respected as such. I am a healthy, straight woman, and I am telling you I do not want to be anything else. I do not want a career. I do not want to fear men. I do not want to hate men. I do not want to hate myself for being female. I do not want to be a victim. I do not want to have to do everything on my own. I do not want to live without love and support. I do not want to substitute happiness with consumerism and eating disorders. I do not want to feel ashamed of my womanly body, womanly wiles, womanly charms, womanly emotions, womanly intuition, or etc. I refuse to be abused by "feminists," and I refuse to let them go on claiming their sexist bull@!$%# is for the benefit of the healthy, straight female magority. The only group that has benefitted is the lesbian minority. And, their gain has come at the expense of the 90-99% of the rest of the human species! So, maybe you should STFU before thinking you're speaking up for my gender, because you're not. You're speaking up for a third gender group, which is a whole different group that just happens to look the same. They might look the same, but they don't act or think the same at all. They are not proper women, and that is a fact. And, they are only a 1-10% of total women, so they need to STFU with this propaganda and stop spitting on real women before we strike back.
kumar seems to have experience running a shop and dealing with customers, meybe he can work for walmart and exceed his 39 dollars a week and help his daughters move up in the world. possible he might even have enough money left over for some condoms.
I was with ya 100% until the condom comment....
boycot walmart. they destroyed small buisness in america and will do the same to any country that lets them in.
Well for one, it should actually make it easier. If Walmart is to succeed there, it must have competitive prices with all those other little stores, thus saving you money by shopping there, or at the small stores when they drop THEIR prices to compete.
"Well for one, it should actually make it easier. If Walmart is to succeed there, it must have competitive prices with all those other little stores, thus saving you money by shopping there, or at the small stores when they drop THEIR prices to compete."
Once Walmart puts him and the others out of business by lowering their prices below wholesale until local business folds, then he won't have the money to spend at Walmart...or any where else. Or don't you remember how they did the same in the U.S.? Then they just jack prices right back up. They have the resources to outlast the little guy.
Really? cause Our Walmart here has been here for 10+ years and the stuff is still cheap as hell. The notion that they will drive out everyone else and then jack up the prices is nothing more than conspiracy rhetoric.
Miner54 was seen spewing this:
Walmart continues to be one of the lowest priced retailers, long after local competition has dried up. The reason? The power of wholesale pricing. There is no evidence Walmart just jacks the prices back up as you say; in fact, they continue to offer lower prices than their competitors.
Wal-Fart sells stuff cheap as hell because most of it is JUNK. They kill local businesses and then offer a paltry selection of crap, AND they can't even keep their shelves stocked! I would like to say I never shop there, but since so many of our locally owned businesses are gone, I sometimes have no choice.
Keep Wal-Fart out, India! They won't treat you any better than they treat us.
so in order to compete, there goes the 39 a week and now he makes 29 with his discounted prices???? and thats better? I must have misunderstood what you said.
Welcome to our world India! Remember, the Walton family are "job creators". They won't create as many jobs as they displace, and they won't pay as well...but hey, that's progress.
Well as much as I hate Walmart. Sorry India cant have it both ways. You want outsourced jobs, guess what gonna have to take Walmart. Don't like it go back to the socialist ways of the pre-1990's.
Good for them It's too bad Americans can't see the harm they are doing to America by shopping at Wal-Mart. I wish small busuness owners here would do the same. It's too late for thousands of ghost towns acrooss this and other nations. Take a drive through your own state, any state. You'll see downtowns, empty except for a few gas stations, check cashing stores, and a Wal-Mart. If senior citizens would try to remember that China is to this generation what Russia was to theirs, they would stop worrying about saving pennies on junk they don't need. I guess that's where we're supposed to buy our bomb shelters.
Are you seriously stating that Walmart creates ghost towns? That is ridiculous. I assume you have the research to prove your claim? =p
Of course no name of a single "Ghost Town" as a direct result of Wal Mart being there. Proof that statements can come void of fact
I don't feel sorry for the shopkeeper at all, his relatives took plenty of American jobs through outsourcing. If wages in India were competitive, there wouldn't be so many jobs heading there and displacing American workers. I'm tired of calling up a customer service line here and getting Rajesh in India....
A backwards, over-populated, caste burdened, massively prejudiced and murderous nation is afraid of WAL MART?????
A rat can scare an elephant.
So if Indians are so "wary" of a US Company, why do they then be so willing to be hired at the hundred of thousands of US Outsourced Jobs by US Companies?
In India the small traders routinely overcharge the customers.They just don't want WalMart to butt in and kill their margins.
Ahaha they are going to get owned by Walmart. They thought they were going to be able to freeload of off American companies forever. They have no idea what it's like having a real mega-corp leach off of their economy, now they will.
We gave them all of their money, now we are going to take it back. Plus, everything they sell is made in China and now they will also be sending money to their biggest competitor for global market share and keeping none of the profits. Hilarious.
If allowed they will try to conquer the world and make us all slaves to their 5hit products.