May 9, 1996 is a special day in the history of corporate retailing in India. That was the day when the first Foodworld (The current Spencer’s Daily) store opened at C P Ramaswamy Road, Chennai and led the way for corporate retail to grow and establish itself in India.
For skeptics and detractors of this view, I quote what was written about the Wright Brothers in Wikipedia; “Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed wing flight”
Similarly, there have been supermarket chains before and after Foodworld. However, Foodworld redefined the perception of grocery and monthly shopping and influenced the consumers to make the switch to self service formats in a sustainable manner. In a manner of speaking this early mover and the footfalls they were able to generate would have surely influenced many of the current operators to look at Retail as an investment option.
Hence, it would be correct to say that Foodworld is the pioneer of today’s corporate chains.
Some names who were a part of this historic moment: The senior team comprised of Mr. P K Mohapatra, Mr. Raghu Pillai, Mr. S Raghunandan, Mr. Shiv Murti, Mr. Ganesh Chella and Mr. Arindam Guha. The others in the team were Late Mr. K P Ramachandran, Mr. Ashoke Bhaskaran, Mr. Atanu Chakraborty, Ms. Geetha Mahadevan, Mr. Eby Mathews, Mr. Sundaram, Mr. G’boy Varghese, Mr. Rajat Das Gupta and so many more.
It would be remiss if I did not mention Late Ms. Usha Ravi, the store manager for the first Foodworld store. Possibly India’s first woman store manager!
The store was inaugurated by the Carnatic music icon, the late M.S. Subbulakshmi - a memorable moment. This went on to herald the pattern of huge crowds without which there never was a Foodworld store opening. With the crush of people inside the 2,400 sq. ft. store increasing and the four cash tills sprouting long lines, Corporate Supermarket Chains had arrived in style that day.
Ah, those heady days of pioneering work!
P.S. - I had mentioned about Indian Corporate Retail being like a teenager just a few days ago. It is indeed a teenager now. It is 13 years old.
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