It all started with corporateowned outlets vending agricultural inputs in rural hamlets— there was also that pertinent advice from trained agronomists to farmers, who were primarily the customers. Soon, it did not stay that way. The fairness in price, quality, the range of products stocked and the chance to return defective items, demanded that the same be repeated in case of consumer items. After all, there was no such store nearby and all the necessities and occasional luxuries had to be procured from the variety the kirana stores provided. Lack of shelf space and the tendency of the kirana store owner to push that item which paid him higher commission, drastically limited the scope to pick and choose.
The corporate sector saw here a tremendous opportunity to promote their retail trade. The pioneering effort towards the establishment of rural malls came from the tobacco major, ITC. As a logical extension of its highly lauded e-choupal project, the company launched rural malls under the banner "Choupal Saagar". The very first "Choupal Saagar" came up on an eight-acre plot in Rafiqganj, about 4 KM from Sehore in Madhya Pradesh.
Here, the idea is that the farmer can drive in with his family on his tractor laden with harvest, get it weighed on a digital weighing machine and offload it at a huge godown at the back of the mall, for a fair price. In the meantime, the lady could look around the mall and get her requirements from the racks bursting with packaged foods, spices, cereals, clothes (trousers at Rs. 166/- a pair for the villagers), shoes, sewing machines, watches, grinders, TVs, DVD players, pressure cookers, room heaters, etc. The children have swings and videogames to engage themselves, while their mothers go about their shopping.
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