ANNOUNCEMENTS
Traditionally dominated by unorganized retail, the Indian retail markets are now experiencing slow but steady influx of organized retail mainly in urban areas. The large organized retail formats which are generally successful in urban areas, have had limited success in attracting footfalls due to dominant unorganized retail sector and low levels of urbanization. The increase in organized retail formats requires unorganized retailers to keep up with changing consumer preferences and discounted prices. Due to limited access to credit, these retailers often struggle in upgrading infrastructure and investing in branding to compete with organized retailers. In spite of steady consumer base, the street vendors which are significant part of unorganized retail sector, are more vulnerable as they are often seen as encroachers of public spaces and frequently face harassment and evictions due to contradicting role of authorities, which negatively affect their business and income. Many Real Estate Developers running large commercial complexes in India as well as other countries have experimented with integrating organized and unorganized retail spaces under one roof as a key to increase footfalls and make spaces livelier to the consumers resulting in a symbiotic relationship. In the changing retail scenario of Indian markets, it can be seen as an opportunity to integrate these large organized spaces with street vending activities. From the secondary and primary research conducted to investigate such possibility, it was seen that such integration is complex in nature due to the unique functioning of street vendors’ market. While such arrangements are possible spatially, the owners of organized retail spaces may be discouraged due lower capacity of street vendors to pay rent and the type of consumers such activities will attract, as opposed to what they may want to attract. Hence, there is need to rethink the ways in which our formal retail spaces can be designed to overcome such challenges and be beneficial for both the parties. Opening up and creating such new spaces for street vendors while keeping in mind their ways of functioning, will make our cities livelier and more inclusive.
Key words: organized retail, unorganized retail, street vendors, integration, inclusive
