Is shoplifting a major problem in India?
Shoplifting, or shrinkage as we call it, is a global phenomenon. Even the world’s largest retailer, Wal Mart, with a turnover of $240 billion, suffers a shrinkage of 0.6 percent, which works out to more than $1 billion! But that is the way it is. And shrinkage is clearly focused at lifestyle products. We try to prevent it by putting a system and procedures in place. And you do so keeping in mind the environment that we operate in, where everything is kept open and displayed. One can make shrinkage zero by keeping everything locked up, or having security guards all over the place, but the cost of doing that is much higher that the 0.5 to 0.6 percent that one suffers on average. So we budget for that and keep a system in place to ensure that the shrinkage percentage is kept low. Have you seen any difference in the customers across India? Much of RPG’s retail experience has been in the south so it will take some time to actually answer that question. But one thing that clearly stands out
