Amidst concerns of global retailers eating into the market share of small grocery shops in India, an official from the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, on Tuesday advised these shop owners to "learn to change" in order to survive. Asia pulse reports this today.

Speaking to Indian news channel NDTV in Arkansas, a top Wal-Mart official said that these mom-n-pop stores choose to compete with big players like Wal-Mart instead of carving out a niche for themselves, hence making their own survival difficult. "What we have found is that these mom-n-pop stores choose to compete with large companies head-to-head instead of finding a niche or specialisation. They will struggle, they might succeed, but it's likely they'll struggle. So they have to learn to change in order to survive," the official said.

The Indian government's decision to partially open the retail sector to foreign players has been criticised by small traders. Wal-Mart has tied up with India's Bharti Enterprises to set up a cash & carry retail base in the country. As part of the agreement, the US-based retailer would handle back-end operations of the joint venture company.

Other global players including Carrefour and Tesco are also planning to enter India. Indian conglomerates including Reliance and Aditya Birla group have also embarked upon major expansion plans of their retail operations.

(Source: Asia Pulse)