Apropos Wholesale War in the E-Tail (Aug 11), it would be great for consumers—and the broader economy—if these battles are fought in the marketplace, with no one seeking to tilt the level playing field by seeking restrictive government policies, as happened so often in the past with FDI. On a lighter note, kyonki...Amazon bhi kabhi Flipkart tha!
Ashok Lal, Mumbai
Foreign players like Amazon should source locally. Already our market is flooded with cheap Chinese merchandise. Any FDI inflow should enable new job creation through adding capacity or starting greenfield projects. They should not desist from grabbing well-run Indian corporates.
N. Ramamurthy, Chennai
After Flipkart’s promoters found investors, they have deferred their plan to offer the company’s share through an ipo. We will have to wait a while before we can assess their comparative strengths. Their investments in infrastructure and aggressive marketing plans and strategy indicates that they are both confident of making money and are ready to fight for increasing their marketshare. This is welcome news for consumers. One only hopes these companies would help us get value-added products at competitive prices as well as assure us prompt after-sales service and not try to fleece us.
Narendra M. Apte, Pune
Online commerce giants have been good news for India so far. I have bought several books from them and find their service quick and efficient. It has been bad news for physical retailers, however, for whom huge rents and operating costs were always a burden, now it's sounding a death knell. Also, all this noise about stopping organised retail has been exposed as nonsense. All that this has done is let outdated supply chains exist and let them waste food. In fact, one reason they let grains rot in open godowns is that it gets our netas cheap raw material for their liquor factories.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
Very soon, old books is all you will find in book shops. The new books will sell only on Amazon. It can also continue to offer discounts because it has no running costs. Small stores will shut shop.
Shelly Rahman, London
Some of these online sites are like faceless creatures who appear, sting and vanish. I say this going by my experience with eBay India.
Rajneesh Batra, New Delhi
He who satisfies his customer best—in terms of price, quality and service—will be king.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
