Inside the battle for Bharat: How startups are cracking the rural retail code

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For years, grocery shopping was an exercise in disappointment for Venkataramanan Reddy, a 58-year-old farmer living near Rayachoty, a town of 1.25 lakh in Andhra Pradesh’s Rayalaseema region. At the small neighbourhood stores he relied on, the quality of products, especially staples such as lentils, was poor, even as prices remained high.

Three years ago, that routine broke. Riding his bike into town, Reddy noticed a supermarket and slowed down. He hesitated, but curiosity and need got the better of him.

He bought only a couple of items, but was hooked after that first visit. The store is one of the 140 mostly franchisee-owned grocery outlets run by retail startup SuperK. All the stores are located in small urban centres in Rayalaseema, with the city of Kadapa at the core.

“I do all my grocery shopping at the SuperK store now. The variety and quality is very good, and there are always good offers," says Reddy, a college dropout. He spends around ₹5,000 for his monthly essentials at SuperK.

Reddy’s shopping habits offer a glimpse into how consumption is increasingly playing out across India’s small towns and semi-urban markets. Consumers like him are powering a small but growing group of startups, such as SuperK, CityMall, Glamzy, Zaaroz, Navo and Rozana, which are attempting to solve retail for Bharat or non-metro India. These startups, spread across categories as varied as grocery, beauty, fashion and hyperlocal delivery, have arrived at the same conclusion.