chief exexutive (operations) Eby Mathews, in-charge of South India operations

RRL, which opened its first store in November 2006, now operates over 900 stores in 80 cities spanning 14 states On its Tamil Nadu operations, he claimed RRL had a loyal customer strength of 5 million and expected it to surpass the 7 million mark by the end of this year.

The company had provided direct & indirect employment to over 5,00,000 people around the country

After sales service for consumer electronics, apparel alteration service, gift wrapping and sale of snacks such as pop corn and sweets and free parking were also being planned. The price of the products was same across the three different kinds of stores and all the outlets across the country had been networked.

'Reliance Super' is spread across 10,000 sq ft of shopping space to provide shoppers a never before experienced shopping delight.

'Reliance Super' offers a range of over 5000 products catering to the entire family.

Shoppers have the option to choose from a wide array of products in every category ranging from food, fresh produce, daily needs, fragrances, cosmetics, and much more.

'Reliance Super' boasts of a host of Reliance's private label brands in select categories with superior quality and affordable prices. The key specialty of the store is the Fresh Fruits & Vegetables and Grocery for all daily needs

The store layout and ambience has been designed specifically to provide customers comfort and ease of shopping.

'Reliance Super' has over 20 highly skilled and trained customer sales representatives and 11checkout counters along with one express counter, aimed at reducing the customer waiting time.

The store will remain open from 8:00am to 10:00 pm on all days.

'Reliance Super' offers its customers "Reliance One", Membership & Loyalty services, designed to deliver customized benefits to frequent shoppers. Under this scheme, customers can earn RelianceOne Point on all shopping in the store which can be redeemed after accumulation. RelianceOne already has a membership base of more than 4 million customers.

" Reliance Fresh - a neighborhood store concept

" Reliance Super- a super mart concept " Reliance Mart - a hyper market concept " Reliance Digital - a consumer durables and information technology concept " Reliance Trends - an apparel specialty concept " Reliance Footprint -a footwear concept " Reliance Jewels - a jewellery concept " Reliance Time-Out- a books, music & entertainment concept " Reliance AutoZone - an automotive specialty concept

RIL is the first private sector company from India to feature in the Fortune Global 500 list of 'World's Largest Corporations' and ranks 100th in terms of profits. RIL ranks 68th in the Financial Times 'FT Global 500' list of the world's largest companies.

RIL is ranked amongst the '50 Most Innovative Companies - 2010' in the World in a survey conducted by the US financial publication - Business Week in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

In 2010, BCG also ranked RIL as the second highest 'Sustainable Value Creators' for creating the most shareholder value over the decade in the world.

Reliance Fresh is supermarket chain which forms part of the retail business of Reliance Industries of India which is headed by Mukesh Ambani. With a vision to generate inclusive growth and prosperity for farmers, vendor partners, small

shopkeepers and consumers, Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), a subsidiary of RIL, was set up to lead Reliance Groups foray into organized retail. Since its inception in 2006, Reliance Retail Limited (RRL) has grown into an organization that caters to millions of customers, thousands of farmers and vendors. Based on its core growth strategy of backward integration, RRL has made rapid progress towards building an entire value chain starting from the farmers to the end consumers. Reliance plans to invest in excess of Rs 25000 crores in the next 4 years in their retail division. The company already has in excess of 560 reliance fresh outlets across the country. These stores sell fresh fruits and vegetables, staples, groceries, fresh juice bars and dairy products.

In Madurai there are 2 Reliance Super stores namely at Bibikulam and Kamaraj salai and 6 Reliance Fresh stores namely at Doak nagar, AA road, KK nagar, Anna nagar, Thirunagar, Sathya sai nagr and Villapuram.

Reliance Super is a pure play super market focusing on categories like food, FMCG, home & consumer durables, IT and wellness, with food accounting for the bulk of the business.

Company is aggressively partnering farmers by following a farm-to-fork strategy in its supply chain management model and ensures that it delivers fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices to consumers.

MERCHANDISE OFFERED:

? Baby foods and baby-care products such as disposable diapers ? Breads and bakery products (many stores may have a bakery on site that offers specialty and dessert items)

? Bulk dried foods such as legumes, flour, rice, etc. (typically available for selfservice) ? Canned goods and dried cereals ? Confections and candies ? Cosmetics ? Dairy products ? Delicatessen foods (ready-to-eat) ? Electrical products such as light bulbs, extension cords, etc. ? Feminine hygiene products ? Frozen foods ? Fresh produce, fruits and vegetables ? Housecleaning products ? House wares, crockery and cooking utensils, etc. (typically limited) ? Laundry products such as detergents, fabric softeners, etc. ? Non-alcoholic beverages such as soft drinks, juices, bottled waters, etc. (some stores may have a juice bar that prepares ready-to-drink freshly squeezed juices, smoothies, etc.) ? Personal hygiene and grooming products ? Seasonal items and decorations ? Soft-Drinks

STORE LAYOUT AND DESIGN

Store Layout:

Grid Type Layout

Grid Type Layout: This type of layout is a retailers primary choice when it comes to Layout Planning or Designing. These layout makes you feel where and what are you shopping.

Ambience: Reliance fresh provides good ambience having proper lighting, ventilation facilities. Also products are properly arranged according to category. Customers are provided with trolleys and baskets to select products on their own. For this purpose enough space is made available with the help of grid layout. Air conditions are also used.

Shelving Pattern: Use of Wall Racks, Corner Racks, Retail Gondolas, Fruits & Vegetable Racks, Shopping Trolleys And Baskets, Wire Products, Check Out Counter, Glass Shelves and Accessories, Gondola End Racks, Wall Unit Racks, Wire Baskets.

PROCUREMENT POLICIES & PROCEDURE, INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

Procurement policies:

1. Centralize purchase through various Distribution centre directly from manufacturer. 2. The category manager and the SCM manager plans the overall merchandise to be offered at the store. 3. Order are automatically generated by the SAP system when the level of the merchandise reaches the reorder level. 4. The category manager can anytime check the inventory level.

5. The category manager receives the order automatically generated by the system and then forwards it to the SCM manager.

Procurement procedure:

Three important persons are involved in this procedure. 1. Store manager 2. Category manager 3. Supply chain manager

Similar products falls into a category and similar categories are managed by a category manager. Once the stock in the store falls below the reorder level the SAP system automatically generates order for procurement of those goods. This order is received by category manager who collects orders from different reliance fresh stores in the city and then places an bigger order to the Supply Chain. The supply chain procures goods from their respective sources through centralized purchasing or local purchases. The goods are then send to the stores which ordered for it.

Sources of supply:

Vegetables: Local farmers and Wholesalers Fruits: Wholesalers Direct through company contracts or through the Carry

Other FMCG products: and Forward Agents.

MODEL 1

Supply Chain Model of Reliance Fresh: Reliance started its retail operations of reliance fresh stores with following supply chain model. Procuring directly from the farmers and operating with moderate margin but mass selling was key to reliance fresh operations for first few months.

13_chapter5 diagram : (From the above pictorial representation of supply chain management of reliance fresh it is clear that raw material is procured from vendors, transformed into finished goods in a single step, and then transported to distribution centres, and ultimately, customers. Realistic supply chains have multiple end products with shared components, facilities and capacities. The flow of materials is not always along an arbores cent network, various modes of transportation may be considered, and the bill of materials for the end items may be both deep and large.)

Companies like Kishore Biyanis Future group, Subhiksha and Spencers have had operations in this format long before. Moreover, the positioning of the Reliance Super format puts it in direct competition not only with neighbourhood local stores, but also with small fruit and vegetable vendors.

MODEL 2

The Whole Dale Trading Model

Steps in WST Model:

1) Reliance has owned farms on contract basis for production of specific crop which is decided after extensive research depending on soil conditions, climatic conditions & return over costs incurred, so as to yield best possible results. 2) Different vegetables and fruits from such farms are collected through reliance own Logistics and brought to collection Processing centres where quality heck and other required processing is done. In processing centres workers wearing balaclavas, woollen trousers and bulky jackets work inside a room kept at a constant 3oC, peeling and chopping vegetables, spinning them dry and then heaping them in small plastic packets before placing them in plastic transport crates. At the other end of the 5,000-sq-m warehouse, men unload crates of fruits from a truck pulled up to a spotless loading dock. A quality-control expert samples every tenth crate; if the fruits are good a team will ready them for delivery within hours to 'Reliance Super' stores around different places. 3) Merchandise from these collection processing centres are collected and loaded for Wholesale mandis. As this merchandise is to be made available by 4 A.M in morning thus deliveries in trucks are sent at time depending upon:

? TRANSIT TIME. Time required reaching destination i.e. Reliance Super, Bibikulam. ? MARGIN TIME. Time period between a truck reaching the destination and then Unloads, can be 2 to 3 hours.

4) Fruits & vegetables are not sold, reliance own logistics' transportation sends them to reliance fresh stores. 5) When the trucks have been unloaded, the fruits and vegetables are ready to supply to the customers.

Stocking pattern: All the merchandise is stocked 15-20 days in advance. The Vegetables and other perishable items are stocked only for 1-3 as per the nature of the food item. This kind of stocking pattern doesnt create shortage at the store and helps the store to make the goods available to the consumers all the time.

Inventory: A minimum inventory is maintained so as not to run out of stock. The inventory level varies for products and location depending upon the demand of the product in a store.

Fruits & Vegetables : 1 day Other products : 2 weeks.

EXTENT OF IT PENETRATION

Barcodes: They have slowly become an essential part of modern civilization. Their use is widespread, and the technology behind barcodes is constantly improving.

Some modern applications of barcodes include:-

? Almost every item purchased from a grocery store, department store, and mass merchandiser has a UPC barcode on it. This greatly helps in keeping track of a large number of items in a store and also reduces instances of shoplifting involving price tag swapping, although shoplifters can now print their own barcodes. Since the adoption of barcodes, both consumers and retailers have benefited from the savings generated.

? Retail chain membership cards use bar codes to uniquely identify a consumer. Retailers benefit by being able to offer customized marketing and greater understanding of individual consumer shopping patterns. Shoppers typically get special offers at the point of sale (coupons, product discounts) or special marketing offers through the address or e-mail address provided at registration.

Use of SAP:

Retailers needs information regarding demand, insights about strategy and analytics. It is also felt that merchandising is just a part of retail, with financial planning also playing a major role.

NUMBER AND TYPE OF EMPLOYEES PER STORE:

Total employee : 19

Store manager : 1

ASM (Assistant Store Manager) : 1

Supervisor : 2

Customer service associates : 15

Cashier : 1

PARKING & OTHER FACILITIES

Parking space is available at most of the stores allowing over 30 commuters to park their vehicles. 500 to 1200sq. ft space is provided for two wheeler & car parking.

In-house facilities for customers: Various facilities such as drinking water, toilet, etc are not provided in shop for the usage of customers.

Help desks are provided to assist the customers, weighing machines available to weigh the vegetables and fruits, shopping trolleys and baskets are available to collect and carry the goods inside the store.

PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Promotional schemes: Promotional schemes are more targeted to the impulse buying nature of the customers. They have in-store promotions, which are majorly given by company on branded products. If any new schemes are introduced then pamphlets are distributed to customers house near the store. POP displays are used on regularly basis on the selected items. A variety of short term incentives is used to encourage trail or purchase of a product or service. The sales promotion at Reliance fresh includes premiums and gifts, Sampling, rebates.

Loyalty schemes, membership cards: Reliance Fresh has started loyalty program on day one and you get 1 point for every Rs.100 you spend in any of the Reliance Retail stores and you encash the same in any of Reliance Retail stores be

it be Reliance Fresh or Reliance Hypermarket. Reliance Credit Card is given to the customers. It can be used to purchase goods at various Reliance retail store.

Point of purchase displays: At Reliance Fresh it is used to communicate the benefits of the products. The point of purchase is used to communicate promotions with the help of Shelf Talkers. Shelf Talker is mode of communication at the shelf where the product is displayed.

You need a variety of goods for use in your day-to-day life. Where do you get all those goods? Are they all available in your local market? If not, then you must be buying those goods from the markets of the nearby town or city. Generally to buy goods as per your own choice you move from shop to shop and market to market. You may think why all these goods are not available in a single shop? Why are these goods not available at our doorstep? Yes, there are certain shops from where you can buy a variety of goods of different types as per your convenience. Goods of your choice can also be made available at your doorstep. You can also buy goods of your choice from the shops having no salesperson either to guide you or handover the goods to you. Are you surprised? You need not be. Let us learn how all this happens.

Retail : Sale of goods or commodities directly to consumers.

Retailing : The activities involved in the selling of commodities directly to consumers.

Meaning of Large - scale Retail Trade

Large scale retail trade is a type in which either single type of goods or a variety of goods is made available to a large number of consumers in a big shop under a singel roof or may be made available at the convenience of customers.

Suppose you want to buy new dresses, new shoes, some cosmetics and a number of goods of daily need. You visit one shop in the market to buy your dress, again for shoe, you visit another shop. Like wise, to buy all types of goods of your need you generally move from one shop to another. Sometimes goods of your choice may not be available in a particular shop. Then you need to visit other shops. Sometimes you may also face a heavy rush in the market. These are some general problems you may face in the local market. To overcome all these problems, some of us may like to go to shops other than the small retail shops in the local market. For example, if we dont have sufficient time to visit different shops to

buy the items of our need, we may like to find a shop where we can get most of our requirements and have a choice from different varieties. Or if we are very busy, we may want goods to be available to us at our home. Again, if we are in need of a well-known branded product, it may be convenient for us if there is a shop where we can get it at a reasonable price.

Actually these facilities are available in some retail shops in big towns and cities. They make available different types of goods under one roof. These shops are normally situated at central places and sell goods to a large number of customers. In some of these shops you will find a variety of goods and in some shops you will find goods of single type like shoes, shirts, etc. made by single manufacturer. All these shops buy goods in large quantities and sell them to individual consumers as retailers do. Sometimes big manufacturers also sell their products directly to the customers by opening their shops in different parts of the country.

Types of Large-scale retail trade

In India, generally we find the following types of Large-scale retailing business

i. Departmental Store ii. Multiple Shops iii. Super Bazar

Departmental Store

A Departmental Store is a large-scale retail shop where a large variety of goods are sold in a single building. The entire building is divided into a number of departments or counters. In each department specific type of goods like stationery items, books, electronic goods, garments, jewellery etc. are available. All these departments are centrally controlled under one management. Once you enter such a store you can do all your shopping by moving from one department to another. To encourage people to do all their shopping in one store, these stores also provide facilities like restaurant, telephone, toilets, ATM etc. for the conveniences of customers. The departmental stores are very popular in USA and Europe. In our country you can find such stores in big cities. Ebony and Shoppers Stop in Delhi, Spencer in Chennai, Kids Kemp in Banglore are some examples of departmental stores.

Features of Departmental Store

After getting an idea about a departmental store, let us identify its features:

i. It is generally located at the main commercial centres of the cities and towns, so that, customers from different localities can easily come to buy goods as per their convenience. ii. The size of the store is very large and divided into many departments or counters. iii. Each department deals with particular type of goods, say, one department sells electronic goods, another sells ready-made garments, a third keeps food items, and so on. iv. The management and control of all departments is centralised. v. The Departmental Store allows customers to enjoy shopping. It enables the customers to buy everything under one roof. vi. Facilities such as restaurant, rest rooms, telephone, ATM (Automated Teller Machine), etc. are also made available to customers inside the store. vii. It allows the customers to buy goods against a credit card. viii. Customers may also avail of free home delivery facilities from these stores.

Advantages of Departmental Store

Followings are the advantages of a departmental store:

i. Convenience of shopping: Since a large variety of goods are sold under one roof, you need not move from one bazaar to another or from one shop to another to buy goods. It Business Studies saves your time and effort. Also, for the convenience of the customers these stores provide toilet, restaurant, rest room and telephone service and ATM facility inside the store. ii. Wide choice of product: A wide variety of products from different manufacturers are sold in these stores. Thus, a customer has a wide choice of goods from which he/ she can select the best, as needed. iii. Economies of large-scale purchase and sale: A departmental store buys goods on large scale. So it can bypass wholesalers and gets the goods directly from the manufacturers. This way it enjoys the benefits of discounts from the manufacturers. Again, due to large volume of sale, the cost of operation is also low. iv. Mutual advertisement: While visiting a departmental store customers are often attracted by goods displayed in different departments. Hence, there is a chance that the customers

may buy goods other than those they originally had in mind. Thus, each department advertises for other departments. v. Efficient management: Since these stores are organised on a large scale basis, they normally employ efficient and competent staff to provide best services to the customers. Inspite of these advantages, the departmental stores have certain limitation also. Let us make note of these:

Limitations of Departmental Store

The followings are the limitations of departmental stores:

i. Heavy Investment: Since departmental stores require large space for storing varieties of goods, huge amount of capital is required to start and manage a departmental store. ii. Distance from residential areas: The departmental stores are normally located in places far from the residential areas. Therefore, customers from far away localities find it inconvenient to buy goods from these stores. Again, to buy goods of daily use, people prefer going to small shop situated in their residential areas.

iii. High cost of operation: The cost of location (in the form of rent or purchase price of building), decoration of building, employment of large number of employees and provision of various facilities for the convenience of customers increases the operating cost of a departmental store. iv. High price: High operating cost and better quality of goods leads to high price being charged for the goods in departmental stores. v. Lack of personal attention: In departmental store there is no direct contact between the owner and the customers. It is the employees of the store who may interact with customers. The owners directly donot get information about the tastes and preference, likes and dislikes, etc. of their customers.

Super Bazar

Super Bazar is another kind of large-scale retail organisation from where we can buy most of our household requirements for a week or a month on one visit. Let us learn about this form of large scale retailing system in detail. Meaning of Super Bazar

Super Bazar is a large scale consumers co-operative store, which sells a wide variety of products like food items, vegetables, fruits, groceries as well as durable consumer goods all under one roof. It is formed with the objective of selling goods of daily necessity to its members and also to the general public at a reasonable price by eliminating the middlemen in the process of distribution.

Features of Super Bazar

The features of Super Bazar are: i. These stores are set up in the form of co-operative societies. Business Studies ii. These are centrally located and also establish their branches near the residential localities. Some Super Bazars have their mobile van, which is taken to the residential areas for sale of goods. iii. It deals only in standard quality products. iv. These stores are often run on self-service basis. You can pick up the goods of your choice from the open shelves and take them to the cash counter for making payment. In some Super Bazars salesmen are also employed to assist the customer in the process of selection

of goods. v. These stores are managed by elected members of the cooperative society. vi. Super Bazars purchase goods in bulk from the manufacturers or government agencies and sell them to the members and general public at a reasonable margin of profit. vii. In Super Bazar goods are sold only on cash basis. viii. The capital of Super Bazar is provided by the members of cooperative society.

Advantages of Super Bazar

Let us consider the advantages of super bazar.

i. Variety of goods: Super bazars deal with a wide range of goods of daily household need. ii. Quality goods: It provides standard quality items to the customers. Chances of adulteration and duplication are not there. iii. Low Price: Due to economies of large-scale purchase and avoidance of middlemen the goods are available at a cheaper price in super bazar. iv. Low operating cost: In a super bazar normally services of salesmen and shop assistants are not available. This reduces the cost of operation.

v. Benefits to members: The members of the society get the goods at a concessional rate. Incase of surplus or profits they also get dividend according to their share holding. vi. Freedom of selection: A customer can find goods of different brands at one place. This makes comparison and selection easy. You can take your own time to select items of your choice. vii. State control: In India most of the super bazars are controlled by Central and State Governments. This helps to maintain price and possibilities of creating artificial shortage of goods can be avoided.

Limitations of Super Bazar

Following are some of the limitations of super bazar:

i. Heavy investment: Super bazars require large amount of capital to start and run them. ii. Lack of efficient management: Because of insufficient funds, benefits of professional management are not available to the super bazar. Large-scale Retail Trade

iii. No credit facility: Goods are sold to the customers only on cash basis. Credit facility is not available to them.

Difference between Departmental Store and Super Bazar

Let us see how super bazars are different from the departmental stores.

Basis Departmental Store Super Bazar

(i) Ownership and These stores are owned and Super bazaars are owned and Control controlled by private parties. controlled by co-operative societies. (ii) Facilities Certain facilities like restaurant, No such facilities are toilet, telephone, etc. are made made available to the available to the customers. customers. (iii) Price of goods Prices of goods are generally Goods are sold at a cheaper higher than market rate. rate in comparison to departmental stores. (iv) Credit facility Sometimes goods can be sold on Sales are made only on cash credit basis. basis.

Till now you have learnt about Departmental store, Multiple Shops and Super Bazar. All these are engaged in retailing business in our country. Could you now be able to enlist some common features of all these stores/shops?

Features of Large-scale Retail Trade

The followings are some of the common features of large-scale retail trade.

i. It deals with a variety of goods of daily need and makes these goods available to the customers at their convenience. ii. It purchases goods in bulk directly from the manufacturers, thus avoiding middlemen in the process of purchase of goods. iii. It provides service to a large number of customers. iv. The size of the shops/stores is comparatively bigger than the local retail shops/stores. v. It requires huge capital investment to start and run the business. vi. It generally sells goods to the customers on cash basis.