Workers-run grocery store in Rajasthan gives traders a run for their money

The market in Bhim and competitors in the grocery business questioned the ability of workers as managers. The MKSS was sure that there was only one way to give them a befitting reply, and that would be to run a shop managed by workers in the open market.

The challenge had to be faced through practical demonstration rather than a logical or theoretical argument; in the end, answers had to come through action.

The MKSS began to plan the setting up of a grocery shop in Bhim. The money came from crowd funding, ₹10 from workers and ₹100 from salaried workers; pad yatras were organised and many people contributed ₹10 against receipts. They were loans without interest returnable in two years. About ₹65,000 were collected from the area. A few friends who believed in the venture made small contributions.

Why were institutional donations not accepted by the MKKS? The reasons for not accepting donations were argued out. Basically, the shop had to be sustained economically by the people, and owned by them if it had to survive. The shop, owned by Shanti Lal, in the middle of the market in Bhim, was taken on rent quite easily - because it was believed to be cursed. Since it had no prospects, it was given on a lease for three years. In normal cases shops were rented only for eleven months.

The grocery shop opened on November 16, 1992 in the Bhim market. The entire market was furious when the Mazdoor Kisan Kirana Store decided to announce prices of groceries over the mike. They were cheaper than the other shops, as the MKKS had collectively decided that the sale price would be marked up to 1 to 2% of the net profit. The usual mark-up is up to 25%. The net profit to the shops is 1% after deducting various expenses, like rent, electricity, transportation, salaries of workers and small incidentals.

The shop tested the argument that markets cannot be transparent because it cuts at the root of profit-making, and proved it wrong. The secret of pricing and selling low-quality goods is another method of earning higher profits. All these arguments fundamentally separate ethics from business.

The first day was both a day of caution and excitement. The shop was stocked but not fully, as no one could predict the quantum of sales. The microphone used for the struggles was used for announcing the day's rates for various items at the store. The response to the announcements was astounding. Buyers abandoned purchase from other shops and flocked to the Kirana Store, so much so that the shop ran out of its three days' stock by the afternoon of the first day.

There was a huge difference between the rates of the other shops and the Kirana Store. When people heard the rates of jaggery, oil, sugar, etc. and thronged towards the sangathan's Kirana Store, other traders were forced to bring in competitive rates. The shopkeepers were in a dilemma, torn between seeing another shop do better and their reluctance to lower profits.

The MKSS gathered important principles for transparency. The mazdoor store demonstrated how one store could blow the myth of the free market by merely using transparency and exposing the mark-up rate and the market's dismissal of ethics in favour of exploitative profit.

In a typical marketplace, looting, high prices, cheating on weights, adulteration and lies is daily business, as the refrain carries on with, `everything is fair in business’.

Soon, the traders united and came to the Kirana Store to request that the microphone be switched off. This was an issue on which there could be no compromise by the MKSS; rates continued to be announced several times in a day.

The traders started diversionary tactics. They started playing songs loudly and showing films in the shop just opposite the Kirana Store, to drown the volume of the mike. Though people came in hordes to that shop to watch the movies they bought groceries from the MKKS store next door. When the traders realized that their tactics were actually harming them, they stopped showing the movies.

The next attempt was to force a ban on supply by wholesalers to the Kirana Store. The wholesalers in Bhim were threatened that those who supplied goods to the Kirana Store would be fined. The Kirana Store started buying stock from Beawar. Some Bhim traders started supplying stealthily to the Kirana Store.

The Mazdoor Kisan Kirana ..Store does not merely sell groceries; it states a point of view in the sociopolitical milieu in which it is located. Following the Babri Masjid demolition, the sangathan joined the Kirana Store to take a public pledge to the preamble of the Indian Constitution, outside the shop in the middle of Bhim on Republic Day in 1993. They were joined by many people despite hostility.

What makes the Mazdoor Kisan Kirana Store special? It works for and within the reality of workers' basic needs and the local market. Two things that preoccupy workers in the market: the right price and the correct weight. By having workers manage the shop, accountability and transparency could be maintained.

A worker at the Kirana Store was one of them, who drew the same minimum wage as the MKSS workers. It was easy to converse with as an equal.

By looking at workers' needs, the Kirana; Store went beyond prices to question customs in the marketplace. Local markets shut down on the only day of the month that workers get off -amavasya or new moon. The Kirana Store, on the other hand, remains open on that day, as traditionally it was the only guaranteed holiday for e workers and they were free to go to the market. The `vyapar mandal', the traders' organization, tried its best to force the closure but it failed.

When the workers went to Beawar to buy spices for masala-grinding, they were shown the crushed remnants that traditionally go into ground spices. They were informed that good quality spices are sold whole. The MKKS decided to buy the best quality of spices and grind them to prevent adulteration of any kind. This is one item that costs more at the Ana Store than the rest of the market.

This extract from The RTI Story: Power to the People was taken with permission from Roli Books; 424 Pages; Rs 469