Well it might sound hilarious but for an Indian who comes to US, like me it is a reality. India at least the one that I left behind we do the shopping the 1920's US way. Where shopping especially grocery is predominately by Mom and Pop stores and non self-service grocery stores and non-existent franchise system.
And so when one comes to US where in 2000 we come to the third generation of grocery and shopping by just taking the plane across. And it makes the effect of the wow effect, as it happened with me when I first visited my first Walmart. The economies of scale and the mere choice and prices are a "Knockout".
But it takes a while to come to know why there was a wow effect. US has already seen three generation of evolution from the 20's way of shopping to the todays shopping. It has gone a big way from the first supermarket's then revolutionary thougth of self-service grocery (Clarence Saunders and his Piggly Wiggly) to the next wave of discount retailers like Walmart to the most recent wave of warehouse clubs like Costco, Sam's.
The effect of the automation and effeciecy leads to choice and convienece which is unparralelled. And it opens mind to things which one can not have imagined. Where so many innovative ideas in production delivery and packaging can be seen in these shelves.
Yet it does not goes without it's drawback. Through it leads many choices in durable stuff it certainly lacks the one for non durable products especially food. A small Indian market can easily challenge the choices of food vegetable than a big Kroger's and all of them are freshly and locally grown. The selective medium term extinction of not so durable choices which people like us get to see after the glitter wanes off after sometime.
