Quick commerce doesn’t hurt kirana stores, creates more jobs than Indian Railways, Zepto founder Aadit Palicha says

Zepto co-founder Aadit Palicha said quick commerce doesn’t hurt traditional kirana stores and that it is a net job creator as well.

Palicha dismissed the whole idea of kirana stores being affected by the rise of quick commerce firms like Zepto, Blinkit, Instamart, and BigBasket, calling it “anecdotal” and a “data-free narrative,” in an interview with Moneycontrol.

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He went on to cite Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) data which showed that $46 billion was added to grocery and household essentials consumption between the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24, with quick commerce having less than $5 billion of a share.

Palicha said the balance $41 billion of the incremental rise went to kirana stores. “Their own data shows that it’s impossible for quick commerce to have caused kirana stores to shrink,” he was quoted as saying.

He further clarified that even if quick commerce grew at a huge 1,500% rate in the next five years, it will still reach only $75 billion at a time when reports from Goldman Sachs, CLSA, and Invest India forecast $200-250 billion of consumption growth in the same time period.

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When asked about allegations regarding predatory pricing, Palicha said only 0.2% of the units sold on Zepto were below cost price of the manufacturer in 2023-24 and that quick commerce was deflationary.

When asked why fruits and vegetables on various quick commerce platforms are 20-30% costlier than what a neighbourhood store charges, Palicha said it is because of quality, taking the example of mangoes on Zepto which are 100% carbide free and stored in a refrigerated facility with controlled moisture levels.

Palicha also said that quick commerce is a net job creator and a wage additive which formalises the economy and will generate $1 billion in direct taxes cumulatively for the government in the next 2-3 years $300-400 million would come from Zepto alone.

He also added that quick commerce employs 3-4 lakh delivery partners with Zepto alone creating about 1.14 lakh jobs in total.

Palicha said that the industry pays ₹23,000 per month to the ground force on average when earlier, the same people were making ₹10,000-15,000 each month, or probably even lower than that.

“Quick commerce will generate more jobs than the Indian Railways would do in the next 2-3 years, which we should celebrate,” he said.

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