My friendly neighbourhood grocer knows my voice. When I call his shop to order stuff, I never have to give him my house number. And, I can order a bar of soap or chocolate, or even call for a dozen different things — it always reaches me within 10 minutes. What’s more, I get everything on credit. The bills are squared up once a month.

This traditional model of running a kirana shop requires nimble use of working capital. My grocer tells me that he himself gets nothing on credit; all his suppliers need to be paid in cash as soon as the maal is delivered to his store. He still supplies goods to his customers on credit, in effect, paying interest to all of us. This comes out of his wafer-thin margins.