A Reddit user sparked extensive debate this week after revealing that a small grocery store in his neighbourhood earned a profit of approximately Rs 70 lakh per year. The post — shared on the StartUpIndia subreddit — has since garnered hundreds of comments with many insisting that it was simply impossible for a kirana store to each so much.
“There is a kiranawala near my area. He has an almost 300 sq. ft. shop. It’s a main road and he owns the shop. He sells all kinds of household cooking material from rice, pulses and whatnot. His son and my cousin is a friend and he told that his father earns almost 70 lakh a profit in a year.
“I initially used to think that a kiranawala does not earn much because now everything is online — like zepto and Instamart. But I was wrong. Such small businesses are earning so much,” the Reddit user marvelled.
The post has since garnered several disbelieving comments — with many insisting that it was “impossible” to earn such an amount.
“Not possible. 70 lakhs might be the amount of sales,” one user wrote.
“And lot of unrecovered debt. I don’t know if that’s the thing everywhere in India, but in our area, kirana stores give groceries on debt for regulars and for catering orders. And it’s a big task for them to chase people and collect it,” added another.
“Bro I own a shop. I know the numbers. I know what I am talking about. 60 lakhs in 30 months is still possible. That’s 2 lakhs profit monthly. But OP is talking about 70 lakhs profit in 1 year. That is not possible with a small store,” insisted a third.