A Booming India, Short on Malls

India may be an emerging world leader in high-tech innovation, but you wouldn't know that while shopping for household items in New Delhi. My wife and kids land here in a week, and that has prompted me to try and make things look as homey as possible in our rented house. But as a newcomer to this country, I've discovered that filling the cupboards with groceries and household basics is not as simple as heading to the mall or the supermarket.

Supermarkets, in fact, are still a rarity in India. About 97% of the estimated $200 billion Indians spend shopping every year goes to 12 million mom-and-pop stores around the country. Some of these shops cram a surprising array of foods into their limited shelf space, and a small but growing number have imported food — taco shells, olives, cheeses. But very few of them have aisles down which you can push a shopping cart, and almost none of them are air conditioned or use electronic checkouts.

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