Yes! Many big retailers like Reliance Retail, Future Group etc. have substituted their expansion spree with contraction because of slowdown. The most recent addition in the list is that of RadhaKrishna Group’s Foodland Fresh and Wadhwan’s Spinach. Foodland Fresh has shut down many stores in last few months whereas Spinach has decided to currently hold their expansion plan.
There are several factors behind such a scenario in retail environment. Whereas increased MSP for cotton, higher raw material cost, higher real estate prices, bleeding Sensex, postponement of purchases are the root cause, another factor affecting retailers is falling rupee.
As dollar grew from Rs. 39 in January to Rs. 47 in October, forward bookings by retailers are getting impacted. Resorting to higher prices in also not an option for retailers as due to inflation, disposable income has already decreased for common man, so they will switch to cheaper local alternative. Moreover majority discounters follow the practice of forward booking and they cannot sell increase the prices of their product due to their format.
But this will certainly increase market for local make products in India as they will be very cheaper comparatively. 
- 
Rajeev Damani 
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