Bengaluru’s hopcoms stores face closure

Bengaluru: Reports are emerging that government-owned Hopcoms stores in the city are nearing closure, coinciding with the increasing use of online platforms for grocery shopping. Hopcoms, established in 1965 to help farmers secure profitable prices for their produce and offer consumers quality fresh agricultural products at affordable rates, has seen 140 of its stores shut down.

Currently, there are 26 branches of Hopcoms in Karnataka, with around 600 stores lo-cated across various districts including Bengaluru, Belagavi, Bidar, Ballari, Chikkamaga-luru, Shivamogga, Gadag, Dharwad, Davanagere, among others. However, recent data indicates that the government’s Horticultural Producers’ Cooperative Marketing and Pro-cessing Society (Hopcoms) is facing significant challenges, leading to the closures over the past five years.

The closure is attributed to price competition from malls and other retail outlets, where customers find affordable vegetables and fruits, causing a decline in footfall at Hopcoms stores. Intense competition among vendors and the emergence of private companies opening exclusive stores in many areas have also contributed to the decreased demand for Hopcoms.

In certain areas with low customer traffic, Hopcoms outlets have struggled, with reports indicating daily transactions as low as 500 to 600, leading to losses and subsequent store closures Umesh Mirji, Managing Director of Hopcoms, confirmed the closures, stating, “It is true that we are closing several Hopcoms stores due to various reasons.

These are measures taken in relation to increasing demand and business transactions. We are un-dertaking several improvement efforts to attract more customers by selling fruits and vegetables at competitive prices and offering greater discounts.”