Every time a new shopping app launches, the same worry follows: is this going to kill the local kirana? It's a fair question. Here's our honest answer.
We share a supplier, not a fight
The kirana on your street buys its stock from an authorised FMCG stockist — a licensed godown that supplies dozens of shops in the area. VeBy buys from that same stockist. We're not undercutting the kirana's supplier; we're using it. The price you see on VeBy is the stockist's rate — the same wholesale layer the shop itself buys at.
Why we don't need to replace the shop
VeBy holds no inventory and runs no dark store. The stockist's godown is the warehouse. So we don't have to win by putting shops out of business — we win by removing the platform markup and the layers between the godown and you, not by removing the shop.
The kirana has a role in where this goes
Our roadmap doesn't route around local retail — it runs through it. VeBy's last mile runs on asset-light delivery partners today; over time, the dense network of neighbourhood shops could add to that last-mile layer — the kirana as a potential delivery point, earning on VeBy orders instead of competing with them. The shop that's been there for decades is an asset, not an obstacle.
Same chain, fewer middlemen
VeBy isn't big-app-versus-small-shop. It's the same authorised supply chain, with the markup taken out and the stockist's real price shown to you. The kirana and VeBy were never enemies. We shop at the same place.