In the United States, the Wal-Mart chain of megastores has been criticized for putting mom-and-pop family stores out of business and turning small towns' Main streets into deserted stretches of empty storefronts.

Well now a similar change is a comin' to India. Wal-Mart isn't planning to enter India until next year, but other Western-style supermarkets have already started to appear. And that has some Indians worried. Traditionally, Indians have purchased groceries at open-air markets or from pushcart vendors, all the while haggling over prices to get a bargain. It seems chaotic, but the 40 million Indians who work in the unorganized retail sector have managed to eke out a living.

Now, with the advent of supermarkets, suburban professionals can get out of the sun and shop for fruits, fish, and bread in air-conditioned comfort. In areas where these stores have sprouted, business is reportedly down 40 percent for local vendors. One vegetable seller says he has lost half his business since a supermarket opened down the street from where he sells his produce in affluent south New Delhi. Perhaps he could get a job at that supermarket or someplace else instead? He says that if educated people in the capital are unemployed, why would they hire an illiterate man like him?

Change is simply part of the human condition. Cars put horse-cart makers out of business. Now, Indian IT workers get U.S. jobs that have been outsourced, and use their earnings to put their fellow Indian vegetable sellers out of business. Shift happens. But today change seems to occur at an ever faster, dizzying pace—not over generations, but within lifetimes. Perhaps it is occurring too fast, but no one seems to know how to put on the brakes.