In another message I said that whilst Newtons is a monstrosity and a bit against the spirit of Goan holidays (whatever that means??), I did find it nice to wander the aisles in airconditioned comfort whilst selecting a few things for the hotel room fridge. A comment came back that it is expensive and damaging local traders.
The latter can easily be refuted because the same arguement has always been applied to any innovation in shopping experience, be it in Goa or the UK with a tesco being built a mile away from a local highstreet full of small shops. My view is that it reflects an inability to manage change rather than anything else. I have spent several years in Thailand and there, over the last decade, there have been built in residential areas and commercial streets, huge numbers of Seven Eleven/Family Mart type shops, which are all about the size of an English petrol station shop and selling roughly the same things at roughly the same expensive mark up. They are open 24/7, are A/C'd, have an ATM attached and are totally against what is percieved as the old Thai way of selling things. Guess what, everybody dislikes them and everybody uses them. They are always closeby, always stock the basics, and even allow you to pay your utility bills in them. There was an almighty row over them at the time, with everybody saying that this will kill local traditional shops. A local typical Thai shop would have a dodgy fridge, cats asleep on the display of watermelons, and a thin layer of roadside dust over everything else.
The same applies to Goa and Newtons. It seems to do a roaring trade and displays its goods in a way that makes visitors feel they are in ASDA rather than Goa. This is a good thing. The pricing is clear, perishables are date stamped ( although newtons is guilty of ignoring this ), and the range of goods is wide. Yes, it may be a few rupees more expensive. Once you have shopped, then you can leave and enjoy the rest of the Goan experience.
Dont be fooled by anybody saying that traditional shops should be protected. Local shops will have a small range of things of dubious history, unpriced, and with sometimes a clear lack of cleanliness or hygiene, with everything organised in that charming but rather slack handed way the locals manage that passes for Goan tradition .
And by the way, traditional Indian shops are what you find in the rest of India, and not Candolim high street. All shops there are to make money from tourists, which I dont have a problem with. Besides, local Goans dont use Newtons. All thats happened is a bigger fish has come along.
I didnt set out to champion Newtons quite so much, but if you are on a basic holiday fortnight and are wandering about wanting to buy a few things, you always head for the what looks able to give you the nicest shopping experience. This is why it wins, and why it is gaining customers.