Why are Reliance, Adani and Tatas excited about the business of staples?

Madhab Mohanto runs a grocery store in the mining town of Keonjhar in Odisha. It's the beginning of the month and there is a beeline of customers flocking his store to top up their grocery for the month. So, what has been the biggest change in the shopping behaviour of his customers in the past few years? “All my customers ever since Covid-19 want to buy packaged food, including dal, rice and atta,” says Mohanto, as he along with his assistant vacuum seal a variety of staples in various pack sizes. Mohanto charges them ₹2 extra for the packaging and bulk of them are happy to pay the premium.

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