Markets, Super and Not in Sri Lanka
Going to the supermarket was a luxury to Sri Lankans. Now it’s a standard thing.
The year is 1980 and my father gets into his Austin Cambridge to drive to Colpetty to do some grocery shopping. Cigarette in mouth, shutters down, he drives past his usual shopping spot, the Wellawatte market. He drives further down Galle road, passing many other grocery stores that he would frequent. He’s not one to go essential shopping but today he is. It’s not the usual shopping run, today he’s driving to Colpetty to check out Cornell’s, Sri Lanka’s first supermarket. It offered many things that normal convenience stores or the municipal markets such as Wellawatte or Colpetty market did not. Here you can shop in your own sweet time, in an air-conditioned modern space set up in partnership with a Singaporean supermarket chain.
THE BIG FOUR
Over the years since Cornell’s, supermarkets have mushroomed all over the country. In terms of number, Cargills takes the lead with over 350 outlets all over the country. Their supermarkets carry the slogan “On your way home” promoting that their supermarkets are for people from all walks of life and offer a variety of products, predominantly promoting those owned by their holding company Cargills, which include Kist and Kotmale.
