Sri Lanka, Aug. 27 -- The retail monopoly enjoyed by the Sri Lankan supermarket chains is now almost absolute. It means the mom and pop grocery stores, the street corner petti-kades and the Sunday Polas are all fast becoming relics of the past.

This is particularly so in the cities,even though the small towns are fast catching up in this regard. What though is the upshot of this reality of Corporate chains having near total control over the so called kitchen economies of average households?

Convenience was the key to the success of the so called supermarket chains. The business moguls of retail merchandising knew this, and they doubled down on the task of providing everything from eggs to condensed milk under one roof.

At the beginning...