If it wasn’t for the steady stream of jaywalkers who force traffic to slow down on the Grand Trunk Road, roughly two kilometers away from Amritsar, we would have sped past the beige warehouse on the left.

Last week, this building made news throughout the country as US retail major Wal-Mart’s first ‘cash-and-carry store’, opened as a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises. But not many wake up to newspapers in Jhita Kalan, the tiny hamlet in the building’s backyard, and curiosity levels are high.

Though the village is a few steps away from the ‘Best Price Modern Wholesale’—as the store is called—not many have had a chance to go inside. And that’s much to do with the fact that the store can only sell to licensed members like shopkeepers, dhabha owners, kirana owners and the like.

It’s not as if Jhita Kalan in Amritsar district suddenly woke up to find a superstore in their front yard. The villagers have been keeping a close watch. But it’s a lanky 12-year-old who has been most excited about the store’s opening. “Have you been inside,” asks Harbir Singh excitedly. He is a student of class five at the local school in adjoining Manawala Kalan village.

By then, a crowd has gathered under a tree but Harbir is too excited to stop. Ever since the building began to take shape almost a year ago, Harbir has been convincing friends and family of a movie hall inside. Now with the Coca-Cola ads in the building’s parking space, he is sure there’s one. “He’s dragged me so many times to have a look but we can’t get in as we don’t have a card,” says his father Sher Singh.

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