The moment Tariq Ahmad, a 27-year-old grocer from Srinagar, saw a social media post announcing the entry of Blinkit, a popular quick commerce app, his heart sank.For the last five years, Tariq has been juggling multiple roles at his small shop in the city, tending to neighbourhood kids who turn up to buy ice-creams, or to the homemakers who rush to his store for dish soap bars. When the stock depletes, he rides his scooter through Srinagar’s potholed roads, purchasing groceries wholesale in Saraibal, a commercial hub in the city where major distributors are located, just 2 kms from Tariq’s shop. “I won’t say I make lakhs, but I earn enough to feed my small family and make ends meet without major difficulties,” he told The Wire. But he now believes his days of a convenient life are over. Across Kashmir, there’s been simmering anxiety as one of India’s biggest quick-commerce giants has begun operations. The company delivers essentials right at buyers’ doorsteps at discounted rates. Although Blinkit is currently operating only in select pockets of the city, it won’t be long before it expands to other parts.Fear of joblessnessBut experts and economists in Kashmir fear that in the turmoil-ridden region, which has seen its unemployment rates soar rapidly over the last few years, the quick-commerce giant’s entry will likely squeeze out the margins of smaller retail stores. They worry that this will aggravate joblessness in the region.Tariq, for example, told The Wire he has already reached out to his friends requesting them to help him acquire a car on rent so he can earn by driving tourists around. “The companies like Blinkit have direct partnerships with the manufacturers. They have big warehouses furnished with modern technologies that prolong the shelf life of products. They bring the groceries and other essentials right to your doorsteps and at rates much lower than we are selling them,” Tariq said, his words loaded with a sense of resignation. “It’s a no-brainer that we stand no chance.”Some trader associations in Kashmir also pointed to the recent decision by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council in Meghalaya which refused to grant Blinkit the mandatory trading licence on the grounds that it risks the livelihoods of more than 4,000 local grocery shops in Shillong. Owned by the Gurgaon-based Eternal Limited (formerly Zomato), Blinkit operates in more than 150 cities across India. It controls nearly half of the quick-commerce market share in India and owns up to 2,243 dark stores, underscoring its increasing popularity across the country’s major urban centres. “There’s no doubt that the small vendors, hawkers and small mom and pop stores will get trampled because of this,” a senior economist with the J&K Bank told The Wire. They spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the press.“Blinkit won’t onboard these people who are at the far end of the retail chain. They will onboard the big suppliers and manufacturers instead where they purchase in bulk and logistical costs come down,” they added.The economist said that the valley doesn’t have other avenues for workers, thus compounding the problem. “In other major cities such as Delhi, those affected by quick-commerce apps generally get absorbed into, let’s say, construction or other sectors,” the ecnonomist said, adding that Kashmir has no such buffer. “Here people have limited options. Plus, the upward mobility that was previously available to small-time traders will also start to vanish now.”Consumers excited even as local retailers urge cautionIn Srinagar, however, ordinary consumers said that they are excited. “In fact, we had been praying for such a facility for years,” said Saima Ashraf, a 22-year-old student. “Our family moves to Delhi in winters and we order almost all our groceries on Blinkit. It is a great convenience because who wouldn’t want to go out in this extreme heat to buy stuff?”Yet, the major trade organisations have been gripped by a sense of unease as they fear that it would immensely shave profit margins off the small businesses in the city, or worse, deepen the unemployment rates. “No doubt Kashmir has seen a degree of normalcy for some years, which is good, but we also cannot ignore that the troubles this place faced in the past have left an impact that cannot be immediately undone,” Aijaz Shahdar, who heads the Kashmir Trade Alliance, an association of 9,000 Valley-based traders, told The Wire.“This development is going to hit us adversely. Local markets are already suffering from the past decade owing to floods in 2014, unrest in 2016, erratic weather, abrogation of article 370, internet shutdowns and pandemic. They have been dealt back to back jolts from which the economy is yet to recover. So a quick-commerce company being in Srinagar is not the same as it being in cities like Bangaluru or Delhi. It will be akin to throwing a wrecking ball at Kashmir’s groaning economy.”At 6.7%, the unemployment rate in J&K remains one of the highest in India, and twice the national average.Shahdar said that the government must deliberate on the matter, adding that the alliance will discuss the matter with stakeholders at the organisational level.Yasin Khan, who heads Kashmir Traders’ Association, a representative body of 2.5 million shopkeepers and traders of the valley, said that Kashmiris will have to work out more innovative solutions to mitigate the threat from Blinkit.“Technically, we are in no position to stop Blinkit and we ideally shouldn’t,” Khan told The Wire. “Everybody should enjoy the same level playing field. If a Kashmiri shawl-seller is going to the other parts of the country to do business, then others can come here too.”Khan, however, said that the government must take into account the “ongoing” recession, referring to the economic crisis triggered by the war in Iran whose echoes are being felt globally, including in J&K.“Our association can only express worries and concerns. We are not authorised to stop or allow anyone from doing business. But what is certain is that it is going to have an impact.”Already, Internet and social media in Kashmir buzz with murmurs about Blinkit’s arrival and its “deleterious” effects on local livelihoods. Many Srinagar-based entrepreneurs are trying to come up with mitigating solutions to grapple with potential loss of consumers. On Instagram, Brand Clearance Depot, a Srinagar-based clothing store, uploaded a video, cautioning against the “threat” that Blinkit’s entry will pose to local businesses in the city. “Whether it is the Brand Clearance Depot or your neighbourhood grocer from whom you have been purchasing stuff since childhood,” the owner tells the viewers in the video. “We urge people to shop local.”Calculated risk for big businessesThe J&K Bank economist quoted above believes that new companies planning or starting to do business in Kashmir often consider five or six years of political stability as a metric before making investment decisions.“While it is entirely their prerogative, the sample size is actually small,” they said. “One has to go not by years but decades. Just last year we were in the middle of a war between two nuclear-armed countries. Nothing significant has happened here war-wise. But cyber attacks disrupted our business significantly.”They were referring to the massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks in May 2025 following the India-Pakistan skirmish triggered by the brutal attack in Pahalgam. The attacks had downed several government websites in J&K prevent consumers from paying power bills, land registration charges, fees for building permits and more.“Although it was a four-day standoff, the ramifications for us continued for six months as people couldn’t download revenue documents such as fard intikhab or pay power bills,” the economist said. “The build up from both sides on the geopolitics front has not been status quoist for a very long time. There’s going to be volatility and quick-commerce firms coming here means it is going to be a calculated risk for them obviously.”They said that local shopkeepers will have to come up with mitigation strategies. “A small chemist, for example, can start providing home-deliviers. Or when we go to Delhi airport, local cab-drivers often offer rates lower than that of major ride-hailing apps,” they said.Arshie Qureshi, a Kashmiri researcher at Jamia Milia Islamia said that the arrival of more quick-commerce facilities in the valley will mean more than just a loss of market profits for local vendors. “Historically, we have had these traditional street vendors who roamed from street to street, calling out the names of their known customers,” she said. “These hawkers had an organic relationship with their buyers that was more than just transactional. These relationships reinforced systems of socialisation and were deeply embedded into the social structures, especially in the place like Kashmir where social cohesion has mattered for locals as a means of perpetuation of a sense of community,” Qureshi said. She added that like everywhere else in the world, technology mediated platforms were displacing existing public spaces.Shakir Mir is a freelance journalist based in Srinagar. He writes on health, conflict, politics, heritage and books across publications.