Retailers database India: kirana stores and retail shops list

Where shop data comes from, what a retailers list contains, and how brands reach kirana stores.

Updated 12 October 2026 · 5 min read

Who counts as a retailer

Most people looking for a kirana stores list want the neighbourhood grocery and provision shops that still sell most of India's packaged food, soap and toiletries. FMCG companies call this "general trade", as against "modern trade", meaning supermarket chains and hypermarkets. A useful retail shops list covers both, and usually more:

Kirana and provision stores: owner-run counters of a few hundred square feet that buy from two or three distributors and the local wholesale market. The owner, or a son or brother, takes every decision at the counter.
Supermarkets and departmental stores: small local chains in cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Coimbatore and Lucknow. A buyer or the owner meets vendors, and new products may need a launch scheme or extra margin to get shelf space.
Specialist food shops: fruit and vegetable sellers, dry fruit shops, bakeries, dairy booths and pan shops.
Non-food retail: electronics and appliance dealers, clothing and footwear shops, gift, toy and stationery stores, each with its own buying season.

The split matters because each buys differently. A kirana owner orders every week from the salesman who visits; a supermarket buyer wants a listing meeting, a price list and a promotion plan.

Where shop data comes from, and why it is patchy

FSSAI. A shop that sells food needs an FSSAI registration or licence. FSSAI's FoSCoS search lets you check a number, one shop at a time. You cannot pull out every grocer in a district with a phone number.
Shops and establishments registration. Each state's labour department registers shops under its own law. It proves a shop exists, but it is rarely published in a form you can sort or call from.
GST portal. A search by GSTIN or PAN gives the legal name, trade name, address and status. Many small kiranas trade below the turnover at which GST registration becomes compulsory, so they never appear there.
Distributors' beat lists. FMCG distributors' salesmen cover fixed routes, called beats, and visit the same shops on the same weekday. These are often the most accurate shop records in a town, and no distributor will hand you theirs.
Maps and listing apps. Good for one locality at a time, though plenty of small shops have no listing or show an old number.

So no official source gives you a retailers database with owners' mobile numbers. You either build one lane by lane or start from a ready file.

Our retailers database: kirana stores, town by town

Our Grocery & Supermarkets list holds 2,12,531 kirana shops, provision stores and supermarkets from 432 cities and towns in 28 states. Almost every contact has a mobile number. Few shopkeepers give an email address, so plan on calls, visits and SMS rather than email. The biggest counts are in Mumbai, Jaunpur, Bahraich, Azamgarh and Gonda. The list page shows 60 real shops and a free Excel sample before you pay, and the list is also sold for 19 states and 244 cities.

Grocery and provision stores by city

By type of shop

Selling dry fruits, toys or books? Start with the shops that already stock them:

Electronics, clothing and general retail

Brands outside food can use these All-India shop lists in the same way:

Who buys a retailers list

New food and FMCG brands entering general trade: a namkeen maker in Indore, a spice company from Kerala, a ghee dairy in Gujarat. They call shops in towns where they have just appointed a distributor, so the distributor gets orders from day one.
Distributors widening a beat, by finding shops in their area that do not yet buy from them.
Payments and lending firms offering QR codes, card machines and small working-capital loans to shopkeepers.
Software sellers: billing and stock apps, and B2B ordering apps that let a shop reorder from its phone.
Equipment suppliers: visi-coolers, deep freezers, racks, weighing scales and CCTV.

How to win over shopkeepers

Work one town at a time. Call only where your stock can actually reach the shop within a week. A shopkeeper who says yes and then waits a month will not say yes again.
Call when the counter is quiet. Mid-afternoon, roughly 2 to 4 pm on a weekday, is usually best. Mornings bring milk, bread and distributor deliveries, and evenings bring customers. Before Diwali shops buy more but have no time to talk, so pitch your festive scheme a month ahead.
Say what is in it for the shop in the first 15 seconds. For example: "Namaste, I'm calling from Shree Namkeen in Indore. Our ₹10 packs already sell in three shops on your road. Can our salesman drop one box tomorrow, with a week's credit?"
Expect four questions. What is my margin on MRP? Is there a scheme, such as one free in twelve? Who delivers, and how often? Will you take back expired or damaged packs?
Hand over to your distributor. The call creates interest; the distributor's salesman takes the order and collects payment on his next visit.

Shopkeepers' mobiles are personal numbers too, so follow the TRAI rules on promotional calls and SMS. Our guide to DND checks explains them, and the Hindi and English telecalling scripts give you openers to adapt.

Kirana list questions

Is there a retailers database with email addresses?

Very few kirana stores use email for business, so a retailers database is mainly a phone list. In ours, almost all of the 2,12,531 stores have a mobile number and 6% an email address. Plan on calls, visits, and WhatsApp once the shopkeeper agrees.

Is there a government list of kirana stores?

Not one you can download. FSSAI, the GST portal and the state shop registers each hold some shops, but they let you look up one record at a time and do not give the owner's mobile number.

Can I get shops for just one district?

Yes. Where a town has its own list, buy that one; the list builder lets you join several towns into one file. Inside a big city, sort by the address column where it is filled in.

Should a brand sell to kiranas directly or through a distributor?

Usually through a distributor, because a kirana orders small amounts and expects weekly visits and credit. If you have no distributor in a town yet, our guide to finding distributors and stockists shows where to start.