India’s Richest Man Removes Meat from Retail Stores

Last week, Domino’s Pizza in Israel announced it was responding to customer requests by adding a vegan pizza option to its menus. This week, some grocery stores in India are kicking meat to the curb.

Mukesh Ambani is India’s richest person. He’s also a business owner and a vegetarian — and he recently announced that his company, Reliance Industries, is giving meat the boot. Specifically, a chain of 100 food stores, Reliance Delight, that sold meat have all been shut down. What spurred this change? A significant number of shareholders demanded Reliance’s retail stores sell 100 percent vegetarian products, noting that selling meat infringed on their religious beliefs.

“Despite this sensitive balance of availability and convenience, it was felt that certain sections of customers were still hesitant to shop at our other stores,” a spokesman for Reliance told the Wall Street Journal.

India has perhaps the single largest population of vegetarians in the world, so international food chains that open up shop there find it beneficial to adapt. For example, last year, Subway introduced its first-ever all-vegetarian store — in India!

According to Subway India’s development agent Chetan Arora, “We as a brand are always sensitive to the requirements of the markets that we are in. India as a country has a large vegetarian population and right from the beginning of the brand’s presence in India, we have had separate counters for our vegetarian and non-vegetarian sandwiches. In reviewing the requirements of the university campus and the customer base, we have created an all-veg menu for our Subway outlet at [the University].”

Sounds like restaurants are open to changing when the demand is there! Take action right now: contact Subway and let them know the US market is hungry for hearty vegan options as well! Visit WeLoveSubway.com to send your request.