International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences December 2012, Vol. 2, No. 12 ISSN: 2222-6990 122 www.hrmars.com/journals The Retail Food Sector in Pakistan Manzoor Ahmed Researcher, College of Business Administration, King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia Shafi Ullah Researcher, College of Business Administration, King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia Zia Ul Haq Paracha Researcher, College of Business Administration, King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia Abstract Retailing plays a key role in the economic development of a country. Retail is the 2 nd largest industry in the US in terms of numbers of employees as well as in terms of establishment. The number of employees engaged in retail sector in one way or other way is more than 23 million and they generate revenue high than $3milion per year. Pakistan retail sector play a key role in the economy of the country. The total turnover of the retail sector in Pakistan is 17% of the GDP. Pakistan is basically an agriculture country and 62% of the total population is directly or indirectly engaged in the agriculture sector but still the agriculture sector cannot fulfil the food requirement of Pakistan and she has to import food products from other countries. An average Pakistani spends 42% of his income on food item. Pakistan is emerging market for the import of food products. Keywords: Retailing, food retailing, Pakistan Introduction Like all other developing countries Pakistan retail sector is also dominated by the traditional Mom and Pop shops which is known as Karyana Stores in the local language. They unorganized and exist all over the country. If you go to a small village of less population of remote area in Pakistan you can find 3 or 4 Keryana stores . They have small number of item of daily use for sale in limited quantity usually they are near the residential areas and they are small and have a space of one freezer for freezing the perishable products .These stores have an estimated turnover of $3billion. The average floor area of these stores is approximately 200 to 500 square feet and the ratio of imported food products sale in these Keryana store is 1% of the total import. {1}The next format of retailing is general store and these stores are also scatter all over the country but as compare to keryana stores these stores have more items and the average area is also big than keryana stores. They have a space of 2 or 3 freezers and the cover area of the floor is usually from 500 to 3000 square feet.{2}The 3 rd one format is departmental stores. These stores are larger than the general stores and usually they have more items than the general stores and the cover area is from 3000 to 6000 square feet and there is a space of 4 to