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Purpose -This article seeks to understand whether Indian consumers are likely to move from traditional kirana stores to large organized retailers while shopping for groceries. Design/methodology/approach -Two hypotheses were proposed: H1: customer patronage differs for different grocery store attributes and H2: customer perceptions of grocery store attributes differ for kirana stores and organized retailers. The study was carried out across four Indian cities-two major and two smaller cities with around 100 respondents from each city. Stratified systematic sampling design with a sample size of 409 was used for the study. Multivariate statistical techniques were used to analyze the data collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. Findings -Customer patronage to grocery stores was found to be positively related to location, helpful, trustworthy salespeople, home shopping, cleanliness, offers, quality and negatively related to travel convenience. Kiranas do well on location but poorly on cleanliness, offers, quality, and helpful trustworthy salespeople. The converse is true for organized retailers. Research limitations/implications -Kiranas have major disadvantages on all customer perception scores except location. These scores being less important determinants of patronage compared with location, in the short run kiranas may not be ousted out of customers' favour. However, in the long run if they do not work on these other factors, they would face oblivion. Practical implications -Kiranas need to upgrade their facilities to be able to compete with the organized retailers, who are expected to improve their location scores rapidly in the near future. Originality/value -The paper predicts whether the foray of large organized grocery retailing would close down millions of kirana shops and result in loss of livelihood, suggesting measures to counter the onslaught.

India has witnessed rapid strides of development at sustained growth rates of more than 8% and has seen a huge spurt in consumption. Consequently, it has been estimated that the increased consumption may result in the country becoming one of the leading offenders relating to environmental pollution. The textiles industry in India is traditionally one of the worst offenders of pollution, with its small units following outdated technology processes. One opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of clothing industry in India is to concentrate textile production within environmentally certified or eco-labelled clothing. In the absence of existing research, this study investigates whether the urban Indian population would be interested in clothing with eco-labels. The results suggest the existence of a segment of consumers who are positively motivated towards eco-labelled garments. This segment profile is described in terms of demographic and psychographic variables. Managerial implications and future directions are suggested.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand the frequent clothing purchase behavior of undergraduate urban college‐goers of India aged 18‐23 years and empirically prove the value‐psychographic traits‐clothing (VPC) purchase behavior hierarchy.Design/methodology/approachA stratified systematic sample of 275 respondents was used to test the hierarchy. The List of Values (LOV) scale was submitted to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with principal components analysis and varimax rotation. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate EFA results. Next, structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) was used to empirically prove VPC of the urban Indian college‐goers.FindingsThe study finds that EFA of the LOV scale yielded two dimensions‐ outer‐directed values and inner‐directed values. Outer‐directed values influenced the psychographic traits – fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness positively, while fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness positively influenced clothing purchase frequency. Thus, VPC hierarchy is empirically proved with the help of SEM.Research limitations/implicationsIn the context of frequent clothing purchases of college‐goers, values affect behavior indirectly through psychographic traits of fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness. Psychographic traits of fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness act as intervening variables between values and clothing purchase behavior. EFA and CFA were done on the same sample thereby limiting the scope of the study.Practical implicationsThe marketer of clothing for college‐goers should frame his/her product and communication strategy in such a way that it appeals to the fashion‐conscious and innovative consumers with outer‐directed values.Originality/valueAn attempt has been made for the first time to prove the VPC hierarchy empirically in the context of frequent clothing purchases of young college‐goers.

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