Study of consumers’ behavior for non-vegetarian products in emerging market of India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand non-vegetarian food consumption behavior, and factors affecting the same of the consumers of middle-sized market, where organized retailing is still at infancy. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 182 households of two middle-sized cities of India were personally surveyed with a structured questionnaire. Simple statistical analysis such as frequency distribution, factor analysis and analysis of variance, logit regression were carried out to infer the required information. Findings – Although an important constituent of the food, for most the consumers, purchase of non-vegetarian products were weekly, well planned, and family affairs. Assured good quality, followed by the meat preparation in front of the customers’ eye emerged important market attributes for selecting the store by the consumers. The study revealed that consumers were mainly dependent on search and credence attributes of the product for non-vegetarian food purchase decisions. Research limitations/implications – This paper analyses non-vegetarian food consumption food behavior of those customers, for whom non-vegetarian food is still considered as special food, and who belong to middle-sized cities where organized food retailing has just started. Originality/value – The subject is relatively less researched in emerging markets where organized food retail is still at infancy, and where non-vegetarian foods are considered special.