Vol 12 , Issue 2 , July - December 2011 | Pages: 45-57 | Research Paper
Published Online: December 23, 2011
Author Details
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In India, the retail sector is the second largest employer after agriculture. Globally India has the highest absolute number and the highest per capita number of retail formats, India is the fifth- largest retail destination in the retail outlets. The Indian retail industry has been growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28 per cent for the last five years and provides employment to 8 per cent of India’s working population. Organized retail formats including departmental stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and specialty stores are fast replacing traditional retail formats such as stores (small ‘mom-and-pop’ general stores). The boom in this sector started after the liberalization in 1991 in the country (Singh 2003). Several large chains have entered the bandwagon and have achieved fair to significant success. The changes in the nation’s social structure such as; improvement of the economy, consumerism, urbanization, the increasing number of nuclear families, double income households, improvement in literacy rates and working women profusion of brands have been the main causal factor for the development of these modern formats.
The present study is an attempt to measure the quality of the services rendered by modern retail stores in India and find out the satisfaction level of the consumers in comparison to the traditional stores.
Keywords
Modern Retailing, Traditional Retail Stores, Consumer Satisfaction, Expectation, Quality.