A study of India's most prolific street markets

Abstract

From a consumer’s perspective, street markets are exhilarating places to be, teeming with myriad items of various qualities, sources and prices. From a student’s perspective too, they are equally exciting. Often the shops there have complex supply chains and a different cost structure than regular shops, allowing traders to sell items at much lower costs to the customers. What are these supply chains and how do they function? How are they different from the supply chains of regular shops and of organized retail? Is the quality being compromised? How profitable are these markets, especially when compared to regular shops and organized retail? The visitors at a street market also of wide demographic and psychographic profiles. While the markets teem with the lower-middle and middle class, many customers from other stratums of society can also be found there. Street markets also attract a lot of tourists, domestic as well as foreign ones. Some look for branded stuff at affordable prices, some only hunt for cheaper items. Is there something that binds these customers, something that they have in common? What are the profiles of the customers who flock to these markets? The ecosystem in which these markets survive is also an interesting aspect of them. In India, most of these markets occupy public spaces illegally; most traders do not have licenses. Most of the times the administration colludes with them and turns a blind eye in exchange of some money to the local administration. But that of course, leaves the traders without any legal protection and with geographical and economic insecurity. What hardships do the traders face and how do they cope with them? While there is some literature available on street markets in other countries like Brazil and South-east Asian countries, such literature on Indian street markets is lacking. Our study aims to answer the questions above, to study the Indian street markets with depth, hopefully addressing the literature deficit to some extent.