If life changes, can markets be far behind? Everything, including temple rituals, are changing in the life of the modern Indian woman. Her personal life, the way she thinks about her family, her work life, the way she perceives and is perceived by her colleagues, her social life, the way she chats with her friends or hangs out with them, her religious life, the way she conducts ‘karva chauth’, has taken a wide angle turn in the last ten years. Shopkeeper-in-Law takes a look at this evolution to draw conclusions about a woman’s shopping life and the new imperatives for shopkeepers. To paraphrase David Ogilvy, the customer is not an economic stooge, she’s a female member of society! And the changes in her life are microscopically visible in that melting pot, the bazaar. And that is where we must head to see what’s going on with the customer.

Shopkeeper-in-Law will examine shopping habits by studying the shopping trolley, and not the store shelf, for the way to the customer’s mind is through her trolley, not through what the store provides. Just as in cricket, we talk about the batting, fielding and bowling, and not the stadium, the pitch, the weather and the outfield, in consumption we must talk about the kitchen shelf, the dining table, the shopping trolley, the refrigerator, beyond the retail companies or categories or stores, malls, supply chains, margins, million square feet and power shifts.

Shopkeeper-in-Law is a practitioner’s blog and it will generate the business potential of every insight. The customer, that gentle woman, has been a ruthless judge, and severe punisher of consumer products or retail concepts that are faulty in design. Shopkeeper-in-Law will try to dodge that punishment by avoiding the crime of looking in the wrong places for the right answers. So read on to find out how a two feet deep wire mesh basket can directionally change a business design for the emerging, yet asserting Indian market!