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CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION

A hypermarket is a superstore, which combines a supermarket and a departmental store. The result is a gigantic retail facility, which carries an enormous range of products under one roof, where the consumers can ideally satisfy all their routine shopping needs in just a single trip.

It is a large retail format that offers low prices and stocks all items of daily and household needs under one roof, and is located at nonprime locations, primarily outskirts of major towns and cities, and sometimes in downtown areas as well. The concept of hypermarkets a format lower than the malls in India started with Ansal Plazas Shoppers Stop in New Delhi.

It was indeed a real experience of luxurious shopping under one roof, hang out space in metros with air conditioned tastefully done up in dcor, piped music, sophisticated lighting. Within a short span of time, more names appeared on the competitive scenario like Pantaloon, Lifestyle, Westside, Globus, Ebony, Big Bazaar, Easy Day and Vishal Mega Mart[footnoteRef:2]. [2: Virdi sandeep singh. Malls and hypermarkets: perspectives of Contemporary shopping published Ph.D. Thesis, Punjabi University, Patiala. India (2011).]

The burgeoning of shopping hypermarkets in India has almost been a revolution till now. But now they have become a way of life in our country. Hypermarkets are redrafting and rephrasing the rules, developing a constitution of their own and are converting the basic need for recreation and shopping activity into a unique parameter or criteria for judging ones lifestyle statement. Middle class Indians have broken off their love of traditional standalone Indian stores that have no air conditioning, organized parking and other public amenities.

Major developmental happenings in the area of retail space in India are hypermarkets, in conjunction with malls. India is witnessing an exponential growth in the space occupied by organized retailers. Indian retail industry is still a protected industry from foreign direct investment (FDI). Though FDI can help generate employment in this sector, it is likely to pose stiff competition for existing small businesses. Lotlikar (2006)[footnoteRef:3] opines that international investors entering India will shift towards value retailing with the hypermarket route as the most preferred format. [3: Lotlikar, Shailendra (2006). Mall Mania, Money life, May 22, pg 10.]

More stores, which have made their presence felt in a big way in the Indian organised Retail sector. Hyper City, Auchan , Vishal Mega Mart, Big Bazaar, Easy Day, Reliance Hyper, Star India Bazaar, Spencers Hyper (formerly Giant), Choupal Sagar (rural hypermarket) are the major hypermarkets in India.

Hypermarkets have become the battlegrounds where the brands, small, medium and big, the known, the notsowellknown and the wannabe ones, fight it out for the consumers attention. And the consumer is loving it and asking for more. This is one culture that consumers are happy about that no one seems to mind the unplanned expenditure incurred by an outing to such an enticing place.

HYPERMARKET Hypermarket is a superstore which combines a supermarket and a department store (where usually are sold products like apparel, furniture, appliances, electronics, and additionally select other lines of products such as paint, hardware, toiletries, cosmetics, photographic equipment, jewellery, toys, and sporting goods), being the result a very large retail facility which carries an enormous range of products under one roof, including full lines of groceries and general merchandise[footnoteRef:4]. [4: Hypermarket from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

SUPERMARKETSupermarket is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store and it is smaller than a hypermarket or superstore.

DEPARTMENTAL STORELarge retail establishment with an extensive assortment in variety and range of goods, organized into separate departments. All departments are housed under the same roof to facilitate buying, customer service, merchandising and control.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY1. To identify the factor that influences the customer towards Auchan hypermarket.2. To understand the socio-economic profile of the respondents of the present study.3. To know the awareness of customer towards hypermarket.4. To identify the problem faced by the customer visiting the Auchan hypermarket.5. To know the level of satisfaction of the respondents in all the aspects.6. To summarize the findings of the present study and to provide suggestions for improvement.SCOPE OF THE STUDYThe study aims to reveal the attitude and preference of customers towards Auchan hypermarket. This is important to know why the customers prefer hypermarket rather than supermarket or departmental store. The socio-economic variables are taken into account for the present study. The study was directed to cover the city of Chennai. This study is limited to the customers of Auchan hypermarket. As the Auchan hypermarket is situated in Vadapalani, most of the respondents were inquired in Vadapalani area only.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMThe purpose of the study is to identify the customer preference towards hypermarket. Since the hypermarket appearance in the early 2000s, it is a symbol of the modernization of India. It has dramatically changed not only in the retailing structure of this country but also consumer buying behaviour. The hypermarket is the preferred type of retail store for frequently purchased packaged goods, due to convenient one-stop shopping. Products are offered to satisfy different needs and requirements of various people.

Majority of the customer prefer better services. Hypermarkets are focused on offering a better service to their customers than the supermarkets and the departmental stores. There is a sharp and contrasting transformation in consumer behaviour in accordance with Indian retail trends and hence this research has tried to find out the shoppers retailing attitudes, preference and behaviour in hypermarket (Auchan). This research also studies that Auchan hypermarket is reaching up to the level of satisfaction of customer or not.

PERIOD OF STUDY This study covers a period of one year from 2013 2014.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research DesignThe design of the study adopted by the researcher is descriptive and analytical which involved survey and fact finding about the preference and attitude towards hypermarket. The major purpose of descriptive study is to describe the factor that influences the customer to choose hypermarket rather than other stores. Sources of DataThe Primary Data and the secondary data are used in the present study. The primary data are those which are collected afresh and for the first time, and thus happen to be original in character. In this study questionnaire method was adopted for eliciting the information from the respondents. The questionnaire consists of their views, opinion, preference, perceptions and the factors that influence them to purchase products from hypermarket.

The secondary data are those which have already been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through the statistical process. The secondary data has also been augment to analyze the study from various books, journals, previous research, Magazines and websites.Method of data collectionThe questionnaire method was adopted to collect primary data and the questionnaires were personally distributed and collected from the respondents. The questionnaire contained multiple choice questions, rank order question etc. The questionnaire contains a set of 30 different kinds of questions.Sample DesignThe sample size refers to the number of persons selected from the universe to constitute a survey. It should be representation of total population. The sample sizes of 150 respondents are selected to conduct the study. Judgment sampling technique is being adopted to select the respondents for the present study. The Chennai city has been chosen as the area of the present study

TOOLS FOR ANALYSISThe following statistical tools are applied in the study.

Percentage AnalysisPercentage analysis is the method to represent raw streams of data as a percentage (a part in 100-percent) for better understanding of collected data.

Chi-square AnalysisThe chi-square test is an important test amongst the several tests of significance developed by statisticians. Chi-square, symbolically written as 2 (pronounced as Ki-square), is a statistical measure used in the context of sampling analysis for comparing a variance to a theoretical variance. As a non-parametric test, it can be used to determine if categorical data shows dependency or the two classifications are independent. It can also be used to make comparisons between theoretical populations and actual data when categories are used.[footnoteRef:5] [5: Neil R. Ullman, Elementary Statistics An Applied Approach, p. 234.]

Thus the chi-square test is applicable in large numbers of problems. The test is, in fact, a technique through the use of which it is possible for all researchers to (i) test the goodness of fit; (ii) Test the significance of association between two attributes, and (iii) test the homogeneity or the significance of population variance.Formula used for calculating the value of chi-square is

Kendalls Coefficient of ConcordanceKendall coefficient of concordance, represented by the symbol W, is an important non-parametric measure of relationship. It is used for determining the degree of association among several (k) sets of ranking of N objects or individuals. Kendalls coefficient of concordance (w) is considered an appropriate measure of studying the degree of association among three or more sets of rankings.Kendalls coefficient formula W= ______S________ 1/12K2(N3 N)

ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)The basic principle of ANOVA is to test for differences among the means of the populations by examining the amount of variation within each of these samples, relative to the amount of variation between the samples. Thus while using ANOVA; we assume that each of the samples is drawn from a normal population and that each of the population has the same varianceIn short we have to make two estimates of population variance viz., one based on between sample variance and the other based on within sample variance. Then the two estimates of population variance are compared with F test, wherein we work out.

F= Estimates of population variance based on between samples variance Estimates of population variance based on within samples variance

The value of F is to be compared to the F-limit for given degrees of freedom. If the F value we work out is equal or exceeds the F- limit value, we may say that there are significant differences between sample means.Correlation of grouped bivariate dataKarl Pearsons method is the most widely used method in practice and is known as Pearsonian Coefficient of Correlation. It is denoted by the symbol r. The value of the Coefficient of correlation shall always lie between +1 and -1. When r = +1, then there is perfect positive correlation between the variables. When r = -1, then there is perfect negative correlation between the variables. When r = 0, then there is no relationship between the variables.

Pearsons correlation coefficient formula

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1. The present study is restricted to Auchans customers in Chennai city.2. Time and sample size is also limited.3. It focuses on only customers / consumers of Auchan and the respondents are randomly selected.

SCHEME OF CHAPTERIZATIONThe present studies have been divided into five chapters as under.Chapter IThe first chapter deals with the introduction, objectives, scope, methodology and limitation of the study. Chapter IIThe second chapter deals with Review of Literature.

Chapter IIIThe third chapter provides a detail about Hypermarket and deals with the profile of the Auchan hypermarket.Chapter IV This chapter deals with the analysis and interpretation of data.Chapter VThe last and final chapter deals with the conclusion and suggestions.