Just saw this interesting infographic from Nielsen. It shows rising prices and cost of living in India, but also rising spend on tasty non-essentials like chocolate. Sri Lanka sees similar rising costs with higher inflation, and people also spend more on taste rather than quantity.
Other points of interest are that, despite the growth of sales outlets like fastrack and xyntra (my research is watching StarWorld), fast moving consumer good (FMCG) prices have risen by 23% and half of Indians are saying they’d wait to buy new clothes, etc.
What I did find interesting was that the sale of impulse items was rising. In Sri Lanka, data showed that people increased spending on condiments and stuff to make food tastier more than food. While many dev orgs focus on caloric intake, it seems that actual people are focused more on taste than nutrition. I mean, obviously, world over.