Hypermarketization: standardized shopping in emerging economies

A hypermarket is a combined supermarket and department store that carries a large range of products. Since the opening of the first hypermarket in the US in the early 1930s, this concept has spread globally. Nowhere is this trend more visible than in India, now the world's most populous country with a middle class that will expectedly grow to 800 million in 2030. This paper coins the theory of hypermarketization to explain why and how the hypermarket as a globalized form signifies the full integration of liberalization, retail and middle-class consumer culture in emerging markets. The argument that hypermarketization marks the point when successful economies in the Global South mature and then qualify as emerging markets is based on empirical material from fieldwork on vegetarianism and meat in hypermarkets and among middle-class groups in South India, namely participant observation and interviewing.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the concept of hypermarkets and their global spread, with a focus on the phenomenon of hypermarketization in India as an emerging market. The study is based on fieldwork in South India, specifically looking at vegetarianism and meat consumption in hypermarkets and among the middle class. The paper argues that hypermarketization represents the integration of liberalization, retail, and middle-class consumer culture in emerging markets, marking their maturity.