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This chapter offers a preliminary investigation into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer purchasing behaviour within the grocery retail industry and supports evidence that since the pandemic began at the end of 2019, there have been changes in the demands and behaviours of consumers (Donthu & Gustafsson, 2020). Previous research has reported that the pandemic resulted in retail consumers spending less and saving more (Jorda, Singh, & Taylor, 2020), as well as panic buying (Nazir, 2021), both of which initially contributed to the limited availability of goods. This preliminary study reports upon survey data collected from retail consumers and answers the question ‘What were the changes in consumer behaviour in the grocery sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?’ Findings reveal that an increase in online shopping occurred more distinctly during the first of the UK’s lockdowns, which waned over time. Findings also reveal a lower shopping frequency, but higher shopping spends during lockdown, and that social distancing and discipline were key drivers of this behaviour change. Findings also reveal an intention to maintain a combination of new and old shopping behaviours and habits after lockdown, giving rise to the continuing importance of meeting consumers’ grocery needs online as well as in-store. This chapter further discusses the implications arising from the reported findings.

This study aims to explore consumption practices of new middle-class Indian women to explicate how they are challenging traditional social norms and redefining their identity through their consumption practices.

A total of 32 semi-structured and photo-elicitation interviews were conducted with new middle-class women between the age group of 23 and 40 years in India.

This study illustrates how the doing of consumption practices that involve creating, controlling, knowing and transforming is enabling new middle-class Indian women to undo gender disparities embedded in hegemonic patriarchal social order. Also, the study provides new insights into how class and symbolic capital intersect gender to redefine middle-class women’s feminine self.

This study specifically illustrates how new middle-class women are using consumption practices to uplift their position in household; bring about new modes of social interface; and identity expression and a reversal in gender roles.

The conflation of women’s independence with consumerism underlines the need for marketers to position consumer goods in a manner that strengthens women’s self and alleviates cultural perceptions of women as subordinate to men in the household. Indian market has considerable growth potential for publicly visible brands that affirm the elevated social status of women and allow them to effectively demonstrate their capital resources.

An under-researched consumer segment is explored by focusing particularly on the intersection of discourses of women’s individuality with that of their consumption practices. Additionally, pioneering use of photo-elicitation technique coupled with hermeneutic approach enabled to elicit effectively women’s reflections on their behaviours, values and motivations underlying their consumption practices.