ABSTRACT
The author's interest in climate, culture, and consumption began with his first book, The Theory of Buyer Behavior, published in 1969. The important role of culture in determining consumers' preferences in daily necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing was even more obvious to the author given that he came to the United States from India to do his graduate studies with very different culturally anchored prior preferences and habits. His interest in climate grew out of a research study he was doing for Coca Cola International. It was this study of cross-cultural consumption of Coca Cola that brought to his attention the importance of climate on consumption behavior. The best way to illustrate consumption differences in food, shelter, and clothing is to contrast Northern and Southern Europeans. Climate can easily explain most of the differences between Northern and Southern California, as is true of Northern and Southern India or Italy.
