ABSTRACT
The three decades of reform and economic stabilization have nurtured an affluent consumer market, a necessary condition for retail growth. This chapter establishes the geography of demand. The consumer market size is measured with such benchmarks as population size and income. Since rise in income has led to significant changes in consumption patterns, expenditure breakdowns are also examined. Regional variations are first contrasted between urban and rural areas, and then exhibited among cities of different tiers. As the population is aging, pension income has increased to 24.2 percent of total income. Business earnings and capital gains from investment are now new sources of income, accounting for 8.2 and 2.5 percent, respectively. Consumption patterns have gone through some significant changes in the past three decades. In the 1980s and the early 1990s, a rapidly increasing disposable income was spent mainly on better food, higher-quality apparel, and such durable goods as watches, bicycles, color TVs, sewing machines, refrigerators, and washing machines.
