Winner of SADHNA Best Paper Award 2020 factors influencing shrinkage of vegetables in select retail outlets in Coimbatore city, Tamil Nadu

The Indian retail industry can be divided into two sectors viz organized and unorganized. India wastes fruits and vegetables every year equivalent to the annual consumption of the United Kingdom. In the present study six organized and ten unorganized stores located in various parts of Coimbatore city of Tamil Nadu were selected to analyse factors responsible for shrinkage of selected vegetables and find out the correlation among the procurement, sales and shrinkage of vegetables. It was found that major factors that influenced shrinkage of vegetables were quality of the vegetables, improper handling of vegetables by the employees and lack of good storage facilities. Both organized and unorganized stores had positive relationship with sales and shrinkage on procurement; higher the procurement higher were the sales and shrinkage and vice versa.