#5 | Dinesh - Mom and wife decide what to cook and I decide what to order
What's cooking - Qualitative study to understand food in urban households
In India, shopping is an entertainment activity. In his book' It happened in India', Kishore Biyani, the founder of Big Bazar, mentioned his rationale behind wider aisles in his stores.
Hypermarkets in western countries are typically designed in the big-box format, with a single floor, high ceilings, and merchandise stacked high on racks. Shopping in these hypermarkets is not exciting, and customers often shop alone. In India, however, shopping is viewed as entertainment, and families often shop together in groups. In response, Big Bazaar created multiple clusters or mini-bazaars within each store with larger aisles.
Today I’m narrating the story of Dinesh, who has a ritual of taking the family to a supermarket on weekly outings.
Dinesh lives in a small apartment in Chennai with his family, which includes a three-year-old child, wife, and parents. He runs a startup, and his wife takes care of their child. Dinesh's wife and mother cook and have someone to help with cleaning and other household tasks.
About the research: 'What's Cooking?' is a user research series aimed at understanding how urban millennial households consume food. All the names and personally identifiable information are masked to honour the participants' privacy. I publish one story from this series every Thursday.
Table of contents:
Food preferences of the family
Annachi Kadai - Serving us for 20 years and counting.
Weekly fruit and vegetable shopping: a family outing!
Ordering food for when my wife and mom need a break.
Less dining out, more pizza nights: how COVID changed our routine
Before COVID, we used to pick up food directly from restaurants.
Food preferences of the family
Dinesh and his family mostly eat South Indian vegetarian food but sometimes eat meat. Dinesh's father has heart problems, so they avoid adding too much oil to their food. They also try to limit the spices in their food because they have a young child. Dinesh's wife and mom decide what to cook daily based on the family's food preferences.
Here is a snapshot of their food preferences in a day.
Annachi Kadai - Serving us for 20 years and counting.
💡 In Tamil Nadu, grocery stores are often called "Annachi Kadai." This name comes from the Nadar community, which owns many of the stores. When people shop at these stores, they often call the owners "annachi." "Kadai" means "store" in Tamil. It is not the same as "kadai" in Hindi, which means "pan.”
Dinesh buys long-term groceries like rice, oil, and dal from his annachi kadai once a month and buys vegetables and fruit from Pazhamudir Nilayam, a prominent chain for buying fruits and vegetables in Tamilnadu.
Dinesh has been buying groceries from the same local store for 20 years. He sends the store owner an image of the written list on WhatsApp and gets it delivered.
They have their grocery routine down, so they rarely need to buy groceries on short notice. If they need something urgent, they order it online through Zepto or Instamart.
Weekly fruit and vegetable shopping: a family outing!
Dinesh goes veggie shopping with his wife and young child. Taking the child to restaurants can be hard to manage, so their weekly trips to the store have become a family outing.
They buy whatever vegetables are available at the store and use them to plan their meals for the week. They often buy the same vegetables every other week, so their menu repeats often.
You go to a Pazhamudhir Nilayam, you have like around 20 vegetables. You have to mix and match them. So, let's say in a 7-day period, we generally buy around 7-8 varieties. So, the next week you don't want to repeat that. You'll probably buy the other 7-8. And within that 20, I won't like 2-3 and the wife or the family won't like 1-2 vegetables. So, the menu or at least the vegetables keep repeating once every two weeks.
Ordering food for when my wife and mom need a break.
Dinesh's family uses the Swiggy app to order food 2-3 times a month, especially when Dinesh's wife and mom are not feeling well or want to try something new.
Dinesh doesn't usually have a specific restaurant in mind when he orders food. He chooses based on his mood. He orders food for the whole family and usually chooses between South Indian, North Indian, or Chinese cuisine.
Dinesh spends 800-1200 rupees on each order for his family. When he is alone or at the office, he has a budget of 300 rupees and orders less often.
I ordered food last Saturday. I was at the office and not with family. I was alone at the office, so I had to have lunch. I didn't want to go home and waste that 45 minutes – 1 hour. So I just ordered food. And I used Zomato for the ordering that not Swiggy because a friend suggested that Zomato has better offers. So I basically went over there and ordered.
When they have guests, the family usually serves sweets and savoury snacks from nearby shops, or they Swiggy it. If they want to serve a full meal, they prepare about 70% of the food themselves and get the rest from a Swiggy restaurant.
Less dining out, more pizza nights: how COVID changed our routine
Dinesh's family used to go out to eat at least once a month, but now they only order pizza once a month and eat at home because of COVID. This has become a regular part of their routine.
I decide and we order. Because I know what they like, what they don't like; I just order. Like how they decide for daily cooking, so I decide and order. So mostly that’s the way it is. Unless there is a specific thing, okay, I want to probably have a pizza and I know what pizza they like. It's mostly Domino’s. So order pizza or whatever. And nowadays what's also happening is that Domino’s is not going to Swiggy, they're wanting us to download their own App. So even that it goes that way as well.
When they decide to go out, they usually go to restaurants serving South Indian, North Indian, or Chinese food because that's what they like. When Dinesh goes out alone, he also tries Italian or Korean food.
In addition to family dining out, Dinesh also goes out with friends and colleagues for business meetings.
Before COVID, we used to pick up food directly from restaurants.
Before the COVID pandemic, Dinesh's family would go directly to a restaurant to pick up food. But now, they only use food delivery apps. Even though they only order 2-3 times a month, they no longer pick up food from restaurants, which has completely changed their behaviour.
Previously, Dinesh's father or mother used to get meat from local shops once a month. But since COVID, they have started ordering meat online from the Swiggy or Licious app.
Even though Dinesh feels the meat quality is better from local shops, he has started to value convenience more in these situations after COVID.
Conclusion
What I loved in Dinesh's story was the well-defined role the family member had and their autonomy in decisions. What’s more blissful than someone you love taking a call on your behalf? COVID has induced new behaviours in their life, like ordering pizza once a month, buying meat online or occasionally getting groceries from Instamart. Still, they co-existed with their original behaviour as opposed to replacing them. To put that in Robert Frost’s words.
‘App may come, and app may go, but Annachi kadai goes on forever.’
What are your key takeaways from this story, do let me know in the comments.