A critical element in our refill solution is the (ideally enthusiastic) participation of kirana store owners. By some estimates there are about 15 million of these stores across India, most run by an individual or family.

Very roughly, there’s a kirana store for every 100-300 people, so it's rare to go far without seeing one.

The stores are remarkably space efficient, making sure to use every square inch to display or store product. Even in a very limited area you'll find a wide range of products across numerous categories.

There can be a strong bond of loyalty between the kirana store owner and their customers. Customers typically use the same kirana store for years and store owners often extend small amounts of credit to their customers.

A core element of our refill work is to bring about behaviour changes on the part of the consumer as well as the store owner. To understand better how storeowners think about all this, we conducted a number of in-depth interviews….