Abstract: | This study aims to establish whether the residential background of consumers has a varying influence on their buying decisions. A survey of 1090 urban and rural respondents was carried out of which 523 were rural and 567 were urban. The gathered data were analysed by applying counts, percentages, means, and analysis of variance. Rural residents found that packaging is more helpful in buying, that better packaging contains a better product and that they are more influenced by the ease of storing a package than their urban counterparts. Ease of carriage, package weight, simplicity, transparency and similarity of packaging have comparatively less impact on purchase decisions of rural consumers than urban ones. However, rural consumers are more critical about packaging as they strongly consider that it contributes to misleading buyers and is also an environmental hazard. |