Consumer food shopping behaviour in Libya

PhD ThesisThis thesis explores consumer food shopping behaviour in an emerging economy, taking the Libyan case as an example. As in many other emerging economies, Libya’s retail environment has been dominated for generations by traditional markets and small independent stores but has recently witnessed the spread of ‘modern’ formats such as supermarkets. The study draws on both qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research provided evidence of a complex picture, highlighting significant variations, from family to family and geographically, in the social acceptability of females shopping at traditional markets and other retail formats. In Libya, food shopping has traditionally been a task for male household members, with traditional markets regarded as inappropriate spaces for females. However the safer, cleaner, and less crowded environment offered by large supermarkets contributed to some women feeling more comfortable shopping for food and henceforth being able to shop as independent consumers. Traditional culture, rather than constraining the spread of supermarkets, may act as a facilitator of the growing popularity of supermarkets in Libya. The main quantitative research instrument was a self-administered questionnaire of Libyan food shoppers in Benghazi city. 371 completed questionnaires were obtained. Factor analysis revealed 12 factors that underlie the reasons consumers go shopping for food. The application of cluster analysis to the dimensions factor scores revealed six segments of food shoppers. The characteristics of each cluster were described by average factor scores on the dimensions of shopping motivations, demographic characteristics, and behavioural variables. The most important retail outlet attributes in the choice of where to buy food were, in descending order, food safety, quality of products, quality of service, speed of service, and variety of products. The findings also indicated that on all items supermarkets performed the best; except for freshness of products and in-store credit (traditional markets were perceived as superior on freshness of products and independent stores for in-store credit). Only for one attribute (car parking) were differences in the mean scores between supermarkets, traditional markets and independent stores not statistically significant. ii Econometric modelling considered the possible relationships between shopping behaviour and the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. This confirmed a major finding of the qualitative research - that females were significantly less likely than males to visit traditional markets and spent proportionally more in supermarkets. Supermarket visitors were more concerned with social acceptability whereas, patrons of traditional markets placed greater emphasis on freshness. Heavy users of independent stores placed greater emphasis on in-store credit

Buy Now

How Amazon combined branding and relationship marketing with massive distribution infrastructure to become the ultimate service brand in the digital economy. Amazon is ubiquitous in our daily lives—we stream movies and television on Amazon Prime Video, converse with Alexa, receive messages on our smartphone about the progress of our latest orders. In Buy Now, Emily West examines Amazon's consumer-facing services to investigate how Amazon as a brand grew so quickly and inserted itself into so many aspects of our lives even as it faded into the background, becoming a sort of infrastructure that can be taken for granted. Amazon promotes the comfort and care of its customers (but not its workers) to become the ultimate service brand in the digital economy. West shows how Amazon has cultivated personalized, intimate relationships with consumers that normalize its outsized influence on our selves and our communities. She describes the brand's focus on speedy and seamless ecommerce delivery, represented in the materiality of the branded brown box; the positioning of its book retailing, media streaming, and smart speakers as services rather than sales; and the brand's image control strategies. West considers why pushback against Amazon's ubiquity and market power has come mainly from among Amazon's workers rather than its customers or competitors, arguing that Amazon's brand logic fragments consumers as a political bloc. West's innovative account, the first to examine Amazon from a critical media studies perspective, offers a cautionary cultural study of bigness in today's economy