Investigation of older consumers’ overall shopping experience in the UK

The population of the world is ageing. It has been forecasted that, by 2050, 34% of the UK population will be aged over 60 in 2050. Due to such a dramatic demographic trend, many researchers have been devoted to improve the quality of older people’s life from multiple perspectives, such as health and social care, social policy, pension, service design. Although results from the existing research are notable, very few studies that have deeply investigated older consumers’ shopping experience in supermarkets. Therefore, this proposed project aimed to investigate challenges and difficulties that older consumers face during their supermarket shopping process, and in turn to understand the way in which supermarket service and environment design can improve older consumers’ shopping experience in the UK. Focus groups, ethnographic user studies which include a Culture Probes information-gathering package, video-based direct observation and in-depth interviews will be conducted in the regions of West Somerset, South Shropshire and Berwick-upon-Tweed to investigate the UK older customers’ overall shopping experience and identify challenges that they face during their shopping process. These three regions have been selected because they have a comparatively high proportion of people aged 65 and over in the UK. Four focus groups with 22 older consumers have been conducted to investigate key elements, which influence their shopping behaviour and experience. Subsequently, 10 elderly consumers from each region will be invited to participate in the ethnographic user studies within a two-month period, which supports the researcher to discover shopping related issues with older customers

Access to shops: The views of low-income shoppers

Concern is mounting as the retail stranglehold upon access to food grows. Research on the implications of restructuring retailing and health inequality has failed to involve low-income consumers in this debate. This paper reports on an exercise conducted for the UK Government's, Social Exclusion Unit's Policy Action Team on Access to Shops. The survey provides a useful baseline of the views of low-income groups in England. The choices that people on low income can make were found to be dominated by certain factors such as income and, most importantly, transport. Consumers reported varying levels of satisfaction with retail provision. The findings suggest gaps between what people have, what they want and what the planning process does and does not offer them. Better policy and processes are needed to include and represent the interests of low-income groups

Shopping for food: lessons from a London borough

Purpose – This paper aims to measure access to food in an inner London borough. Design/methodology/approach – There were six phases, which included designing food baskets, consultation with local residents and a shop survey. Recognising the cultural make-up of the borough food baskets and menus were developed for four key communities, namely: White British, Black Caribbean, Turkish, and Black African. Three areas were identified for the study and shopping hubs identified with a 500-metre radius from a central parade of shops. Findings – The findings paint an intricate web of interactions ranging from availability in shops to accessibility and affordability being key issues for some groups. It was found that in the areas studied there was availability of some key healthy items, namely fresh fruit and vegetables, but other items such as: fresh meat and poultry, fish, lower fat dairy foods, high fibre pasta and brown rice were not available. Access was found to be defined, by local people, as more extensive than just physical distance to/from shops – for many shopping was made more difficult by having to use taxis and inconvenient buses. Small shops were important in delivering healthy food options to communities in areas of deprivation and were judged to offer a better range and more appropriate food than the branches of the major supermarket chains. Research limitations/implications – The importance of monitoring the impact of shops and shop closures on healthy food availability is emphasised. From a policy perspective the findings suggest that approaches based on individual agency need to be balanced with upstream public health nutrition approaches in order to influence the options available. Originality/value – The paper is arguably the first to examine and dissect the issue of food availability and accessibility in the inner London borough in question, especially in the light of its proposed redevelopment for the London Olympics in 2012

Consumption of Organic Foods from a Life History Perspective: An Exploratory Study among Danish Consumers

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CONSUMER RESPONSES TO ONLINE FOOD RETAILING

Consumer behavior in the context of online food retail channels is analyzed. The research is a follow-up to an earlier study conducted in early 1998 on consumer response to online food shopping. In the 1998 study (N=243), a majority of the sample (51 percent) were "new" users of online food shopping (<6 months); 35 percent were "intermediate" users (1-6 months); and only 14 percent were "experienced" users (>6 months). In contrast, the new user segment in the follow-up study (N=412) was 29 percent; the intermediate segment was 28 percent; and the experienced group was 43 percent. Demographic profiles and shopping behaviors of respondents in the two studies are compared. Using cluster analysis, four distinct segments of online food shoppers are identified. Marketing strategy implications for online retailers and store retailers are discussed.Consumer/Household Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Consumer Willingness to Pay and Marketing Opportunities for "Quality Guaranteed Tree-Ripened Peaches" in New York State

This study identifies consumer characteristics associated with willingness to pay a higher price for quality guaranteed tree-ripened peaches, with a focus on evaluating factors important to consumers when making decisions to purchase tree-ripened peaches. Telephone interviews were conducted with consumers in New York State in summer, 2002. Seventy-eight percent of the 258 survey respondents reported that they were willing to pay a higher price. A logistical regression model of willingness to pay was estimated. The empirical results indicated that willingness to pay was positively affected by the existence of previous experiences in purchasing tree-ripened peaches and by consumer dissatisfaction with peaches consumed in the past. An analysis of consumer experiences and consumer dissatisfaction showed that consumers in the two identified segments had mutually exclusive characteristics that present marketing opportunities for high quality New York-grown peaches.Consumer/Household Economics,

The Spanish E-retailing Customers Segmentation

This article analyses different factors that influence the purchasing behaviour of online supermarket customers. These factors are related to both the appearance of the website as well as the processes that take place when making the purchase. Based on these analyses, the various groups of consumers with homogenous behaviour are studied. The analysis also allows the quality of the service offered by this kind of establishment to be defined, as well as the main dimensions in which it develops. In the conclusions, factors which should influence the manager of an online supermarket to improve the quality of its service are given.Virtual supermarket; segmentation; Internet; E-commerce; marketing.

CONSUMER TRENDS: FUTURE CHALLENGES

Consumer/Household Economics,

Consumer Behaviour towards Own Label: monitoring the Greek experience

In Greece, the traditional perceptions of private label were once of low quality, unbranded alternatives, attracting the most cost-conscious consumers. In today’s private label market, however, a different level of products has emerged – the premium “branded†private label product. Based on a consumer survey conducted in Greece, the current study discusses consumer’s attitude and satisfaction with respect to private label products. Frequency of purchase and consumer characteristics are also discussed in light of empirical evidence.Private label, consumer attitude, Greece, food retailing, Consumer/Household Economics,

Analyzing pork purchases at the point of sale – The role of consumer involvement

Involvement is an important psychological construct for understanding consumers’ underlying purchase decision process and those factors that shape product perceptions. In order to better understand consumer purchase behavior for low and high priced pork cuts, a series of field interviews at a variety of food retailers were conducted with actual pork shoppers using the New Involvement Profile (NIP) developed by Jain and Srinivasan (1990). In addition to responses to a series of questions designed to assess consumers’ involvement when purchasing pork, informational elements including socio-demographic information and pork attributes (e.g., origin, advertisement, on sale) were also included in the analysis. Key results from the study show individuals with high risk factors were significantly less likely to purchase high price cuts of pork. However this factor was mitigated by high price cuts on sale. Advertising is found to engage consumers with specific factors including those individuals who place a symbolic value on pork. Similar results are found for certain individuals based upon the type of store in which shopping took place. Results from our study may help companies to develop specific strategies to target high and low involved consumer segments. For instance, focusing on particular labeling schemes to increase consumers’ trust in meat producers could be used to target high involved shoppers. Additionally, based upon the empirical evidence this would have an added benefit by supporting the purchase of higher priced cuts of pork.pork, purchase behavior, consumer involvement, point of sale, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing, C93, D12, Q13,