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The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of ambivalence in benefit‐based segmentation of convenience food in Norway.

Building on the attitude‐ambivalence literature and research about food convenience, a hierarchic cluster analysis is performed based on a nation‐wide representative survey of 1,154 Norwegian consumers.

The study's effort to use attitudinal ambivalence as a basis for benefit or attitude segmentation proved to be useful in finding segments with different profiles in the area of convenience food. The results reveal three consumer segments based on evaluation of quality, value, ambivalence and perceived morals towards convenience food: the “Convenient”, the “Ambivalent”, and the “Dissatisfied” consumer. While the Convenient have positive feelings and the Dissatisfied negative feelings toward convenience food, the Ambivalent have mixed feelings and feel guilt when eating ready meals. The ambivalent consumers share beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviour at a position somewhere between the “Convenient” and the “Dissatisfied” on most variables. However, in some areas they are close to the “Dissatisfied”, e.g. on variables such as perceived nutritional value, serving/buying ready meals, time used for making dinner or planning their meals. In a few areas they are closer to the “Convenient”, e.g. appeal to children, consuming, soups and pasta, and age above 60.

Future research on benefit or attitudinal segmentation should consider including a measure of perceived ambivalence associated with the investigated products or services.

The practical implications are addressing a potential for the convenience food industry and subsequently suggesting a positioning strategy to adopt ambivalent consumers.

The paper presents new insights into consumer benefit segmentation and in empirical research on convenience food with a particular focus on ambivalence and moral attitudes.

Adolescents are at a stage in their life course in which they increasingly become choosers, buyers and preparers of food. Hence, they develop and employ required competences. Current food-related competences of adolescents are shaped in an environment with an abundance of convenience foods. Simultaneously food education has been limited in many western countries. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize how young practitioners engage with the notion of convenience in a context with a strong presence of convenience foods.

Empirical data for this paper have been collected in a Dutch high school context following a participatory approach in focus group discussions. Data have been gathered from different food-related exercises within a classroom context.

The findings indicate that adolescents’ food competences and meanings are heavily shaped by the abundant presence of convenience foods. Adolescents perceive a nuanced picture of a skilful consumer that incorporates convenience foods in ways that minimize time efforts, preserves some preparatory tasks for fun cooking and has knowledge about health effects of fatty and salty foods.

The investigation takes a novel look on convenience food consumption from a practice perspective scrutinizing competences through the lens of adolescent practitioners. The authors make a plea for tapping into the potential of research on children and adolescents as novice performers of practices to understand how practices are shaped and changed and how practices recruit new practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to develop policy recommendations for creating a healthy food environment around convenience stores which has been recently extending beyond the retail to the food retail and even to the foodservice market in South Korea.

This study was based on case studies of evaluating the nutritional quality of lunch box products sold by the Korean big 3 convenience store brands (CU, GS25 and 7-Eleven) as meal replacements. Samples of all lunch box products sold during October 2016 in Asan city, South Korea were collected for nutritional quality evaluation.

The amount of food items in the “Meats/Fish/Eggs/Legume” food group was 2.4 times the recommended intake, while that in the “Vegetables” food group was even less than one serving size. The most frequent cooking method both for the animal- and plant-based food groups was stir-frying. The average calories fell short of the reference value for men but exceeded it for women. The percentage energy contribution from fats exceeded the reference range. The average amounts of protein, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium were higher than recommended.

This study calls attention to the necessity and importance of establishing a healthy food environment around convenience stores, given the ever-growing reliance on these establishments as a go-to spot for a convenient meal. The results may also provide useful insights for developing countries in Asia, which are being spotlighted as the emerging markets for convenience stores.

This paper argues that the emergence of convenience food reflects the re‐ordering of the time‐space relations of everyday life in contemporary society. It is suggested that the notion of convenience food is highly contested. Britons are ambivalent about serving and eating convenience food. However, many people are constrained to eat what they call convenience foods as a provisional response to intransigent problems of scheduling everyday life. A distinction is drawn between modern and hypermodern forms of convenience, the first directed towards labour‐saving or time compression, the second to time‐shifting. It is maintained that convenience food is as much a hypermodern response to de‐routinisation as it is a modern search for the reduction of toil. Convenience food is required because people are too often in the wrong place; the impulse to time‐shifting arises from the compulsion to plan ever more complex time‐space paths in everyday life. The problem of timing supersedes the problem of shortage of time. Some of the more general social implications of such a claim are explored.

With rising levels of obesity, public health attention has turned to the “obesogenic environment”, which includes the ready availability of convenience foods. We seek to provide an historical account of the popularity of convenience foods, alongside an elaboration of how international and Australian experts believe convenience food has contributed to rising rates of obesity. In this context, the paper aims to speculate about the likely success of functional foods, or “phoods”, and draw conclusions about potential implications for the obesity epidemic.

An “expanded” Delphi survey was utilised to identify key trends underpinning the rise in obesity and expert's hypotheses about how these trends have operated to promote obesity. Elaborating on these data, an historical perspective of the emergence and consolidation of convenience foods in Australian diets, with particular attention paid to foods that offer “healthy convenience”, is provided.

Australian research shows how the growing consumption of convenience foods is contributing to upward trends in overweight. It is argued that the functional food sector is well placed in a context where consumers are being encouraged to embrace convenient food solutions, while also being concerned about the nutritional qualities of foods.

Whilst the development of healthy and convenient “phoods” may benefit people's health, the paper identifies how they may also undermine efforts to reduce the weight of the population. This makes the regulatory issue of health claims pivotal to balance the interests of the functional food sector and the public health community.

This paper aims to explain the relationship between product quality, price and convenience with a positive attitude and intention to buy traditional food. In addition, it also aims to explain the role of the product type in moderating the relationship between these variables.

Samples were taken non-randomly, consisting of 500 snack food buyers and 500 restaurant food buyers. Some of the places chosen for sampling include Paragon Mall, Solo Grand Mall, Matahari Mall, Hartono Mall or other places in Surakarta-Indonesia, where people spend time relaxing. Furthermore, multiple structural equations model (multi group SEM) is a statistical method used to explain the relationship between the conceptual variables.

Some of the findings are as follows: before the product as a moderator, price and quality are the variables that influence the positive attitude and the intention to buy, while the convenience is the variable found not affecting both the positive attitude and the intention to buy. After the product type as a moderator, for snacks, the test results indicate that the price, product quality and convenience are the variables that affect the positive attitude but do not affect the intention to buy. For restaurant food, test results indicate that only prices and qualities affect positive attitudes, whereas convenience is found not to affect positive attitudes. Furthermore, only price and quality affect the intention to buy, while convenience is found not to affect the intention to buy.

This paper underlines that the type of product is a moderating variable in the buying behavior process of traditional foods. Regarding its role as a moderator variable, the relationships between variables that are conceptualized can be explained in detail, along with their significance.

The overall aim of this research is to increase understanding of consumers' barriers in relation to convenience food. While the motivation for consuming convenience food has been investigated frequently, few studies have investigated the barriers.

Three focus group studies, exploring consumers' ready‐to‐heat (RTH) meal dilemmas, were conducted in Norway.

The frequency of barriers and four narratives are presented, and the results indicate that consumers face bottom‐up dilemmas related to barriers like sensory perception, health, economy, and managing relationships; and/or top‐down value dilemmas related to traditions, quality of life and environmental barriers when considering convenience food consumption.

This research contributes to the current body of literature, which mainly focuses on drivers of convenience demand, by elaborating on barriers and dilemmas for convenience choice.

The findings imply how marketers should communicate with the convenience market. Marketing managers need to understand which barriers to break or what dilemmas to discuss when communicating with the RTH market.

By structuring focus group interviews according to the individual respondents (“who said what”) and by presenting the data as narratives, the paper shows a new way to analyze focus group interviews.

Foodborne disease remains a significant public health threat and cause for concern. Despite numerous studies indicating that the domestic kitchen is a high-risk area for foodborne illness, consumers believe it is low-risk. The type of food being prepared in the kitchen has drastically changed, with an increased use of convenience products, perceived low-risk products. Little is known about consumers' behaviours with convenience meals. Therefore, it is essential to understand actual and perceived food safety behaviours in their use.

A mixed-methods approach using in-home observations and semi-structured interviews was undertaken with participants from the UK and the Republic of Ireland (N = 50). Observational data was summarized using descriptive statistics and an inductive thematic analysis was conducted to interpret the qualitative data.

In this study general food safety behaviours, such as handwashing, use-by date checking, as well as identifying obvious safety hazard were suboptimal. However, participants' convenience meal safety behaviours were as optimal as possible with the provided instructions. The qualitative data supported the participants' struggle with the provided on-packet instructions. They also displayed participants' uncertain perceptions around different products, for example if oven-products could be reheated multiple times, and varying levels of concern around meat and dairy products. Consumers urged for more detailed and clearer instructions with these products. Recommendations for producers are provided to enhance consumer experience with the use of the products as well as contributing towards ensuring consumer safety.

Mixed-methods approach investigating consumers' real and perceived food safety behaviours.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of the dining experience elements at gas stations foodservice outlets: (1) food quality, (2) service quality, (3) convenience and (4) atmospherics on customers' overall satisfaction and behavioral intention. This study also examines the mediating effect of overall satisfaction on dining experience elements and behavioral intention.

This paper applies a quantitative approach, using partial least square-structural equation modeling for analysis. Survey data were collected online from 231 participants in the United States.

Convenience and food quality are strong predictors of gas station food purchasing overall satisfaction and behavioral intention. Meanwhile, service quality and atmospherics were not statistically significant.

This study's survey was conducted online. Participants reflected on their dining experience at gas station dining outlets in the prior week.

This study contributes to the existing foodservice literature by exploring dining at gas stations. It also provides a new insight into the importance of convenience in influencing overall satisfaction and behavior intention in a gas station foodservice setting.

This study helps with the understanding of consumer behavior and expectations of a fast-food setting. This study helps with enhancing convenience in order to improve the customers' experience and reduce their daily stress relating to wait time for purchasing fast-food meals.

This is the first study to examine consumer experience at a gas station food service setting.

Investigates whether consumers′ time availability is an important segmentation variable in the convenience and fast‐food markets. Very time‐poor, somewhat time‐poor, and not time‐poor consumers are compared, and three types of food are examined: fast foods, frozen dinners, and ready‐to‐eat foods. For weekday dinners, similarities and differences between the three segments are investigated with respect to usage of each type of food, importance of benefits sought in a weekday dinner, and perceptions of each type of food. Managerial implications of differences between segments and of overall patterns are discussed.