Search results

Children are increasingly seen as active consumers participating in various aspects of family food consumption. The purpose of this paper is to look at children’s first-hand accounts of their visits to the supermarket and reports on their in store experiences as participants in the family food shopping. It offers an account of family food shopping from the perspective of the children.

Qualitative discussion groups with children aged eight to 11 years research were used to elicit children’s perceptions of food shopping as part of a study into food consumption experiences. This offers an opportunity to capture the children’s perspective on this everyday consumption activity.

Engaging in family food shopping is part of a socialisation process that introduces children to food retail environments and to shopping scripts played out in store. Young children claim to actively participate in family food shopping in store contributing in a variety of ways to family food purchases that includes making requests in store, negotiating over product choices and assisting with the food shopping. The strategies employed by the children include restricting requests to specific product categories (usually for sweets, or cereals or products for their school lunchbox); selecting products on behalf of other family members; dissuading parents for buying certain food items and helping out in store. Most of the first-hand accounts reflect a positive experience with children contributing to the food decisions that relate directly to their interests. The research finds relatively little conflict and more co-operation between children and their parents in an attempt to influence what goes into the shopping trolley.

This is a small exploratory study with a geographically constrained sample. The children’s accounts cannot be verified but are presented as a way of looking at how children themselves relate to the family food shopping experience. Future research might extend the geographical scope of this investigation and consider soliciting parental views to validate the children’s accounts.

This work provides further evidence of the ways in which children are actively included as part of family food decisions in a supermarket context. Children’s in store contributions to family food can inform retailers and companies as well as policy makers.

This offers a unique insight into how children view shopping with the family and relates more broadly to the discussion around children’s consumption and their role as active consumers.

This paper aims to investigate grocery list use in the lives of participant families in a study on decision making about food choices and eating practices.

A total of 46 families from three ethno‐cultural groups living in two regions in Canada participated in the study: in British Columbia, 12 Punjabi Canadian and 11 European Canadian families; in Nova Scotia, 13 African Canadian and ten European Canadian families. In each family, at least three individuals over the age of 13 years, one of whom was a woman between the ages of 25 and 55 years, were interviewed. Researchers participated in a meal and accompanied each family on a grocery trip.

Most family members contributed to a grocery list. The shopper(s) in the family may take the written list with them, have the list in memory, use a combination of both memory and written list, or shop without a list. Finds the articulation of taken‐for‐granted, intersecting knowledge about family, household and grocery store, necessary to the compilation of a list, were largely unseen, unrecognised, and undervalued.

Studies on grocery lists have focused on who uses lists, how they are used, and what their use says about consumers. In the literature, non‐list use is conflated with the absence of a tangible grocery list. Shows that lack of a tangible list does not mean absence of a list in all cases. Further, extends and contextualises existing literature, showing that grocery list compilation relies upon interrelated knowledge of family, household and store.

With the context of changing global and local populations and, for example, their composition and distribution, this paper offers insight to food shopping in later life with a focus on Nottingham and Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands. The work is relevant and important due to the specific population makeup of this area and the challenges in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a result of population changes/challenges.

The work takes an interdisciplinary view and draws on literature from both social policy and social care and business and marketing. Using this work as a grounding, and insights to primary research from a wider study in this area, the paper offers discussion and comment on:

• the importance of food and food shopping in later life;

• issues of, and concerns for, health, well-being, identity and community maintenance and resilience (as a direct result of the challenge to SDG achievement); and

• the role(s) and responsibility of business from a core business and wider business/corporate responsibility perspective as a reflection of the above and findings of the work.

the importance of food and food shopping in later life;

issues of, and concerns for, health, well-being, identity and community maintenance and resilience (as a direct result of the challenge to SDG achievement); and

the role(s) and responsibility of business from a core business and wider business/corporate responsibility perspective as a reflection of the above and findings of the work.

Using primary research undertaken by the authors, the paper supports findings from existing work from across social policy and care and business and management – related to the practicalities, challenges and the role of and approaches to food shopping in later life. It specifically offers insight to the efforts made by older food shoppers to maintain their independence and support their choices in a context of interdependence (e.g. within a family, community and environment). The importance social aspects of food shopping (as a counter to isolation and loneliness for example) are also identified and how, for example, the actions of business(es) may undermine the efforts (and resilience) of individuals and communities. “Better” understanding of food shoppers by business and other stakeholders is promoted.

Marketers try to influence food shopping behaviour of children through various in-store food promotional strategies (FPS). These in-store FPS comprise of attractive packaging, accessibility, availability of foods in wide varieties and presence of helpful and friendly sales personnel. However, little is known about how children buy and the extent to which these marketing strategies are successful. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores and to study the effectiveness of in-store FPS and demographic factors (age and gender of child and monthly family income) on food shopping behaviour of children.

Data have been collected from 473 mothers of children in age category four to 11 years. Data have been analysed through descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations), bivariate correlations, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis.

The study explores and validates four factor structure of food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores in Indian settings. These factors include children’s active assessment of foods, impact of availability and variety on children’s purchases, influence of TV food ads on children’s purchases and influence of packaging on children’s food purchases. Further, the findings also reveal that in-store FPS are truly effective in influencing food shopping behaviour of children.

Marketers may highlight packaging attributes in food advertisements as they can help escalate food purchase requests of children in retail stores. In addition to this, food advertising is strongly associated with assessment of foods in retail stores and looking for availability of advertised foods in retail stores. This suggests that food advertising as a medium of communication should not be ignored. However, sales personnel can also be used more effectively as they are seen to help children in identifying availability and variety of foods in retail stores.

As no such study has been conducted so far (to the best of researcher’s knowledge), this study potentially helps in bridging gaps in literature.

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively uncover antecedents of food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores in India. Children form the pivot of food marketing. They accompany parents on food shopping trips and assist food purchases. Their extent of participation varies with the frequency with which they accompany parents, the presence of food promotions and other demographic variables. The present paper attempts to comprehensively uncover the variables that help in cumulatively predicting food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores.

Data have been collected from 473 mothers of children in the age category 4-11 years. For the aforesaid purpose, a structured, pre-tested and non-disguised questionnaire has been prepared. Binary logistic regression has been applied to analyse the data through SPSS 19.

Shopping behaviour of children in retail stores significantly depends upon food promotions in retail stores, frequency with which children accompany mothers on shopping trips and demographic variables such as age of mother and father and education status of mother.

This study attracts attention of parents, food retailers and policy makers towards impact of food promotional strategies on food buying behaviour of children in retail stores.

This piece of research is important as no such study (to the best of researchers’ knowledge) has been conducted in India even when food retailing is an important component of total retail in India and also growing tremendously.

This paper investigates children's influence on their mothers' online grocery shopping. As virtual shopping does not provide instant gratification, the authors explore how children between the ages of 7 and 11 are involved in the online purchasing process (before, during and after the purchase) with their digital mothers (digimums).

We collected qualitative data from 27 separate semi-structured interviews of mothers and their children.

Children's influence during the online buying process exists and can be active, passive and/or proactive. The findings extend knowledge about children's influence by adding the notion of proactive influence where children use an intended approach to anticipate their mother's needs for grocery shopping and take initiatives. Children use less impulsive requests and become smart shoppers using more rational arguments to explain their requests. The online buying process contributes to children's online socialisation: They learn the importance of the shopping list, prices, discounts, brands and so on. Online socialisation at home might take the physical form of using digital devices (i.e. scanning) and entering the credit card code, which contributes to the children's learning.

Online buying virtualises children's relationship to objects, and the screen acts as a kind of filter. This makes their influence strategy less emotional and corporeal and more rational (smart shopper).

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in the development of shopping lists and use of advertisements as pre-store food-buying practices in terms of planned shopping by South African consumers who dwell in different socio-economic status (SES) areas. The paper also considers the influence of shopper and socio-demographic characteristics on pre-store food-buying practices in a developing country.

A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 1 200 consumers in retail stores in low, middle and high SES areas in South Africa. A generalised linear model was employed for the statistical analysis of pre-store food-buying practices within the SES area groups in a developing country.

South African consumers that reside in high SES area displayed the largest of shopping list development, while consumers who dwell in low SES areas showed the highest incidence of advertisement usage. Several shopper and socio-demographic characteristics were also found to have an influence on pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in South Africa.

A qualitative approach would offer a deeper understanding of consumers’ pre-store food shopping predispositions as opposed to the quantitative approach, which was adopted for this study. A longitudinal design would also provide a more extensive representation of pre-store food shopping practices over a longer time frame than cross-sectional research. The survey was conducted on Saturdays, whereas consumers who shop during the week may have different shopping and socio-demographic characteristics.

Astute food brands, marketers and grocery stores could use the findings of this study to assist with their marketing efforts that they direct at consumers in different SES areas in South Africa and other developing countries.

The findings of this study may assist consumers in developing countries, especially those who reside in low SES areas, with food-buying strategies to reduce food costs, make wiser purchase decisions and reduce shopping.

No study (to the best of the researchers’ knowledge) has considered shopping list development and use of advertisements’ pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in a developing country. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research analysing shopper and socio-demographic characteristics in relation to pre-store food-buying practices among different SES areas in developing and developed countries.

The purpose of this paper is to look at perceptions of young Japanese consumers towards the convenience store, or konbini, with a view to understanding what attracts them to this retail format and exploring well-being in a new way that is more relevant the retail experience.

The study looks at the emergence of the konbini as part of the Japanese food retail environment and reports on an online survey (n=453) of young Japanese consumer’s (>18 years old) attitudes towards this retail format.

The preliminary analysis of the data finds the konbini is a popular choice for young consumers for specific types of everyday goods. The main appeal lies in the ease of access, location of the stores and the ambience of the space that appeal to young consumer’s sense of well-being.

This is a purposeful sample of young Japanese consumers surveyed across several academic institutions.

Konbini must continue to innovate to attract young consumer while acknowledging the implications of their stocking policy on consumer well-being.

This offers a unique insight into the ways in which young Japanese consumers avail themselves of the food retail provision and provides a broader perspective on well-being in a retail environment that resonates with consumer practice.

The purpose of this paper is to segment primary male grocery shoppers based on store and product attribute evaluations. A rich profile for each segment is developed. These developed contemporary shopper typologies are contrasted against earlier works.

Data of 280 male grocery shoppers was attained by a survey questionnaire. Factor analysis, cluster analysis and ANOVA were employed to develop specific segments of male shoppers.

Four distinct cohorts of male shoppers emerge from the data of eight constructs, measured by 46 items. One new shopper type, not found in earlier typology literature, emerged from this research. This shopper presented as young, well educated, at the commencement of their career and family lifecycle, attracted by a strong value offer and willingness to share the family food shopping responsibilities.

Research outcomes encourage supermarket retailers to implement targeted marketing and rationalized operational strategies that deliver on attributes of importance.

This research makes a contribution to segmentation literature and grocery retail practice in several ways. It presents the first retail typology of male supermarket shoppers, employing a cluster analysis technique. The research provides insights into the modern family food shopping behaviour of men, a channel in which men are now recognised as equal contributors. The research provides the basis for further gender comparative and cross‐contextual studies.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate and discuss a number of child-centric research methods/stimuli involving young children (5-6 years old) in interviews without, and subsequently with their parents. Existing and new methods were selected and developed for a study which aimed at obtaining insights into parents’ and young children’s understandings of children’s influence and family interaction with regard to family food consumption practices.

A total of 35 children were interviewed using semi-structured interviews in five kindergartens. Subsequently, 13 families were interviewed in their homes. The latter interviews included the same children as were interviewed in the kindergarten. The methods discussed include drawings, a desert-island-choice task, a sentence completion task, photographs, vignettes and a video-clip.

When interviewing young children about family decision making influence, the use of engaging methods contributes to the quality of data achieved and to the participants’ enjoyment of their participation. Care should be taken not to overload children with exercises. Visual rather than verbal methods worked better for engaging the children in the research process; for parents all included methods worked well.

The current study shows that a method developed specifically for the study (desert-island-choice task) was apt at including all family members’ perspectives; future studies should develop methods that capture shared rather than individual experiences. The study was carried out in wealthy areas in Denmark. It would be highly relevant to broaden the sample to other socio-economic and cultural contexts.

The study is based on interviews with children usually deemed too young to interview. The contribution is novel methods that allow for studying the interaction between children and parents and that are not based on reading and writing skills to access the perspectives of 5-6-year old children. Precautions regarding using existing methods are offered.