The grocery shopping attitudes and behaviors of convenience store patrons

This study measured the grocery shopping behavior of households through a hand delivered and hand retrieved questionnaire. The focus of this study was the identification of the convenience store as a place where grocery shoppers purchase fill-in grocery items between major supermarket trips. The survey measured the shopping behavior of households toward supermarkets and the shopping behavior of the households toward convenience stores.

This study replicates the Sequence of Effects Model of grocery shopping behavior and a grocery shopping strategy typology to address the issue of how convenience store patrons differ from non patrons in their attitudes and behavior toward grocery shopping and in their attitudes and behavior toward their primary supermarkets. This research also addressed the differences in relationships with the primary convenience store among patrons with different rates of patronage.

The attitude of grocery shoppers regarding their trust of supermarkets to have fair prices and quality products was found to influence their perception of their primary supermarkets. Grocery shoppers were also found to express an inverse relationship between the feelings of time pressure during fill-in grocery shopping trips and their perception of their primary supermarkets.

The typology of grocery shoppers was found to describe different convenience store patrons as well as supermarket patrons. Typology membership indicates the likelihood of a shopper being a convenience store patron.

Convenience store patrons were found to give lower evaluations to their primary supermarkets, to feel greater time pressure during fill-in shopping, and to be less involved in information search than non patrons. They were also found to have larger evoked sets than grocery shoppers who do not patronize convenience stores. Convenience store patrons were found to hold greater feelings of personalization and socialization with their primary convenience store when they had greater frequency rates.

The supermarket was found to be the store of choice for fill-in grocery shopping by an overwhelming majority of grocery shoppers.

The study results show theoretical, methodological, and substantive implications concerning grocery shopping behavior and the patronage of convenience stores. This study concludes with suggestions for future research.