Potential Impacts of Diversification of Food Retail Working Hours on Consumer Behaviour and the Benefits for Local Producers in Latvia

Abstract

The capability of large food retail chains to respond quickly to changes in consumer behaviour and their dominant market position affects all food market players and often conflicts with the interests of national food producers, which can reduce the presence of locally sourced products in the food product mix in the country. Accordingly, the present research aims to identify the impacts of the diversification of opening hours of food supermarkets on consumer shopping habits and the implications for creating an advantage for small and medium agri-food producers in selling their products. The research applied a quantitative approach to identify the main trends in society (n = 2738), with a survey including 31 variables to quantify consumer behaviour, values, and opinions and seven socio-demographic variables. If a decision was made in Latvia to close grocery shops on Sundays or reduce their opening hours on weekends, 85% of consumers indicated that they would be unlikely to change their usual shopping location and would plan to shop at a supermarket on other days. The choice between farmers’ markets and local food shops on Sundays would be made by 45% of consumers, with more than half (53%) of them shopping at local food shops at least a few times a month. The research uniquely investigated the impact of reducing supermarket opening hours on the competitive advantage of small and medium-sized agri-food producers. The findings revealed that reducing supermarket opening hours does not confer a competitive advantage to the producers or significantly shift consumer preferences towards their products.