The food‐shopping experience: a satisfaction survey of older Scottish consumers

Abstract

The growing numbers of older people represent an important market segment for retailers, particularly the food retail sector. The dominance of the food multiples and their growth strategies have been criticised for contributing to some older consumers being disadvantaged. This paper considers the satisfaction levels of older consumers in Scotland, with their food‐shopping experience. Drawing upon previous work by the author which identified the factors influencing satisfaction, 220 volunteers were recruited from various locations in Scotland and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The survey focused on the main shopping trip. Results indicate that, whilst there is a general trend towards satisfaction, there are key areas of dissatisfaction, such as aspects of the products for sale (merchandise), the practices and procedures of the retailer (retail practices) and factors in the community which affected the shopping trip (external shopping factors). This suggests that policy‐makers seeking to encourage the participation of food retailers in health promotion need to recognise vulnerable sub‐groups of the older population and recognise that not all older consumers can signal their preferences in the marketplace.

Weaving new retail and consumer landscapes in the Scottish Borders

“…By inference (though supported by other work e.g. Smith and Sparks, 1997;Hare, 2003) there are implications of these changes for rural village stores, sections of the community, character of the market towns and even the Borders way of life. All of these findings are of interest and importance, but as with much of the previous work cited, they tend to underplay the dynamics and inter-relationships of the situation and the nuances of how retail and consumer landscapes have been created and are inter-woven.…”

Cognitive age and grocery-store patronage by elderly shoppers

“…Such risks are more frequent in stores that lack consideration of specific needs of elderly consumers in terms of their product offer (e.g. Hare, 2003;Meneely et al, 2008;Meneely, Strugnell, & Burns, 2009b). Stores with a wider and deeper product range reduce such purchase-related risk by giving older consumers more choice in finding products and promotions that satisfy their age related requirements and make it easier to substitute a product in the case of an out-of-assortment and out-of-stock situation at the point of sale (Emmelhainz, Emmelhainz, & Stock, 1991;Ratner, Kahn, & Kahneman, 1999).…”

“…For older consumers, the accessibility of a store represents a crucial determinant of store patronage, particularly in the case of grocery shopping (Hare, 2003;Whelan et al, 2002). Accessibility in this sense indicates the convenience of physical access in terms of how easy, quick, problem-free and safe it is to get to stores (e.g.…”

“…The whole picking process is more challenging for older consumers (Goodwin & McElwee, 1999). Older shoppers may have difficulty reading labels and getting an overview of the category of products on a particular shelf due to deteriorating eyesight (Hare, 2003) and struggle to reach products on top or bottom shelves due to reduced mobility (Radford-Lewis & Nimbs, 2005).…”

“…Moschis & Mathur, 2006;Sherman, Schiffman, the segment grows in terms of numbers and disposable income (Yoon et al, 2005). These consumer cohorts have specific needs and abilities and thus distinctive consumer behaviour (Hare, 2003;Moschis, Curasi, & Bellenger, 2004). The literature has covered fragmented aspects of older consumers' behaviour in relation to cognitive age.…”