Food Shopping Behaviour in Older Consumers´ Segment

The focus of our research is to provide a theoretical rationale and empirical evidence for determining the behaviour and perceptions of older customers during their food shopping process. Perceptions of older shoppers are in contrast to younger shopper, affected by their biological ageing, reduction of mobility, declining vision, chronic illnesses, etc. Two principal aims are formulated in our paper: to identify the factors with positive and negative impact upon food shopping experience in older customers segment during their food procurement process and to propose some recommendations to retail managers aiming at better consideration and meeting the expectations of the older people. Data collection involved two focus groups with older customers aged over 60 years. Both focus groups consisted of twelve adults. The purpose of the interviews was to identify the main food shopping issues experienced by older people and to find out whether or not they were satisfied by the current food retail service. The focus group interviews were analysed according to principles of thematic content analysis, where substantive categories were identified from individual statements. The findings from group interviews were supported by the results from a questionnaire distributed among 468 seniors. To determine the food shopping experience, respondents were asked to evaluate 13 substantive categories impacting on their food shopping satisfaction. Both qualitative and quantitative results have indicated that age dimensions influence perceptions and behaviour related to store evaluation. Older people experience a range of distinct positive and negative factors in their food shopping. Negative factors identified by this segment include several in-store design and layout factors, in-store assistance, product-size of foods and also promotion of multi-purchase products. Positive factors associated with food shopping include variety and quality of products. Based on the findings, areas to improve the service for older shoppers´ segment have been recommended to retail management.