An Exploratory Investigation into the Food-Shopping Attitudes and Behavior of Chinese Shoppers

Abstract

The global food retailers, having landed in mainland China for over a decade, will need to compete with the local wet market in the fresh food retail arena in order to expand their overall market share to stay viable in the long run. Such a move will mean that the global modern food retailers have to compete with a traditional counterpart which, for decades, has been considered the only ideal venue to purchase fresh produce and meat by the Chinese customers. Whether the global food retailers can overcome their limitations in the perishable category visavis, the wet market depends on many factors. An in depth understanding of their market segments is undoubtedly a prelude to improving the effectiveness of their marketing strategies and enhancing their probability of success. This paper reports on an exploratory research that achieves a certain degree of success in demonstrating the feasibility of employing the variable foodshopping attitudes and behavior in examining the issue of foodshopping destination of the Chinese shoppers and draws preliminary managerial implications for the global food retailers.