Socio‐economic Correlates of Consumer Behavior

Abstract

MARKET RESEARCH ANALYSTS have studied consumer buying motives and habits with respect to innumerable product lines. Very few researchers have made use of social organization variables as correlates of specific buying motives and habits. The purpose of the present paper is to examine social organization determinants of consumer-buying motives in food purchasing.' Following the procedure of other market researchers, an attempt was made to ascertain consumers' patronage motives in buying groceries.2 Each consumer interviewed in the study was asked: Why do you buy your groceries at this store? (Store previously indicated and from which respondent purchased majority of groceries). The reasons given were ranked by respondents 1, 2, 3. A value of 3 was assigned to the first reason, 2 for the second and 1 for the third. The results given in Table 1 indicate that consumers patronize particular stores for specific reasons. In order to compare buying motives with