Supermarket tribes and the temple of Aldi: A comparison between the UK and Australia

Abstract

This research began as an investigation into consumer responses to the increasing number of supermarket own brands appearing in the grocery aisles of Australia when compared with the United Kingdom (UK) where retailer brands tend to dominate. Where the study ended was with the revelation of consumer ‘supermarket tribes’ and that this connectedness is linked to the consumption space as a way to endorse a lifestyle. We propose that the significance of spatial structure to ordinary practices, such as grocery shopping, may have been previously overlooked due to assumptions around its relative unimportance, when in fact this activity makes a valuable contribution to the culture of consumption. People do not always make economically rational decisions and instead support cultural theories that their lives are fashioned around the consumption experience, which ultimately contributes to their multiple realities. This study reveals that these realities can be made up of a series of fleeting moments as part of a grocery shop from which a perceived uniqueness, or not, is formed, and this is influenced by different market offerings. This was an unexpected outcome. Using a mix of focus groups and ethnographic data, we uncovered the presence of consumer tribes within the UK market, but which were not replicated in Australia. The exception to this was Aldi, where Australian shoppers revealed higher devotion to the store. This article contributes to theory by investigating the presence of consumer tribes for supermarket retailers where the number of different stores, and the type of customer interactions influence the likelihood of such a phenomenon to occur. This is a departure from the conventional retailer perspective and recognising this change to consumer expectations and consumption is important for retailer growth and improved market presence.