Consumer Habits Buying Study. The study involved entry and exit interviews with more than 4,200 consumers at 28 supermarkets and 14 mass merchandise store outlets from leading retail chains in each of the seven geographic regions across the United States. An effort was made to divide the interviews evenly over regions in order to provide data culled from a representative cross-section of American consumers. All fieldwork during the study took place during February, March and April of 1995.
Some findings confirm common perceptions, while others offer new insights.
Mass merchandise store shoppers are more likely to pay by cash than supermarket shoppers, but they are also more likely to pay by credit card. The average supermarket shopper makes slightly more than two and a half trips to the store per week, and the average mass merchandise store shopper makes a little more than one and a half trips to the store per week. Nearly three fourths of all brand purchase decisions are made in-store at both supermarkets and mass merchandise stores. As but one demonstration of that fact, only 17 percent of mass merchandise store shoppers use a shopping list, compared with 47 percent of supermarket shoppers. Mass merchandise store shoppers tend to be younger, less affluent and more family-oriented than supermarket shoppers, and they are more likely to shop with other members of their family.