## 4 Discussion
As shown in Table 6, we observed significant differences between: (a) \"sex\" regarding purchase from supermarkets, restaurants, and e-commerce with weak association (V = 0.107/0.127/0.116); (b) \"age\" regarding the frequency of TFs purchase, purchase from the grocery store, independent stores with weak association (V = 0.171/0.149/0.239); (c) \"level of education\" regarding purchase via the Internet with weak association (V = 0.149); (d) \"civil state\" regarding the frequency of purchase with weak association (V = 0.157); (e) \"job situation\" regarding purchase from grocery stores with weak association (V = 0.117); and (f) \"permanent residency\" regarding the frequency of purchase with strong association (V = 0.563), purchase from grocery stores, and independent stores with moderate associations (V = 0.217/0.270). Our findings agree with reports of the past and during the COVID-19 crisis indicating the overwhelming capacity of the supermarkets against traditional local retailers for food purchase well documented for many years [10; 53; 54]. Recent studies indicate the increased preference for online purchase of foods during the pandemic [35; 55], which was not clearly recorded in our findings (online purchase being only 4.3%). The participants, as shown in Table 8, value the TFs of Epirus in decreasing order of preference: cheese, followed by other dairy products, wine, honey, herbs, pasta, legumes, and olive oil. They are satisfied with the packaging, the quality of the foods, and their prices. However, half of them are not sure whether they will increase consumption of TFs in the future. The findings in this work regarding the choice for traditional foods are associated directly with local food production. Out of the 113 Greek products that have been certified as PDO and/or PGI [41], Epirus counts four types of wine, four kinds of cheese (feta, galotyri, kefaloograviera, and metsovone), one olive oil, and one table olive [42]. Cheese, namely the feta cheese, is by far the representative TF produced in the region by local dairy factories, as a brand name food exported all over the world. These dairy industries produce other foods as well, such as milk and yogurt, among others, which are consumed locally, and in the rest of Greece. Local wines and honey produced by small companies are the foods most consumed within the region. Recently, due to their health benefits, foods such as herbs and legumes are produced by local family companies for regional use also. Our findings in terms of consumers' perception of packaging, quality, price, and increased consumption of TFs are in agreement with similar findings for general healthy food preferences within the COVID-19 period [10; 55]. As shown in Table 6, significant differences were registered between groups for: (a) \"sex\" regarding only the consumption of olive oil with weak association (V = 0.008); (b) \"age\" regarding consumption of cheese, wine, pasta, honey, dairy products, olive oil, herbs, and legumes with weak to moderate associations (V = 0.157/0.279/0.138/0.285/0.205/0.141/0.182/0.185), satisfaction and increased consumption in the future with weak association (V = 0.118/0.173); (c) \"level of education\" regarding consumption of pasta, dairy products, legumes, others, and increased future consumption with weak association (V = 0.135/0.163/0.128/0.137/0.175);(d) \"civil state\" regarding consumption of wine, honey and legumes with weak association (V = 0.137/0.164/0.136); (e) \"job situation\" regarding consumption of honey, legumes, and satisfaction, quality, and increased future consumption (V = 0.113/0.114/0.153); (f) \"permanent residency\" regarding consumption of cheese, pasta, and legumes with weak association (V = 0.131/0.196/0.155) wine, honey, dairy products, olive oil, and herbs with moderate association (V = 0.327/0.478/0.230/0.292/0.305), satisfaction and increased future consumption with weak association (V = 0.155/0.185).