Consumer food shopping behaviour in Libya

Abstract

This thesis explores consumer food shopping behaviour in an emerging economy, taking the Libyan case as an example. As in many other emerging economies, Libya’s retail environment has been dominated for generations by traditional markets and small independent stores but has recently witnessed the spread of ‘modern’ formats such as supermarkets. The study draws on both qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research provided evidence of a complex picture, highlighting significant variations, from family to family and geographically, in the social acceptability of females shopping at traditional markets and other retail formats. In Libya, food shopping has traditionally been a task for male household members, with traditional markets regarded as inappropriate spaces for females. However the safer, cleaner, and less crowded environment offered by large supermarkets contributed to some women feeling more comfortable shopping for food and henceforth being able to shop as independent consumers. Traditional culture, rather than constraining the spread of supermarkets, may act as a facilitator of the growing popularity of supermarkets in Libya. The main quantitative research instrument was a self-administered questionnaire of Libyan food shoppers in Benghazi city. 371 completed questionnaires were obtained. Factor analysis revealed 12 factors that underlie the reasons consumers go shopping for food. The application of cluster analysis to the dimensions factor scores revealed six segments of food shoppers. The characteristics of each cluster were described by average factor scores on the dimensions of shopping motivations, demographic characteristics, and behavioural variables. The most important retail outlet attributes in the choice of where to buy food were, in descending order, food safety, quality of products, quality of service, speed of service, and variety of products. The findings also indicated that on all items supermarkets performed the best; except for freshness of products and in-store credit (traditional markets were perceived as superior on freshness of products and independent stores for in-store credit). Only for one attribute (car parking) were differences in the mean scores between supermarkets, traditional markets and independent stores not statistically significant. ii Econometric modelling considered the possible relationships between shopping behaviour and the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. This confirmed a major finding of the qualitative research - that females were significantly less likely than males to visit traditional markets and spent proportionally more in supermarkets. Supermarket visitors were more concerned with social acceptability whereas, patrons of traditional markets placed greater emphasis on freshness. Heavy users of independent stores placed greater emphasis on in-store credit.