Store Format Choice and Shopping Trip Types

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to identify store format attributes that impact on store format choice when consumers conduct fill-in or major trips to buy groceries. By doing so, we take into consideration that consumers patronise multiple (store based) formats depending on the shopping situation operationalised by the type of shopping trip. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts the conceptual framework of random utility theory via application of a multinomial logit modelling framework. The analysis is based on a survey of 408 consumers representing households in a clearly defined central European retail area. Findings – The results reveal a considerable moderating effect of the shopping situation on the relationship between perceived store format attributes and store format choice. Consumers’ utilities are significantly higher for discount stores and hypermarkets when conducting major trips. To the contrary, supermarkets are preferred for fill-in trips in the focussed retail market. Merchandise-related attributes of store formats have a higher impact on the utility formation regarding major-trips, whereas service- and convenience-related attributes do so with regards to fill-in trips. Research limitations/implications – The findings can only be generalised to retail markets with similar characteristics to the one under study. It is highly concentrated, contains a considerable share of small size retail stores, it is urban and has clear cut boundaries due to its geographical location. Originality/value – This paper considers the fact that consumers patronise multiple store formats and investigates the moderating effect of the shopping situation – operationalised by different types of shopping trips – on store format choice.