Shopping behaviours and meal deals - consumer behaviours: evidence brief

Grocery Shopping

Respondents were asked what percentage of their grocery food shopping they obtained from the following store types (either online or in-store):

• Large supermarket stores
• Discount stores
• Local/convenience stores
• Other

Overall, the majority of grocery shopping is purchased from supermarkets (60%), followed by discounters (28%) with only a small percentage obtained from local/convenience stores (10%) or other types of store (2%).

All groups, except for ethnic minority (EM) groups, do the majority of their shopping from supermarkets. There are no differences in where people shopped by gender or disability. There are some differences by age, ethnicity, area of deprivation and rurality.

Age - Older people (55+) do more of their grocery shopping at supermarkets (65%) than younger people (58% for 35-54yrs and 55% for 18-34yrs). Younger age groups get a greater proportion of their shopping from discounters than older groups (31% for 18-34yrs vs 25% for 55+yrs).

Ethnicity - White groups do more of their grocery shopping at supermarkets (61%) than EM groups (48%). EM groups generally obtain a greater proportion of their shopping from discounters than white (33% vs 28%), although this difference is not statistically significant.

Socioeconomic status (SES) – The least deprived (SIMD5) do more of their grocery shopping at supermarkets (62%) than the most deprived (SIMD1; 53%). SIMD1 get a greater proportion of their shopping from discounters (35%) than SIMD5 (27%). There is no statistically significant differences by other measures of SES (income and social group).

Rurality – Those from remote rural locations report significantly less of their shopping is purchased from discounters (20%) compared to accessible rural (28%) and ‘Rest of Scotland’ (i.e. urban) (29%).

All groups only obtain a relatively small percentage of their shopping from local/convenience stores. The youngest age group obtain a little more (12%) than older groups (9-10%). There is a tendency for EM groups to obtain more than white groups (14% vs 10%), although this difference is not significant.

See Table 1 in Data Tables on Tab titled “SHOPPING – Summary Tables”