Реферат: Shopping

CONTENT

Abstract

Introduction

LiteratureReview

Methodology

Results

Conclusionand Recommendations

Bibliography

Appendix

ABSTRACT

This report willillustrates the reader with analysis and research done emphasized on thequestion of why Uzbek people like shopping for foods-products in supermarkets whereasEuropeans prefer to shop in bazaars. In this report, the research groupidentifies the objectives and then research instrument is chosen in order toobtain the reliable data and clearly answer for the stated question.

There werechosen deductive approach in order to conduct the research, and survey strategywas chosen to obtain the necessary data. Also, convenience sampling method forquestionnaires is used and the sample size was decided to be 50 respondents.

The result ofthe research illustrates that people in Uzbekistan purchase food in supermarkets,because it is considered that supermarkets offers high quality products andadditionally other factors like the quality of variety of services offered bythem impacts on their choice. While in Europe, according to secondary research,the reason of popularity of bazaars is affected by factors such as freshness ofthe food, cheaper prices compared to supermarkets and peoples perception tobazaars as exotic place to shop.

It is veryimportant to determine the changes of people’s behavior to shop in differentcountries for people who is willing to find the proper channel of distributionfor their products in different regions.

INTRODUCTION

ResearchQuestion

The researchconducted by various researchers demonstrated the tendency towards highpopularity of bazaars in European countries and developing industry ofsupermarkets in Asian, and Uzbek region in particular regarding food markets.However, it did not clarify the reason why people in Uzbekistan are making ahabit of buying imported fruits and vegetables in closed areas with specialsafety conditions while Europeans do opposite. Goal of this project is toinvestigate whether Uzbek consumers are consistent to their traditional way ofshopping in bazaars or willing to explore the “new ways” of shopping insupermarkets. Moreover, it is essential to identify the factors influencingconsumers’ choice between supermarkets and bazaars as well as to find out thesignificance of both in the consumers’ lives.

So, theresearch question of this project iswhy Uzbek people like shopping forfoods-products in supermarkets whereas Europeans prefer to shop in bazaars.

ResearchObjectives

In order toanswer the questions above, the following research objectives were set:

· Toidentify demographic characteristics of consumers shopping in supermarkets

· Todetermine the factors influencing consumer’s way of shopping and the level oftheir satisfaction (prices, quality, services offered, etc in supermarkets andbazaars)

· To analyzethe frequency of shopping in supermarkets and try to explore the seasonaleffect on it

· Toidentify the factors providing high popularity of bazaars in European countries.

LITERATUREREVIEW

One of themost used retail outlets, nowadays known as supermarkets, was firstlyoriginated in US with the main aim to provide high quality products in largeassortment (Vasilyeva, 2003). In recent years supermarkets are becoming fastgrowing in developing countries such as Turkey, China, Turkmenistan (Sirtioglu,2004, Gale, 2005, Zharan, 2005). However, rapid development of supermarketsgreatly affects the traditional retail concepts known as Bazaars (markets).They were emerged as a result of caravan trade of ancient times, particularlyGreat Silk Road (Vasilyeva, 2003). Traditionally the main items of commerce inboth bazaars and supermarkets are consumer goods and foods in particular.

In recentyears different types of bazaars were opened throughout the Europe, for exampleItalian bazaar recently started its operations (Atlantic, 2007). As Kummer(2007) reports, this bazaar can be named as “supermarket of the future”,because it offers organic and fresh foods comparing to other markets in thecountry. The owner of Eataly bazaar Farinetti (2007) developed plan whichhelped to resolve transport logistics issues and by this cut down distance fromfarm to customers market. Moreover, prices of the goods offered to customer arebelow the prices compared to “gourmet boutiques” or other shops (Atlantic,2007).

According tothe research done by Poulsen and Sonne (2004), bazaars in the Europeancountries are considered to be “new phenomenon” and perceived as exotic placeswhere people can find non-traditional and hand-made products. The research wasconducted in three European cities – Paris, London, Aarhus – and was aimed toanalyse the influence of bazaars on the economy and the society of thesecities. So, in Bazaar Vest located in Aarhus (the second largest city inDenmark) the customers are mainly immigrants who can find non-standard product,and the local government saw this place as one of the ways of economic supportof immigrants and refugees. When visiting there, Danish people have “theimpression that they are entering a foreign, and maybe, a Middle Easterncountry” (Poulsen and Sonne, 2004).

Another fact,it is considered that bazaars in France are popular among only rich people whocan afford high quality food for high prices (Vasilyeva, 2003). Nevertheless,Poulsen and Sonne (2004) have characterized the French bazaars as the placewhere separation takes place according to differences in nationalities,religions and social classes. Comparing bazaars and supermarkets, theresearchers claim that “the variety and the freshness of the products, theirhigh quality and the cheap prices combined with the availability of specialproducts are important reasons for visiting and using the market” (Poulsenand Sonne, 2004).

Graham (citedin Poulsen and Sonne, 2004) explains the growing popularity of bazaars inLondon by changing in the wishes and desires of people, creative environmentand different backgrounds. The main customers – students, families, and elderlypeople – are attracted by diversity of organic food that bazaars offer, historyof the market, and by its function of place for meetings.

Consideringeastern countries with developing economies, survey done by IFPRI (2003)illustrates, that nowadays they are experiencing rapid progress in supermarketdevelopment and also number of people who are willing to shop in themsignificantly rose. For instance, from 1999 and 2001, in China the percentageof sales in supermarkets increased to 2-3%. Moreover, Fritschel (2003)mentioned that by this day China has about 3000 supermarkets and it ispredicted to increase this number by 5 to 10 times in next 5-7 years. Thosenewly opened supermarkets in east are mostly “chains from Europe and UnitedStates like well known Carrefour (France), Wal-Mart and others” (Fritschel,2003). Gulati (cited in Fritschel, 2003) declared that the reason of openingbranches of these well-known hypermarkets in developing countries is that thedomestic market is already overfilled. Referring to Reardon (cited inFritschel, 2003), the professor of international development andagribusiness/food industry at Michigan State University, “consumers aresatisfied with the provided range of products, but this retail revolution posesserious risks for the developing-country farmers who have traditionallysupplied the local street markets”. To these issue the general director ofIFPRI, Joachin von Braun (2003) added:

“We need tolook more comprehensively at the whole picture, whether the poor benefit orlose from supermarket expansion depends on their net benefits as consumersthrough prices, time costs, and food safety, on their access to markets asfarmers, and on employment, skills, and wage effects in the whole value-addedfood chain.”

In support tothese facts, many studies were conducted to research the impact ofwesternization in retail business of developing countries(PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2005-2006). In Turkey it is claimed that supermarketbusiness is experiencing real boom due to rise in disposable incomes ofpopulation. However, numbers are much lower then average European standards.Research found that the possible reasons for millennial popularity of bazaarsin Turkey might be their “convenient locations and lower prices for productssuch as fresh fruits and vegetables” (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2005-2006).

Moreover,Vasilyeva (2003) states that it’s become more difficult for bazaars and streetmarkets to compete with supermarkets. The profit of supermarkets is generatednot from the high prices set for their products but from the large volume ofgoods offered, their broad assortment, and high turnover. So, the share ofsupermarkets in Western Europe trade markets is approximately 80% and inEastern Europe – 25-45% (Vasilyeva, 2003).

ConsideringUzbekistan, Turdimov (2003) from the centre of economic investigation suggestedthat supermarkets are “western products on eastern ground”, where peopleget high quality service such as parking, place to eat, free bags forcustomers, and after-sales services. So, for the last 5 years popularity of supermarketsamong consumers with mid- and high-income levels increased rapidly in Tashkent.

Despite, thepopularity of supermarkets within Uzbek region, the major preferences are givento bazaars. Comparing these two types of markets, Turdimov (2003) says thatsupermarkets offer relatively high quality products but rather expensive thanon bazaars. Moreover, according to Sairamtour (2006), eastern bazaars, likeUzbek ones, are considered to be the traditional pattern of eastern people.

A lot ofresearch has been carried out to determine why in East people start shopping atmalls and supermarkets while Westerners are rediscovering the beauty ofshopping at bazaars. In most of the cases supermarkets are gaining popularityin East due to all but the same reasons why Bazaars are becoming popular in theWest. The goal of the research group was to investigate what factors influencepeople to choose supermarkets in order to shop for food instead of traditionalshopping in bazaars in Uzbekistan and the reason of popularity of bazaars inwestern cultures. Significant part of our research would consist of comparisonsand contrast of Uzbek and European retail markets.

METHODOLOGY

In order tohave accurate results, proper research methodology was designed. It is essentialto choose appropriate research approach, strategy, sampling method and researchinstruments to find the most suitable answers to the objectives set.

As it could beinferred from the discussion of the research question, the inductiveapproach is the most applicable technique in this case. It means thatbasing on the collected data, a theory needed to be developed as a result ofdata analysis (Saunders, 2003). Wide variety of literature had been reviewedwhich, although not clearly, showed the difference between IAS 2 and NAS 4.Thus based on those ideas the hypothesis had to be developed. Then, bycollecting and analyzing the all data (primary data and secondary), the theorywould be proved or modified

The next stagewas identifying the right research strategy (the way of collecting data) toanswer the research question. One of the strategies related to the deductiveapproach was the survey strategy. This strategy implies the usage ofmultiple data collection methods such as questionnaires, structuredobservations and interviews in order to prove the expressed hypothesis(Saunders, 2003). So, considering the research objectives, the investigation ofdifference between two standards was conducted by using unstructured interviewsand documentary analysis. The interviewees for this research were accountantsand auditors of supermarket shopping behaviourof local consumers was conducted by using questionnaire (See Appendix). Therespondents for this research were buyers in supermarkets. Approximately 50people in supermarkets in random were asked to fill in questionnaires withclear instructions which were given in order to prevent research from errors.Because of the comparative idea of the research question about the trends ineast and west, it was necessary to conduct both primary (collect data fromlocal consumers about eastern tendency) and secondary (collect data fromelectronic and printed sources about western tendency) researches. The results,which were received from these researches, were needed to be examined by usingthe quantitative and qualitative analyses. These analyses then would showwhether the hypothesis was proved or not.

Sampling

The researchteam decided to use one of the non-probability sampling techniques, which isknown as conveniencesampling. As in order to obtain qualitativeinformation in the primary research, people in the supermarkets will bequestioned at random. The use of this sampling technique allowed conducting thesurvey at a convenient time for the researcher and ease of obtaining therespondents. As the team conducted research in the supermarket, people will notbe divided into specific sub-groups, instead they will be asked in random tofill in questionnaires. The size of sample is decided to be 50 respondents frompeople who shop in supermarkets of Tashkent and this number will represent thewhole population.

Access andEthics

One of themost important factors which influenced the process of conducting research andgathering necessary information is concerned with access (Saunders, 2003). Inour case, in order to find out required data, people in supermarkets were askedto complete given questionnaires. However, the first obstacle for the group wasphysical access which was in most cases the potential respondents’willingness to answer to the questions because of no interest to the researchtopic. Moreover, people who came to shop could have lack of time to fill inquestionnaires and there could be no trust to research team. In order toovercome the problems concerned with physical access, the research group useddifferent approaches classified by Saunders (2003). Firstly, it was consideredto use all existing contacts in supermarkets of Tashkent in order to getpermission to conduct questionnaire in the supermarket area. Secondly, teamtried to effectively communicate the objectives and purpose of the research andpossible benefits to society in general to the consumers. Additionally, the useof right language and “friendly look” helped to get respondents to answer thequestionnaire.

The group alsotook into account the ethical concerns of the research during the wholeresearch project, so that unethical issues were excluded. As the group decidedto gather information by asking people, at this stage of the research moreethical concerns were considered. For example, the individuality of eachrespondent was considered. The team had decided to make the survey anonymous asthere was no need to know names of respondents. Also, it was tried to developquestions which included all possible option answers, so that discriminationwas excluded to any kinds of groups.

RESULTS

Followingresults are obtained by using research instrument discussed above – questionnaires.Six questions were given in questionnaire for respondents, 5 of them aremultiple choice questions and the last is open one (See Appendix).

Objective1: Toidentify demographic characteristics of consumers shopping in supermarkets

In order toidentify the demographic characteristics of the population who prefer shoppingin supermarkets, the question on the belonging for the certain age groups wasset. So, the graph below represents the relationship between age groups and thefrequency of visiting supermarkets.

Graph 1

The graphpresents the fact that the major part of respondents is people belonging to theage groups of 18-25 and 26-40 ages. That means that supermarkets arepopular among people of these age groups.

Moreover, thehypothesis testing was conducted in order to identify whether there is arelationship between the age group and the popularity of supermarkets to shopin:

H0:there is no the relationship between age and frequency of shopping insupermarkets

H1:there is a relationship between age and frequency of shopping in supermarkets

So, thechi-test was implemented in order to prove or reject our hypothesis (seeAppendix). The result is 0.876, which is showing that there is 87.6% ofpossibility that our sample was come from the population with no such atendency. Since the result is higher than 0.05, the null hypothesis is notrejected. This means that there is no relationship between age ofrespondents and the frequency of visiting supermarkets.

Objective2:To determine the factors influencing consumer’s way of shopping and the levelof their satisfaction (prices, quality, services offered, etc in supermarketsand bazaars)

Question 3 inthe questionnaire indicates answers for this objective. Respondents were askedto rank factors in order of importance which affects their choice between supermarketsand bazaars. In this case, number 1 considered as the most important factor andgets the highest score, while 9 is the least vital and gets the lowest score. Asa result the factor with the highest score figure considered to be the mostimportant. It can be seen, from the graph that the most significant factor isthe quality of the food (332 points) offered by supermarket. In thesecond place of order of significance is regarded the price (238 points).Other factors like location, range of products offered, income level, and timespent on shopping are less essential, but parking conditions offered bysupermarket is not regarded as the influencing factor to the choice betweensupermarket and bazaar.

Graph 2

Question 4 givesinformation about the level of satisfaction with the main services offered byeach supermarket in the city. The marks received for each service, then theiraverage were found. According to graph below, the highest average mark wasgiven to the physical factor (mark is 4.7), which includes convenience, cleanliness,music, conditioning, design of supermarket. Food quality also regarded as good,with the average 4.12, while other types of services such as the servicequality, price and range of products were rated below 4 marks.

Graph 3

Question 6 wasused to identify what makes consumers level of satisfaction to decrease, whereopen question is used. Answers given by respondents were put into 5 maincategories:

· high prices

· small rangeof products

· untrainedpersonnel providing service

· long queues

· others

Graph 4

Collected datais represented by the bar chart above, where it can be seen that the higherprices (44%) is the major cause of dissatisfaction of customers. Whileanother main influences are limited assortment of products, long queues near cashier’sdesk, untrained and rude personnel who is not able to serve consumer. 16% ofrespondents answered that other factors like low quality of some nationalproduct, poor arrangement of products within supermarket, and no bargainingpower as in bazaars can cause disappointment for customers.

Objective3: Toanalyze the frequency of shopping in supermarkets and try to explore theseasonal effect on it.

To examine theobjective, respondents were asked to answer where they shop for food inparticular season during the year. Question 5 was designed to identify is thereany seasonal effect on choice of customers. So according to data obtain, 85% ofrespondents shop in supermarkets in winter, 44% and 42% — in spring and autumnrespectively, and only 26% of respondents purchase products in supermarkets insummer.

Objective4: Identifythe factors providing high popularity of bazaars in European countries

In order toidentify what factors influence the growing popularity of bazaars in Europeancountries, the secondary research was applied. So, according to the researchdone by Poulsen and Sonne (2004), the analysis of open markets was done inthree cities of different countries:

Table 1

City

Bazaar name

Population

Popularity reasons

Aarhus (Denmark)

“Bazar Vest” Immigrants and Danes from other parts of the city, students

· Experience of something foreign and authentic

· Eating authentically foreign cuisine

Paris (France)

Marche d’Aligre People of different nationalities, religion; young and old people; rich and poor people.

· Socialization (meeting place)

· Variety and freshness of high quality products

· Cheap prices

· Availability of special products

· Family-friendly area

London (Great Britain)

Camden Lock Market and Old Spitalfield People varying in age, ethnic belonging and profession. There are more students, families with children, elderly people.

· Creative environment

· Diversity of products

· Meeting place

· High quality organic food

· No chain store products

· Exotic food

CONCLUSIONAND RECOMMENDATIONS

The conductedresearch was intended to investigate the popularity of supermarkets inUzbekistan and the opposite trend in Europe. All of the objectives stated abovewere achieved and explained in the results section. First of all, referring toquestion 1, it can be seen that the majority of respondents who usually shop insupermarkets are people between ages 18-25. However, it was found out by makingchi test, that possibility that there is no relationship between the frequencyof shopping in supermarkets and the age of respondents is 87%. This resultsthat our hypothesis is proved.

The analysisof the objective 2 illustrates that the main factor which influence the choiceof the respondent is founded as quality of product offered by supermarket, theperception of people that the supermarket offers high quality food compared tobazaars have great impact in this case. Additionally, respondents also thinkthat the price and the quality of service are the significant factors whichcould differentiate supermarkets from bazaars, while parking conditions hasalmost no impact on consumers. Furthermore, team group has found out that themajority of respondents are mostly satisfied with physical factors (environmentof supermarkets, cleanness, air-conditioning, music), while others answeredthat there is still organization which should be improved, especially witharrangement of products and long queues. Moreover, it was clarified that alsopersonnel (shop assistants) are not trained well in order to help customers andsometimes they are rude with them. This type of small issues has great impacton the consumer’s preference and decreases their dissatisfaction from purchasedgoods in supermarkets.

Furthermorethe objective 3 was achieved which illustrates that there is seasonal effect onconsumers choices to choose place for shopping. From the results, it isinferred that the supermarkets are at the pick of their popularity during thewinter season.

Theconsideration of western situation, it can be inferred that the main factorsinfluencing the increasing popularity of bazaars are freshness of the products,cheap prices, wide range of food-products and availability of exotic andspecial products. These factors cannot be applied to the supermarket featuresboth in east and west. This trend in west comes from a change in the customers’wishes. Europeans now want something else other than big chain stores. That iswhy the experience of bazaars in the west is becoming more and more popular.However, the globalization and modernization, which are being introduced in thelast year in the local area, plays a great role in the growing popularity ofsupermarkets in the east.

This conductedresearch and its results could be helpful for people who are willing toidentify the profitable way of distribution channel to sell their products,because research illustrates the factors influencing the choice of shoppingplace. Moreover, by identifying the significance of different aspects ofshopping for consumers, the owners of supermarkets are able to improve theservice provided and attract and maintain new customers. Potential investorswho are willing to open supermarkets also could use this obtained informationfor deciding weather their need to open it in Uzbekistan or diversify across thecountry in order to be more profitable.

Limitationsof the project:

· Theresearch covered small sample size, which can poorly represent the wholepopulation.

· Respondentscould answer the questions not properly by devoting less time and attention tothe research questions.

· Themisunderstanding of the context of the questions could occur.

· Theresearch was done only in few supermarkets and only in Tashkent city, whichcould not represent the whole population of Uzbekistan.

Bibliography

1. Brenner, E., 2005. ENTERPRISE;Market Day, Via France, New York Times [Online].

2. Bristol, 2008. OurGlobal Super Market, Evening Post [Online], 26 January.

3. Fritschel, H., 2003. WillSupermarkets Be Super for Small Farmers? IFPRI Forum [Online], December.Available from: www.ifpri.org/pubs/newsletters/ifpriforum/IF200312.htm (Accessed:27 February 2008).

4. Gale, F., 2005. China's supermarketspresent export opportunity. Asia Times [Online]. Available from:www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GF24Ad02.html (Accessed 22 February 2008).

5. Kummer, C., 2007. The Supermarket ofthe Future, Atlantic Monthly [Online], May. Available from:www.theatlantic.com/doc/200705/supermarkets (Accessed: 24 February2008).

6. Poulsen, L. V. S. andSonne J. D., 2004. Authenticity and New Trends in Markets in Aarhus, Paris andLondon [Online]. Available from:www.hum.au.dk/cek/kontur/pdf/kontur_10/louise.jens.pdf (Accessed: 24February 2008).

7. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003-2004.Turkey, From Beijing to Budapest – Winning Brands, Winning Formats [Online],4th ed. Available from: www.pwc.com/extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/814235FAABCCFD678525708B00597DF7/$File/Turkey.pdf(Accessed: 24 February 2008).

8. Sairam Tourism, 2006. Bazaars of Uzbekistan. Available from: www.sairamtour.com/news/gems/53.html (Accessed21 Febrary 2008).

9. Saunders,M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., 2003. Research Methods for BusinessStudents, 3rd ed. England: Prentice Hall.

10. Shankar, B. R., 2006. The Big FoodBazaar Across The Great Wall, Frost & Sullivan [Online], 31 January.Available from:www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market-insight-top.pag?docid=47941970(Accessed: 24 February 2008).

11. Sirtioglu, I., 2004. Branded productsbest bets in Turkey's retail market, HighBeam Encyclopedia [Online],7January. Available from: www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-121339733.html (Accessed: 24 February 2008).

12. Tianshannet, 2008. The ModernDream of Bazaar. Available from:www.aboutxinjiang.com/topic/content/2008-01/11/content_2389662.htm(Accessed 22 February 2008).

13. Turdimov, J., 2002. Supermarketing,or western product on eastern ground, Economic Review, no.6, summer, pp39-49.

14. UzLand, Inc., 1998. TashkentSupermarkets [Online]. Available from:www.tashkent.org/uzland/smarket.html (Accessed: 24 February 2008).

15. Zharan, A., 2005. Between Market andSupermarket, TURKMENISTAN Magazine [Online], February. Availablefrom:www.turkmenistan.ru/?page_id=9&lang_id=en&elem_id=6210&type=event&sort=date_desc(Accessed: 24 February 2008).

APPENDIX

QuestionnaireBazaarsvs. Supermarkets Trends in East and West

Thisquestionnaire is a part of much broader research carried out by students ofWIUT and aimed to find out main factors influencing consumers’ choice betweenSupermarkets and Bazaars, both in eastern countries and western countries.Please answer the questions freely. No personal information will be collected,thus providing you full anonymity. And if you decide to leave us your contactsfor any reason, we guarantee that such information will not be disclosed toanyone but the group of researchers under strict confidentiality.

All theinformation provided will be held under strict confidentiality!

Thequestionnaire should take you no more then 5-7 minutes to complete. There are15 multiple choice questions. Please put what first came to your mind, usuallythis best represents your true opinion.

Please readthe instructions provided with the questions carefully in order to fill out thequestionnaire correctly. Your opinion is very valuable for us, therefore we askyou to answer all the questions even if some of them might seem not to apply toyou.

After thecompletion of the questionnaire please return it to the person who gave it toyou. He/She will collect it in 10 minutes times

Thank you foryour time and if you have any inquires please contact us via post, email ortelephone.

Dan Anderson(fictional)

5BA MRM Group

Questionnaire

1. Howold are you? (Tick one)

· Less than 18

· 18-25

· 26-40

· 41-60

· 61 and above

2. Howoften do you visit supermarkets? (circle one)

o More then once aweek

o Once a week

o Twice a month

o Once amonth or even rarely

3. Rankin order of importance the factors that affect your choice between supermarketsand bazaars for buying foods-stuff. (1-highest, 9-lowest significance).

o ___Foods quality

o ___Price

o ___Servicequality

o ___Parkingconditions

o ___Location

o ___Range ofproducts

o ___Time spend onshopping

o ___Income level

o ___Physicalfactor (convenience, cleanliness, music, conditioning, design, etc)

4. Markthe level of services offered by supermarkets (5 – highest, 1 – lowest mark)

FoodQuality___________

ServiceQuality____________