Customer satisfaction in food retailing: comparing specialty and conventional grocery stores

作者：Patricia Huddleston, Judith M. Whipple, Rachel Nye Mattick, SoJung Lee · 发表于：International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management · 年份：2009 · DOI：10.1108/09590550910927162 · 被引用次数：191 · 研究领域：Consumer Retail Behavior Studies、Customer Service Quality and Loyalty、Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast customer perceptions related to satisfaction with conventional grocery stores as compared to specialty grocery stores. The study examines store attributes of product assortment, price, quality, and service in order to determine which attributes have the greatest impact on store satisfaction for each store format. Design/methodology/approach A mail survey was sent to a sample of specialty and conventional grocery store customers. The ten state sample was drawn from US households located in postal (ZIP) codes in areas where national specialty stores (e.g. whole foods) were located. Findings Perception of satisfaction were higher among specialty grocery store customers compared to conventional grocery store customers. For both store formats, store price, product assortment, service and quality positively influenced satisfaction. Stepwise regression indicated that each store attribute contributed differently to store satisfaction for conventional and specialty store formats. Research limitations/implications The results demonstrate that price, product assortment, quality, and employee service influence store satisfaction regardless of store type (conventional stores or specialty stores). However, the degree of influence of these attributes varied by store type. The results imply that while specialty store shopper satisfaction characteristics are clearly delineated, conventional store shopper characteristics are more dif...