During the last several months, BIGresearch of Columbus, Ohio, has been studying consumers’ behavior in the grocery store, and noticed the emergence of two primary buying styles – practical and impulsive – according to a report by CBS.MarketWatch.com.
“The practical shopper tends to integrate more ‘healthy’ food choices into their lifestyle while the impulse shopper tends to eat more starch-based food and have a penchant to want to save time as well as buy for more conspicuous consumption,” says Joe Pilotta, a vice president for BIGresearch.
The differences are said to be most apparent in frozen foods. Practical shoppers prefer frozen fish/seafood entrees, vegetarian alternatives and hamburger patties. Impulsive purchasers fill their carts with frozen pizza and pizza rolls as well as appetizers/ethnic foods.
The two groups of shoppers also have different store preferences. Practical shoppers will head first to Wal-Mart before the grocery store. Impulse buyers make their first stop at the supermarket.
Moderator Comment: Do you see any practical application at retail from BIGresearch’s definition of practical and impulse shoppers?
We can’t decide if we are practically impulsive or impulsively
practical. [George
Anderson – Moderator]