Consumers’ choice of grocery store in Umeå : A quantitative study on how healthy food and nudging can affect consumers’ choice of grocery store

Abstract: Nowadays, consumers are being exposed to a large selection of food alternatives with an aim of helping with health matters. For that reason, the consumption of healthy food has been increasing among people, but at the same time, the consumption of unhealthy food has expanded. Due to the advanced technology, there is more information available about health, which makes the consumers’ knowledge about diseases caused by their way of living to grow. Simultaneously, there has been studies proving that consumers’ choices do not often resemble their attitudes.  Since consuming healthy food is more popular nowadays, this study had the aim of examining if consumers will choose a grocery store based on different attributes. The study is based on several theories that are the starting point for the study’s research questions which are; Does the selection of healthy food affect consumers’ choice of a grocery store? Does nudging of healthy food affect consumers’ choice of a grocery store? The theories that are used in this study are nudge theory, libertarian paternalism theory, behavioral economics, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, social marketing theory, choice architecture, cognitive architecture and status quo.  The data was collected through a questionnaire, where different questions had the aim to measure what affects consumers when choosing a grocery store. In total, the study gathered a sample of 136 responses whereas 8 of them were removed from the study as outliers. The outcome of this study is based on two independent variables; healthy food and nudging and one dependent variable; choice of grocery store. These variables are composite variables created from a range of other variables. The composite variable healthy food is created from variables checklist, avoidance of unhealthy/unnecessary food, people’s affection, healthy thinking, food habits, attitude of healthy eating, past purchasing behavior, intention and behavior, same groceries and new groceries. The composite variable nudging is created from variables product placement, memory, product placement affection on consumers’ purchasing behavior and visible healthy food. The dependent variable choice of grocery stores was created from the variables; number of healthy food alternatives, price of healthy food, marketing of healthy food and place of grocery store.  This study was analyzed in the data program STATA where a multiple linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. According to the result from the regression analysis, there is a significant level between healthy food and consumers' choice of grocery stores. In addition to that, the study shows that there is a significant level between nudging and consumers' choice of grocery stores. Thus, the null hypothesis of this study was rejected.