Motivators and barriers of bulkfood store customers : An examination through the application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract: The pollution of the oceans through plastics has received global wide media coverageover the last years. Also, micro-plastics in ground water and even in fish had beendetected, which leads to increased awareness of waste-reduction. Since the beginning ofthis decade, more bulk food stores open in Germany’s cities and provide an alternative toconventional, packaged products.Plastics and so-called micro-plastics have been found in the bodies of seabirds and in fish.There is an imminent danger of plastics ending up in the human bodies while it travels upthe food chain.In order to reduce their impact on the environment, an increasing number of customersengages in the zero-waste movement. To reduce single-use plastics, customers can shoptheir groceries in bulk-food stores, which allow shopping loose goods from largecontainers in contrast to individually packed items in regular supermarkets. Customerscan bring their own reusable packaging to buy mostly dry foods such as vegetables, pasta,nuts, grains but also some liquids such as oil, honey etc. The stores often also include anon-food section where additional consumable products can be bought.The paper identified a research gap in regards the store concept of bulk-stores which isan emerging trend in Germany since 2014.This thesis analyzes the motivators of bulk-food store shoppers in Germany based on anadapted version of the Theory of Planned Behavior by Izek Ajzen. The frameworkthereby builds upon research conducted by Maloney et al. (2014) who tested motivatorsof organic clothing customers.The research identified a significant positive influence of the Personal Norm and asignificant negative correlation between Perceived Expensiveness on the PurchaseIntention of the customers.The main barriers for bulk food shoppers were identified as the distance to the next store,the product portfolio and perceived high prices. Other issues have been discovered butwere – in comparison –only of secondary relevance.The paper contributes to closing the gap in literature between bulk foods and othersustainability-related topics, such as organic products and their production. Furthermore,it provides a foundation for future research on the topic.