Food Products Vending in Street Markets Held in Urban Habitat

Abstract

This study explores the influence of street markets in urban geodemographic settings and analyzes vending patterns with ethnic values enhancing consumer satisfaction. Interrelationship among urban dwellers, marketplace ambiance, and conventional shopping wisdom of customers and interactive customer relations are also addressed in the study based on empirical survey. Research on street markets is very limited though some studies are available on street vendors with focus on spatial planning, political interventions, and legal rights. This study on street markets contributes significantly to the existing literature in reference to shopping behavior and perceptional values of urban consumers.

Keywords:

• street markets
• food marketing
• consumer behavior
• ethnic markets
• sales differentiation
• market attractiveness
• consumer satisfaction
• Mexico

Acknowledgments

This article has been developed out of the research project conducted by Rajagopal, Professor of Marketing (EGADE), ITSEM, Mexico City Campus on Consumer behavior in urban shopping locations under the aegis of Research Group on Consumer Behavior and Competitiveness, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education-ITESM, Campus Santa Fe, Mexico, during 2008–09. The author expresses sincere thanks to Dr. Jorge Vera, Professor of Marketing, ITESM-CCM and coordinator of the research group for extending administrative support to this project.

Notes

¹ The goodness-of-fit statistics that the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) also known as the Bentler-Bonett non-normed fit index (NNFI), comparative fit index (CFI) and incremental fit index (IFI) tend to range between 0 and 1, with values close to 1 indicating a good fit. The TLI (NNFI) has the advantage of reflecting the model fit very well for all sample sizes. It is observed in past empirical studies that these indices need to have values above 0.9 before the corresponding model can even be considered moderately adequate.