Shopping Behavior and Income: Comparisons in an Urban Environment

Abstract

The shopping behavior of two groups of consumers in Columbia, South Carolina, that have similar environmental opportunities but differ economically and racially, were compared. The consumers' cognitive ratings of stores on a number of attributes suggested that lower income consumers tended to select grocery stores that were closer to their homes, while the higher income consumers tended to select grocery stores that were near other stores they patronized, i.e., stores in shopping centers. A model based on the cognitive information of the consumers predicted the grocery shopping behavior of the lower income consumers accurately, but did not provide an accurate prediction of the shopping behavior of the higher income consumers. The shopping behavior of the higher income consumers could be accurately predicted when the racial composition of the stores' clientele was taken into consideration. This suggested that some of the higher income consumers may choose not to shop at stores that are near their homes and otherwise attractive because of social pressure not to shop at “black” stores.