15 A Buyer Behavior #2

Last Buyer Behavior assignment, I interviewed potential customers how they felt about buying at bulk grocery stores, in order to reduce waste and cost less money. There were open to the idea- but this week, I will tell them the alternatives and see what they choose. The four options I will be asking about are buying at a regular grocery store (Walmart, Publix), buying groceries online (through Amazon or Publix online), buying at a bulk food store, or buying bulk foods online.

1) I interviewed a girl in one of my classes (19), as she does her own grocery shopping. When given the options, she first chose regular grocery shopping, but also said she be open to buying bulk food at a store. When asked why, she told me two reasons. One, she knew exactly what she wanted, and where to get it a Publix. And two, she said the convenience of having a Publix so close to her makes her other options seem unreasonable (she doesn't want to go far). After, I told her why bulk food stores should make more sense- better for the environment and altogether, cheaper. She recognized these and liked them, but unless a bulk food store was close to her like Publix was, she wouldn't go 15 minutes out of her way to shop there. However, she did say when she thinks back on her purchases, she wishes she could be more eco-conscious and shop at somewhere like a bulk food store consistently.

2) I interviewed a passerby in Turlington that I thought fit my target audience (female, 22). I asked about the four options, and she told me she was passionate about the environment. She said even if a bulk food store was 10 minutes farther than a Publix, she would go there. She also said, however, that she would much rather have a bulk food store closer to where she lived than 10-15 minutes farther then her nearest regular grocery store. She then continued to talk about why she'd pick a bulk store- less costly and better for the environment- that causes her to frequent those stores.

3) Finally, I interviewed a girl I frequently work out with (21). I asked her what option she would choose. She said she usually does Publix, but if online was viable, she would take that route. I asked why, and she said it would save her a lot of time that she could be using studying. Then I asked, if there was an online option for regular stores and bulk stores, what would she choose? She told me that if bulk was cheaper, then definitely bulk. She would also be happy supporting the environment as well.

Analysis
Overall, I think I learned valuable information in this assessment. Bulk food stores seem like a perfect business to me, but after talking with some people, there is some alternative competition. To make a bulk food store that can outperform its competition (like Publix) is hard, but doable. First, you would have to find locations extremely close to people who would buy there, as convenience was number 1 in the issues I observed. You would also have to make sure to advertise cheap items, and finally create a definitive online way to buy that could outwork other online stores. Overall, if you could do these things, I think you would have a profitable bulk food store.