An International Comparison of Daily Shopping Behavior among Shanghai, Taipei, and Fukuoka

Abstract

We already have conducted on-site surveys on daily shopping behavior in Shanghai, Taipei, and Fukuoka City and reported elsewhere the characteristics of daily shopping behavior of consumers in Shanghai and Taipei cities. However, we have yet to compare the characteristics of consumers among these three cities. This paper aims to compare the characteristics of daily shopping behaviors of consumers among these three cities to explore their similarities and differences. The on-site interview surveys that have been conduced for shoppers at shopping establishments in these three cities are designed to compare daily shopping behaviors of consumers among different countries. For the purpose, first we pick up seven typical commodities that cover daily shopping behaviors: fresh foods, general foods, home electric appliance, household utensils, personal belongings, street clothes, and home clothes. Second, we classify their shopping destination into seven retail categories:department store, suburban shopping center, specialty store, supermarket, convenience store, neighborhood shopping street, and market. In the interview surveys, we asked the respondents how often they go shopping to buy these typical commodities, at what destination they buy them, and how much they spend on them per each shopping trip. Besides these seven commodities we also asked the respondents about their eating out behaviors with respect to how often they go eating out and how much per eating out they spend. With this descriptive framework we compare the similarities and difference of daily shopping behaviors of consumers in three cities in terms of shopping trip frequency, destination retail categories, and expenditure per shopping trip for each of seven commodities and eating out behavior. Furthermore, dividing the respondents in three age groups at the age of 10s and 20s, 30s and 40s, and over 50s, we also apply the above same analyses to these three age groups to explore how consumer behaviors change generation to generation. Major findings are as follows:To buy fresh foods, almost all consumes in Fukuoka go to supermarket while those in Shanghai and Taipei use traditional markets. For all three cities, the older the age of consumers the more frequent shoppers they become for fresh foods, while the opposite is true for street clothes. © 2006, JAPAN SECTION OF THE REGIONAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL. All rights reserved.