Evaluating factors influencing consumers’ choices of supermarkets for grocery shopping

This study aims to investigate factors affecting customers’ choice of grocery supermarkets in North East Thailand. 300 participants are surveyed using a questionnaire structured in two sections. Section one captured respondent profile (age, gender, education, monthly income and family size). Section two contained 42 items linked to 14 factors identified and adapted from previous literature. The data is collected between January and May of 2019 in the provinces of Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen and Si-saket respectively, using a convenience sampling method. A total of 300 respondents participated in this study. 35.5% of the respondents were leases than 30 years old, 27% above 30 but younger than 41 years old, 28% above 41 but younger than 50 and the remaining 8% above 50 years old. Approximately 60% of the respondents are female why the rest 37% are male. 58% of respondents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher and 75.3 present reported monthly incomes of 20,000 thousand baht or less. The study employs an exploratory factor analysis to narrow down the factors. From 14 originally identified factors, the authors identify six factors which included convenience (α=0.93), discounts (α=0.89), stock availability (α=0.78), payment and promotion (α=0.81), children facilities (α=0.84), and prices (α=0.74). These factors combine results in customers' satisfaction. However, combined customer satisfaction has a less than significant influence on consumers’ choice of grocery supermarkets. The finding further reveals that, Education and income have a significant role in shoppers’ store choice with higher incomes more likely to make customers switch from Tesco to Big C. this therefore opens up avenues to investigate the value placed to these two shops by consumers.