Save or (over-)spend? The impact of hard-discounter shopping on consumers' grocery outlay

Els Gijsbrechts, Katia Campo and Mark Vroegrijk

International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2018, vol. 35, issue 2, 270-288

Abstract: An increasing number of consumers have come to patronize a hard discounter (HD) to save on their grocery budget. Given the HDs' rock-bottom prices, a complete switch from the traditional supermarket (TS) to the HD format would, indeed, substantially reduce grocery spending. However, consumers typically visit the HD on top of a TS, leading to a more complex purchase allocation and decision process. In addition to limiting the potential savings to part of the basket, these multiple store shopping patterns may therefore result in depletion of self-control resources and to self-licensing, consumers using realized savings to justify additional indulgent purchases. In this study, we explain and empirically analyze the effect of HD patronage on consumer spending, taking the selected shopping pattern (single versus multiple stores, visited on separate versus combined shopping trips) into account. To this end, we use scanner panel data on households' actual weekly purchase behavior. We also examine household differences in these effects, and relate them to household characteristics.

Keywords: Hard discounter; Consumer spending; Multiple-store shopping; Shopping-trip organization; Grocery retailing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:35:y:2018:i:2:p:270-288

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2018.01.004

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