Introduction

For the purpose of noting buyer behavior, I visited a neighborhood grocery store named ‘Redner’s Warehouse’, one of a chain of popular outlets in my locality. One can find a couple of these outlets on the very same highway, attached to petrol pumps. I elected to observe the behavior of buyers along two aisles in the outlet: the baking and frozen vegetable aisles. Simply staring at buyers is weird and, thus, I selected aisles where I actually had products to buy and could discreetly observe fellow buyers. My aim was noting variations in buyer behavior for diverse goods, besides variations in buyers themselves. For achieving more superior results, I chose to visit the store twice, on a weekday (Wednesday) and on a Sunday, during noon time. During the weekday visit, I found few buyers in for purchase, while on my weekend visit, the store was certainly packed with more buyers as compared to my previous visit.

Observations

I noted the behavior of 4 buyers on my weekday visit and 4 more on my weekend visit; thus, I observed eight buyers in total, whom I will address as A1, A2 (baking aisle, weekday visit), B1, B2 (frozen vegetable aisle, weekday visit), C1, C2 (baking aisle, weekend visit), D1 and D2 (frozen vegetable aisle, weekend visit).The precise date, time and noted behavior of buyers will be summarized in an Appendix, at this report’s ending. A buyer has to traverse several stages while deciding what to buy, namely, recognition, search for information, assessment of alternatives, decision to purchase, and behavior after purchase. My observations revealed, for instance, that buyers have numerous alternatives before them if they come to the store with the intention to buy chocolate chips. With the multitude of alternative brands of chocolate chips on store shelves these days, I myself face a tough decision when it comes to selecting a brand. The buyers I studied appeared to be deciding on their brand on the basis of price, value and brand familiarity. After selecting their brand, diverse buyers depicted diverse... While a few chose their chocolate chips, placed them in the shopping cart and headed straight to the cashier or to pick other items, others continued to seek other alternatives despite having already placed their product of choice in their shopping cart. The former display brand loyalty and familiarity, as they know the brand they have chosen will assuredly create the product experience they desire.

Consumer and value of purchase

Buyer value may be defined as buyer satisfaction following a service/ product purchase, with regard to what they have traded off for the purchase. A majority of marketing strategists concur with the fact that creation of buyer value proves vital to not- for- profit as well as for- profit firms. In fact, the creation of superior client value proves pivotal to firms seeking a competitive market niche as well as a market leadership position (Smith & Colgate, 2007; Lai, 1995). For grasping the process of buyer decision- making, examining buyers’ value systems is essential. Buyers consider price of product as well as time taken for purchase and experiences with customer service personnel.

Certain buyers consider diverse client values whilst taking miscellaneous purchase- related decisions. They attempt to achieve cost minimization of all aspects (sacrifice and cost value) entailed in product buying, ownership, and utilization (Tversky, 2003). Buyers A1 and A2 exhibited the influence of sacrifice and cost value on their purchase decision. Both appeared to focus more on price of product, thus opting for items on sale or considerably discounted. Their choice of product ensured their overall expense decreased, which appeared to be their chief aim.

Meanwhile, the other buyers observed depicted hedonic and experiential value, revolving around how far a given item creates the right experiences, emotions and feelings for users (Tversky, 2003). For instance, buyers B1, B2, C1, and D1 chose their items (frozen veggies and chocolate chips) instantaneously from their respective aisle and didn’t so…