Market Preferences of Consumer in Buying Basic Commodities in Selected Areas of Cavite

...

6. determine the problems encountered in buying basic commodities

Significance of the Study

The study will hope to provide solutions and information which will be very helpful to the following:

This will help most especially to the grocery retailers because this study can be a basis on how the consumers purchase basic commodities in terms of factors in their buying behavior. And to know what are the demand of household to the basic commodities that can affects the increase of their sales and performance.

This study will also serve as a reference material for the future researchers if they will be conducting studies to the topic presented. And also it will give additional and helpful information that can be use as their references for the future studies.

Time and Place of the Study

The study will be conducted to 5 most populous Town in Cavite namely: Bacoor, Dasmariñas, Imus, General Trias, and Silang.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

There are 23 Towns in Cavite; however, the study included 204 respondents from the top 5 most populous Towns in Cavite namely: Bacoor, Dasmariñas, Imus, General Trias and Silang.

The study covered the market preferences of consumer in buying basic commodities in selected areas in Cavite. The results of this study depends on the information given by a household. The information collected include the socio-economic characteristics, allotted budget, consumer preferences in buying basic commodities in terms of price, quality and quantity, the factors that influence market preferences in terms of location, number of choices and service, differences between buying in groceries stores and supermarket and the problems that are encountered in buying basic commodities.

Conceptual Framework

The study will use the Input Process Output Model (Figure 1). The inputs the are used in the study includes the characteristics of consumer, budget allocated, consumer preferences in buying basic commodities, factors that influences market preference of consumer. The process involved gathering of data and analysis of results. The output includes the significant differences between groceries and supermarket and market preference of consumer in selected towns in Cavite.

[pic 3][pic 4][pic 5]

[pic 6][pic 7][pic 8]

[pic 9][pic 10]

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study

Definition of Terms

Basic Commodities. These refer to the basic needs of a consumer. It can be categorized into the following:

- Agricultural products. It includes rice, fruits, vegetables, meat and fish.

- Health and Sanitary. It includes medicine, sanitary napkin and tissue.

- Condiments. It includes salt, pepper, soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar and ketchup.

- Canned products. It includes sardines, tuna, corned beef and meat loaf.

- Personal cares. It includes the toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, bath soap, shampoo, deodorant and lotion and medicines.

- Cleaning products. It includes the laundry detergent dishwashing liquid, fabric conditioner and air freshener.

Grocery store. It refers to a retail store that primarily sells food.

Hypermarkets. It refers to a superstore combining a supermarket and a department store.

Market. It refers to a place where the consumers want to buy their basic commodities. It can be retail groceries store, supermarket, convenient store and wet market.

Market preference. It refers to a preferred market of consumer in buying basic commodities.

Socio-economic characteristics. These refer to the basic characteristics of the households which includes their sex, age, civil status, educational attainment, household size, and disposable family monthly income.

Supermarkets. It is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food and household products, organized into aisles. It is larger and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This section deals with information and research results taken from books, articles and related studies which were used as guide in the formulation of ideas for the enhancement of the study.

Different consumer preferences in the markets exhibits a natural taste and income disparities that may reflect the consumers accepted price and level of quality for the goods and services. Consumer in the rural areas for example, prefer products with low price while consumers in the urban may prefer to purchase a product with higher price for high quality products. Production trends can be indirectly established by the consumer preferences. Production of high quality product in the firms may require more expenses for the production process and raw materials needed. But, the higher the quality levels depending on the market preferences may lead to an increase to the demand of consumer and probably gain market share. Trade-off between the quality and cost for firms maybe an indicator for the firms to set higher prices for them to get a higher profit. But consumers demand for the product will reduce because of high price levels. Therefore, ensuring a good balance between the conflicting attributes of price and quality is a significant challenge for firms in an open-competition marketplace. However, in the real world, firms usually compete with each other in different marketplaces. Markets are defined by their own unique properties. Price and quality sensitivities are used to represent these properties, and reflect a consumers’ preferred product. Variations in these values effect the demand of the products in the market. Different markets may have different price and quality sensitivities. Each market demand is determined by the average price and quality levels of firm agents in that market. Thus, each firm agent faces decision challenges including their product price and quality levels, and their preferred markets.