Survey says Filipinos happiest grocery shoppers

Here lies the irony: the average Filipino shopper visits the grocery less—as most are hard pressed for money and time—but she and, increasingly, he are happier doing so compared with other shoppers in Southeast Asia.

Indeed, four out of five Filipinos enjoy grocery shopping, outstripping their peers from around the region, many of whom view their periodic trips for consumable goods as “chores,” according to an international market research firm.

In the latest Nielsen Philippine Shopper Trends Report, 80 percent of consumers in the country said they “enjoyed” grocery shopping. In contrast, one in 10 consumers claimed to “dislike” it, with the balance of respondents having more neutral views.

Consumers in Thailand placed a distant second, with 66 percent saying they really enjoy or like grocery shopping, according to the results of the survey, which was also conducted in other countries in the region.

“This finding is unique to consumers in the country,” Nielsen associate director for retail services Marge Martinez said in a statement.

“With 85 percent of the Philippines population falling into the lower income bracket, grocery shopping continues to be a way for some consumers to entertain themselves and spend time with their families at the same time.”

Martinez added: “Most consumers take this must-do activity in their stride and even derive enjoyment from this activity, which may be seen by many consumers in other countries as a chore.”

Grab-and-go

Indeed, shoppers say, trips to the supermarkets, at least in the Philippines, seem like family affairs, with parents bringing even their children and, sometimes, their babies, too.

According to the study, when it comes to main grocery trips, Filipino shoppers on average will make about two trips a month.  Thirty percent of consumers in the Philippines do their main shopping once a week, another one-third do it fortnightly, and 25 percent do it once a month.

Filipino grocery shoppers are most likely to “grab-and-go,” with 35 percent of respondents saying they know what they want from the store and 51 percent saying they will just visit parts of stores that have what they want.

In contrast, the most “leisurely” shoppers in the region are from Singapore, where only 16 percent said they will just visit sections of the stores that have what they want. The rest shop in a more leisurely manner, including 9 percent who said they know what they want.

Aged 18 and 65

“Shoppers who ‘grab-and-go’ are either pressed for time, or are from the lower income classes, trying to manage their budgets by resisting the temptation to buy more,” Martinez said. “Both types of shoppers will be looking to get in and out of the store as quick as they can.”

Nielsen Shopper Trends is an annual study on consumer shopping behavior that is conducted in Metro Manila and major cities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The research for the latest edition was fielded between October and December 2010 involving interviews with at least 1,500 respondents between the ages of 18 and 65, who were both main grocery buyers and “key influencers” in their households.

The survey also showed that females continued to be the dominant shoppers in Filipino households, comprising 67 percent of the total, even as a slight downtrend has been detected over the last few years.

Emergent males

The study noted the “emergence of more male main shoppers when it comes to grocery shopping.”

Nielsen’s analysis revealed that the percentage of male main shoppers tripled from 2006 to 33 percent at the end of 2010.

This relatively high percentage also placed Filipino males as the second most likely to be the main grocery shopper for their households in Southeast Asia, trailing Malaysia’s 36 percent.

Martinez pointed out that the growth of the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines over the past few years has driven women to take more of a proactive role in seeking employment and landing a job.

“We therefore see more men and women sharing household responsibilities from bringing food to the table to taking care of the children to doing errands for the household needs,” Martinez said.

Retail trade growing

The survey also revealed that, despite the global economic downturn, retail trade in the country continues to grow as consumers’ monthly spending on food, grocery and personal care increased by 19 percent in 2010 compared to 2009.

Most consumers continue to spend their money mostly at supermarkets, with one-third of consumers claiming to have spent most their funds at this channel last year.

Another 28 percent of consumers spent their money mostly in sari-sari stores, and 25 percent of shoppers claimed to spend their money mostly at wet markets.