UK- Shock Of The New
he aim of this research is to investigate the current difficulties and challengesassociated with supermarket food shopping among senior consumers in the United Kingdom so as to improve retail service design for this group of consumers.
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A qualitative ethnographic approach, that combines direct observations and semi-structured interviews, was employed to discover ageing consumers’ natural supermarket shopping behaviours and their attitude and satisfactions of the current service from supermarket retailers. Aspects such as the use of trolleys and baskets; store layout and aisles; shelves and freezers; products; customer service; and the checkout experience were investigated.
In this project, 14 elderly participants were invited. The participants
were observed in a non-intrusive way and at the end of each shopping trips, they were given a face-to-face semi-structured interview to elicit additional feedback and to confirm the observation findings. The key problem areas that were found include access to products, size of packaging and signage. This research has confirmed several key problems in the supermarket environment, and the study has provided greater awareness for retailers to consider their special needs and to build towards a more inclusive retail experience.