A comparative analysis of willingness-to-pay for convenience when grocery shopping in Malta : major vs fill-in trips

Abstract

This study uses a discrete choice experiment (DCE) as a tool to investigate the influences of store format choice when grocery shopping. More specifically, proximity to store, opening hours and product variety are used as proxy variables for convenience, and their strength into influencing the choice store is studied through willingness-to-pay (WTP) calculations. The study distinguishes between the shopping trip types: major and fill-in trips. The main instrument of primary data collection is an online distributed survey. This study employs four stages of analysis: a conditional choice probability model, a linear probability model (LPM) and two versions of logit model. The findings from this research establish that both in major and fill-in trips, the higher the proximity to store, the more likely a household will opt for convenience store attributes over supermarket attributes. This impact is stronger in fill-in trips when compared to major trips.