Observation on Consumer Behaviour in Walmart

Place: Wal-Mart

Time: 14:00-15:00 April 3rd

Object: A couple around 60 years old

The reason why I choose them:

I guess that during the shopping time there must be a lot of conversation between them. So it might be much easier for me to catch what they were thinking at that time, and the possibility that I was found to be tracking them is less.

Observation record and my conclusions:

1. shopping purpose and personal interests

On the first floor of Wal-Mart, food except for sock, flavoring, rice etc is the main product. This couple spent most of the hour in this area. The lady is much interested in the uncooked food, while the man likes bread, snack, and biscuits. They only spent about 10minutes on the second floor in front of a container of toothpaste.

It seems that they enjoyed the shopping experience a lot since they just went around and had a look on each product. At the shelf of semi manufactured dish, they were discussing how to cook them and made comments on the feature of every dish, which showed that they may share the housework. They also mentioned if they had something already.

At last they bought one bag of bread, 4bag of dumplings, 2 pieces of baked sausages, 2 bottles of toothpaste, 2 cabbages and some Chinese traditional snake.

2. High sensitiveness to price and being rational

This couple always stayed a long period of time at the shelves and containers on which goods on sale were sold. And the label indicating that something is at a discount would catch their attention. Especially they paid attention to the containers in the center of the hallway rather than the shelves in the both sides of the hallway. When they stayed, holding the goods and talking, the conversation always covered the price. They compared the price of the same product in different shopping malls or in the same mall but in different period of time. They seldom compared the similar goods of different brands, but always concentrated on one piece of goods once. Even the concentration is put on the price.

The following details show they are price sensitive.

Previously they passed by a container of cooked meat, but later they chose the meat on another shelves which was sold with another piece sent.

When they saw the raw meat which is much expensive than those in the ice cabinet beside, the man was curious about the reason and asked the staff.

Once the man compared the two kinds of bread of which the price difference is 0.1 Yuan.

All the goods they bought were discounted highly. Although they were not interested in the daily used goods, yet the toothpastes with low price caught their sight.

When they finally settled an account, they found that the price of one piece of goods was different from what they previously knew. Then they rejected them.

To some extent they also cared about the quality of the food. They didn’t take the bread which from their opinion was unworthy for there was no filling inside. But when the price is rather lower even though it is of low quality, they couldn’t resist the temptation of low price.

At that time some counter is holding a promotion for Chinese tea. Although the price is low, but they didn’t care it and directly go towards another

3. The influence of the people around

Here are some records of their behaviors:

At first, they were in a group of people, but just after a while they came out of the crowd.

By the shelf of