Who shops at Fred Meyer?

Qualitative Research by:Becky Ellis andCathy Holtcamp

Procedures and Methods

Our research question – Is there a dominant theme for the shoppers at a local Fred Meyer?

Procedures and Methods Design – Emergent

research design with time sampling data collection.

Observations were made in 1 hour increments at different times and different days.

Procedures and Methods

Cathy began to see a theme emerge and began taking notes as to the age of shopper and whether the shopper was alone or not.

Data was collected by observation only at various times – Thursday late morning, Saturday early evening, Sunday early afternoon and Monday early evening.

Procedures and Methods

Becky observed the shoppers from the vantage point of the in-store Deli.

Procedures and Methods

Cathy observed the shoppers from a bench across from the U-Scan check out

Procedures and Methods

Data was collected without pre-conceived ideas. No discussion was attempted prior to the data collection.

The data was well triangulated using 2 researchers at the same location but at different days and times. Observations were made at 4 different times and days.

Procedures and Methods

Trustworthiness: Prolonged engagement – 4 hours Persistent observation - several days Well triangulated Peer debriefing done after all data was collected Data was shared, compiled and analyzed during the

debriefing Study was thin, but sufficient data was obtained

Analysis

We started with a rich description of the shoppers we observed until half way through we discovered a theme presenting itself.

Using emergent design we began to code our observations differently.

Analysis Single verbs were

used to describe the shoppers we saw: Age

Under 20, 20-40, 40-60 and over 60

Gender Male, female

Status Single, couple, or family

Analysis

Coding was done by consensus and the rich descriptions were changed to simple categories

There was active dialog as to where the shopper fit in the new scheme

Shoppers fit into one of 14 different categories No inference was made about the thoughts,

feelings, or actions of the shopper

Findings

The dominant theme that emerged was that shoppers are solitary figures that do not interact with others while shopping

Findings

Exemplar: Solitary female entered the store, bought a few items, knew how to work the machine, paid with cash using the correct amount of bills and change, exited the store without uttering a word.

Findings

Additional Themes:62% of shopping done by femalesThursday found 28% of shoppers fit the family

category (one or more children with a parent)Largest group of shoppers, 44% were females

between the ages of 20-40 21.5% shopped alone and 22.5% shopped as a

family

Findings

One over-arching concept emerged – Americans have gone from using the shopping experience as a social event to a solitary event.

Implications

Marketing tool Health Promotion

– Used to target certain populations for sampling purposes (if the target population is solitary middle aged females you could find them at Fred Meyer on a Saturday afternoon)

Limitations

Observations were sporadic

Limited to 4 one-hour sessions

Data collection was superficial in nature

Conclusion

The research question was answered without doubt.

The dominant shopper at this local Fred Meyer is female, solitary, middle-aged.