Three out of four Australians are happy with the mix of supermarkets and smaller grocery stores in their areas, according to independent survey results released by the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA).
“The clear majority – some 73 per cent – think they have a good selection of places to shop for groceries, which puts paid to current scaremongering in some parts of the media that the larger retailers are deliberately muscling out smaller operators,” says ANRA CEO Margy Osmond.
“And while more capital city residents believed they had a good mix of shops (77 per cent), two in three respondents outside the capitals also agreed. There was some variation between the states (Queensland 79 per cent, Victoria 75 per cent and Tasmania 66 per cent), but there was an across-the-board consensus on the matter of choice,” says Osmond.
“Australians are clearly voting with their feet and making choices about where they shop and what they are prepared to pay, and retailers large and small are responding. This is at the heart of a healthy competitive marketplace.
“We also found a healthy degree of support for smaller retailers,” says Osmond of the ANRA-commissioned survey of 1200 Australians.
“Some 68 per cent of respondents agreed they preferred to buy fresh meat from a local butcher than the supermarket, and a further 65 per cent agreed prefer to buy fresh vegetables from a smaller grocery store rather than a supermarket.
“This preference is clearly translating into action, with statistics showing independent fruit and vegetable shops sell around 50 per cent of all fruit and vegetables, and independent butchers sell over 50 per cent of all meat sold in Australia,” she says.
The strength and expansion in the small and independent grocery market is supported by a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers report showing clearly that the sector is not suffering from sharing the market with the large retailers. The smaller operators are booming and more new players enter the marketplace each year.
“We also asked people what was the most important factor when choosing a store to shop at for groceries with some surprising results.
“While low prices was at the top of the list by a small margin, some 81 per cent of respondents nominated other factors, with being able to do a one-stop shop and the location of the store being the next most popular choices,” says Osmond.
When asked which factor was the single most important when choosing a store to shop at for groceries, respondents nominated:
• 19 per cent – low prices
• 17 per cent – being able to get all of your groceries from the one store
• 13 per cent – convenient location
• 11 per cent – helpful and friendly staff
• 10 per cent – wide range of products available
• 10 per cent – high quality products
“It just goes to show that price is not the only driver in the decision-making process. People are time-poor and so convenience plays a major part when people chose where to shop for groceries.
“Being able to get everything in one place was more important than price for a number of groups – Australians aged 18-34, white-collar workers, South Australians and Western Australians, and the two factors were ranked equally by grocery buyers and capital city residents.
“These results are further evidence that Australian shoppers are driving the growing array of choices available to them. Consumers are choosing their shopping venue based on a range of factors and not just low prices,” concludes Osmond.