By: Arch G. Woodside and Randolph J. Trappey

Woodside and Trappey hypothesized that the most accessible attitudes that are associate with a given store, with evaluative store attributes are highly predictive of primary store choice. The two looked at principal grocery shoppers of 301 households that responded to a survey assessing 7 possible determinant attributes reflecting J. A. Howard’s 3 key dimensions of retail store image. Those three dimensions are: convenience of the store location, the price of the store’s products, and the information the store provides about its products. Their findings suggested that the attitude accessibility of competing stores and brands in relation to the primacy of responses to evaluative attributes, is useful for accurately predicting primary choices.

Woodside and Trappey article used surveys and public and private records to give answers to stores and brands wondering why people shop at their place or for their brand. Their article discussed how if your store is easier to travel to be it walking, driving, public transportation, appeals to people more because of its close proximity to the targeted customers. Store’s that are cheaper tend to attract poorer families as well as some of the remaining families to be considered middle class. However, these stores are probably located in poorer areas. Stores located in more wealthy areas can raise the price for products. Finally, customers appreciate more descriptions about stores’ products so people actually know what they are getting and where it is coming from.

The types of data that could be used for their research would be survey, public and private records, and interviews but that would be stretching it. Woodside and Trappey used surveys and private and public records to collect their data and pose the research question of: Why do people shop at grocery stores? They mostly used qualitative data with little quantitative.