The Shift to Home Meal Replacement Consumption in Convenience Stores

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand Home Meal Replacement (HMR) consumption in convenience stores using a reduced form of food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument. A Taiwanese sample was collected at various convenience stores and consisted of 237 adult individuals. We performed cluster analysis and found two groups of consumers. They are “convenience/hedonic food consumers” and “convenience/conservative food consumers.” The former comprises 148 people. On the whole, these consumers enjoy shopping, care about product information, and are very interested in trying different kinds of foods. They carefully read information on the product label before purchasing HMR. The latter comprises 73 individuals. They are less interested in any food-related activities, but they care more about taste, healthfulness, and freshness of food than other consumers. The HMR segments derived from this study show significant differences with respect to attitudes and buying behaviors toward HMR, but did not differ in the demographic variables.