#1 Observation: S. Spencer Age: 35 Date: June 23rd

Store: Harris Teeter Location: Dunwoody

On the grocery list Not on the grocery list List = yes, 7 things on her grocery list

Arrive at S. and she’s ready to go. She has decided to go to Harris Teeters. She says that it is just as expensive as Publix. Her husband goes to Publix but she does not like it as much because she says she is not familiar with how the store is laid out. She stops checks that she has her shopping list and then goes to the refrigerator and cuts the coupons she has recently received from Harris Teeter. They receive these coupons because they have a VIC card. The coupons were on a “come see us” direct mailer.” She says if you don’t use the card you get screwed.

She tells me a short story about her husband not wanting to get the VIC card because you had to put your SS# on it but since that time she says they have changed their policy. Her husband has experienced identity fraud and does not want to give out his SS#.

As we drive to the Harris Teeter I notice that Publix is in closer proximity to her house than Harris Teeter, however she wants to go to Harris Teeter because she is familiar with the way the store is organized.

Go into the grocery store. She picks a cart. She says she does not put fruit or vegetables on the list because she likes to look and see what’s fresh and at what price. She sees an eggplant and picks it because it is fresh. She says she remembers there was a recipe she recently saw for eggplant so maybe she’ll do that. But she’s not sure what else is in the recipe. Not sure what the other ingredients are and if she has them? She says that she only puts certain things on the grocery list. When she is responsible for certain things.

I ask her when the last time was that she went shopping and she says that they have not been doing a lot of shopping because of “time” and that they do not want to cook. Her husband has been stopping at Harry’s in a Hurry every night just to get something for dinner that night. Her husband has been doing a lot of the shopping lately. S. is pregnant and due in 2 weeks. We are finished in the produce section.

She realizes that she has not pulled out the list so she gets it out. She is going down the first aisle. She looks over at the mayonnaise and then notices the sale. She thinks she should buy two because this is her brand of mayonnaise. (Contextual) I ask her if brand or price comes first. She says that she thought she needed mayonnaise and then she saw it was on sale, and since it was on sale she decided to buy two. She says she is brand loyal with mayonnaise and ketchup. At the ketchup she sees a coupon on the aisle she picks it up and then realizes it is not the right one. She went ahead and bought her brand ketchup even though it was not on sale. She shows me that there are only 7 things on her grocery list. She goes by the tollhouse and says she always buys this product but it is not on the list. Goes over to the eggs and sees that they are buy one get one free so she buys two. She says that eggs were on the list. We go down the next aisle and she says she is brand loyal for pickles, pickle relish is on the list. Note: she is going down every aisle. On the next aisle she stops in front of the teriyaki sauce and she is looking over all the different kinds. I ask her to tell me what she is doing. She says that she bought a teriyaki sauce at the store a month ago and really liked but could not remember which one it was. Last time she tried one but it wasn’t the right one so she is trying to find it again. Teriyaki made her think of stir-fry and this triggered her to look for ginger. She found the ginger and decides not to buy because it was too expensive. (contextual)

Pasta---she buys lots of pasta she is brand loyal on the pasta and also price conscious because she tell me how much the pasta is at the Italian market down the street. She looks for crackers now, this seems to be a big deal to buy the right ones because it is for her toddler. She says a lot of times she just wanders up and down the aisles. Now she is debating to buy Teddy Grahams instead of regular Graham crackers. She tells a story about her toddler wanting products based on the packaging.

She has no brand loyalty to milk. She notices that the cereal is on sale but it is not the right kind. She complains about the cost of cereal. Granola is on the list. She says that the Wal-Mart Superstore has great prices on cereal. She mentions that she buys her meat in bulk from Costco. Going down the next aisle she sees a display of tea and she buys 2 because they are on sale. She tries not to go down some of the aisles such as cosmetics or detergent because they are cheaper to buy somewhere else.

Places bread in the basket. She said she tried the store brand once and it was okay so she buys it. She usually tries the store brand on some things and if it is okay she will stick with it because of price. She says she knows the store pretty well and this is why she says she does not need a list. As she is shopping she says that she notices if things she normally buys are on sale and then she will buy because it is on sale even if they are not out of it yet. For example, she buys Smuckers Jelly. Then she announces that she is not buying cokes because they are too expensive.

Cheese is not on the list but she purchases. I ask her how she knew and she says there are certain things like bread, milk and cheese that she will always buy. Starts searching for low salt ham and cannot find. This is for her toddler. I see a lady holding coupons.

Next we go to frozen food. She looks at the pizzas. She says that she probably would have bought one if they were on sale because they are just good to have on hand. (she was looking for a deal). Buys frozen peas and lima beans because these are things she always likes to have around. They are out of frozen blueberries. She pauses and sees the coffeecake (major impulse buy). Remembers feta when we are in the cheese section. She starts talking about the recipe again. She says she has to go back and buy mint. Also, she says that if she gets home and she was not right she may not be making the recipe. She is about ready to leave so she looks over her list. This is the first time she makes an active search over her list. She notices that she has forgotten the olive oil. S. did not mark anything off the list as she went down the aisles. She said that if the list were longer she probably would have marked things off.

Oh yeah apple juice she saw it when she was looking down an aisle. This was on her list but she totally overlooked it. She only remembered it when she saw it in the aisle.

Where is the olive oil? Stretching to see where it would be. She thinks it might be on one of the aisles that we did not go down. She starts scanning the signs for each aisle. She says oil should be with the baking things so I’ll look for baking products. Next she sees flour. Aha, baking things and then she see the oil and finally the olive oil. As always she is looking for the best price first among the brands that she will buy.

Ready to go. She is looking for a line to get into. They ask if she is a VIC member and she says that she should give them the card to scan now so she does not forget before she goes. The cashier scans the card. It is located on her key chain. She starts looking at the magazines and purchases one.

The cashier says the final amount. Ask Susan if she uses the self-checkout and she says she would not have used today because of the number of items.

As we leave I ask her if she gave the cashier her coupons. She says that she forgot. She now has to go to the service desk. They are very friendly and give her the $5 from the coupons. She gets the receipt when we are in the car and looks to see how much she saved. I ask if she ever looks over the items she bought and she says no, that she only looks to see how much she saved.

------QUESTIONS------

When did she realize she needed to go to the grocery store? She usually goes weekly and she knew she needed to go sometime this weekend because they were out of food. They usually go once a week to the grocery store and spend about $100. However, lately she has not had time to cook. They keep meat in the freezer that they buy in bulk from Costco.

Yes, she goes to the same grocery store every time. Her husband has been doing most of the grocery shopping. She writes everything sown for him on the list. For example, she does not write mayonnaise she writes Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

When she goes to the store she likes to start in the produce section and see what looks good. Then she thinks of what would go with the fresh vegetable she has picked out. She usually ends up going back to the vegetables after she is done shopping. It annoys her that she always winds up going back through the store. She says it might help if she laid out her shopping list according to the layout of the store.

Usually there is a tablet with a magnet on the fridge where S. and her husband write things down for the grocery list. Both of them write things down when they run out of an item. However, sometimes she says she leaves house and forgets the grocery list on the fridge. Whoever uses something last adds it to the list and because she is doing most of the cooking she usually uses something last.

When asked about why she wanders up and down the aisles, she says she does this because she normally does the cooking.

When asked about her recipe. She says there have been times when she has brought the whole magazine in the store if it had a recipe she wanted to cook. #2 Observation: C. Schlag Age: 63 Date: June 29th

Store: Harry’s Farmers Market Location: Cobb

List = No Shopping list (typical buy vs nontypical buy)

When ran out of dinners on Tuesday and since she had other obligations up until this day this was the first chance she had to shop.

She announces that she is a very boring shopper. That she usually shops the same way every time. There are a set of vegetables she gets each time. She tears off many bags to collect these vegetables. She always gets a cart and moves through the store getting everything she usually buys. She plans to run out of food on Tuesday so she is buying enough to last until Tuesday. She buys for dinners and breakfasts because they always eat out for lunch.

She picks up more bags. She doesn’t buy packaged stuff at all because they like to eat fresh foods. She describes this trip as a regular trip because she is buying the staples. This is not a special trip. A special trip would be if she were shopping for a holiday menu.

Shrooms are not a normal buy but she always looks to see if they have any interesting ones and then she would buy. There are no interesting ones today.

Corn is in season so she will buy it. She pulls the shuck back to make certain it is fresh. She is constantly looking for FRESH produce. When she stops she leaves her cart. She goes up to the product, picks it up and then returns to the cart.

She walks by and sees the grapes. Grapes look good so this is an impulse buy. She says that fruit is generally the place impulse buys happen. If it looks good or smells good she will make a purchase. Keeping in mind that she needs to run out of food on Tuesday.

In the fish section she looks for one particular fish, if it is not there she does not purchase fish. She says she always has a backup pasta meal just in case. She considers herself a power shopper. The goal is to be efficient. She says, “this is not something she enjoys, it’s a chore. So she tries to be as efficient as possible.”

She does not like to be wasteful and throw things away. She said that she knows everything that is currently in the fridge because she is the only one who cooks in the house. She shops Harry’s once a week usually on the way home from work. She goes to Publix once every 2 weeks for paper goods. She will run into Publix if she needs something quick or if they run out of something.

Does she purchase things for other people in the house. Yes she said that people just need to mention what they need in passing and she remembers. #3 Observation: B. Chyatte Age: 33 Date: June 30th

Store: Dekalb Farmers Market Location: Decatur

List = No Shopping list (typical buy vs nontypical buy)

Whether or not he gets a cart depends on the amount of groceries he is going to shop for. He knows in advance to get the cart from the parking lot because they never have enough carts inside. He does not have a grocery list today because he created a list but not for groceries. If he needs to go to multiple places to get things then he makes a list for the multiple places so he does not forget.

He plans to eat healthy. He is the mode to eat healthy so he wants to get fruit and vegetables and fish. He plans to shop by going up and down the aisles and buying what is appealing. He smells the herbs before placing them in his cart. He starts thinking about what he is going to cook and what herbs are good to cook with the menu he is thinking about. Thinking of how to prepare things and then talking about the price on the spices.

Steve on the other hand actually asks me, “How many meals are we shopping for?” and plans the shopping around the number of meals. In contrast B is just going up and down the aisles. B. says he has no idea how many meals he is shopping for. He starts to think about what he has at home about a third into the shopping.

We are in the seasonings and he is looking at the choices trying to find cayenne pepper. When the aisles get too crowded he parks his cart, shops, and then comes back to the cart.

He likes to go up each aisle to see what sparks his interest. “ooh, sweet potatoes”--- He is purchasing just 1 potato so that it does not go bad. He is looking for samples and mentions that they normally have samples out to taste.

He avoids the area of the store that does not meet his goal. He avoids breads!! He mentions that this is not a normal visit.

He does not want to buy something that might go bad. He is thinking about what is at home in his fridge. He does not want something to sit and rot in his refrigerator.

He wants to eat the item within 2 meals so it doesn’t go bad. Thinking of his diet while purchasing food. He now is at the limit for vegetables and fruit. He does an impulse buy for sugar cane. He says that maybe he could go for some more fruit. He says aloud what is in season for fruit. He continues to park the grocery cart when he is a busy section of the store. Now he is done when fruits and vegetables. Going to fish market. Parking cart to look at fish. Thinks shrimp is a hassle—all along he has been weighing the amount of work to cook the food versus how much he likes the food.

When buying fish, the cart stays put. The guys select the piece of fish and you either agree or disagree. After purchasing tuna B. starts thinking of marinade to go with the fish. He remembers that he needs an orange to make the tuna marinade. Too much of a hassle to go back to the produce and purchases the orange. B. is ready to go.

He is looking for a short line. Evaluates the situation by how many customers in line, the amount of purchases and competence of cashier. Looking to see if he forgot something, taking stock of what he bought. B.’s plan was not to buy for more than a week.

He says he actually picked the wrong aisle. He likes the self-checkout depending on the line. If he can do it quicker he would prefer to do it himself. He usually gages the factor of incompetence. If there is more than 3 people in self-checkout he won’t go.

He says he is confident about his food choices. Now he will come home and eat. He bought things he likes that are also healthy. He will not need to go out and eat because he has good things to cook. He wanted to get a lot of stuff and he wanted to be enticed/inspired by these purchases.

Fish here is better than at Kroger and Publix has a limited brand selection. The farmers market does not accept credit cards. This is okay because B. uses a debit card.

Thinking about how to pack his groceries. He place his purchases a certain way on the checkout so that things don’t get mixed up. He puts them into groups for packaging. He mentions that this makes it easier when he is unpacking at home. He is waiting for the total. Placing bags in cart. He was not looking at prices before but is now noticing them. They are being rung up and he is curious. He says he got a deal on the herbs. Still concerned with bagging.

He uses his debit card. He says, hates to accumulate the receipts. His wallet gets full of the receipts and every couple of weeks he unloads his receipts from his wallet and puts everything in Quicken.

He tears the bottom of the receipt with the total and then throws the top part away. I ask him if I can have it. There are two receipts and they are very long.

He has a plus card, which he hates. For an example, he says that he did not use to have a plus card but now that they rig the prices so this is the only way to shop so that you do not get ripped off. “Damn plus card.” He refers to the receipt as the, “big ol’ receipt.” He says that he just needs to know the total and the date. He returns the cart. ------QUESTIONS------

When I ask B. about the orange which he could have purchased in the store he says that there is a grocery store right down the street so if he runs out of anything he goes there.

He has no idea of the hours of operation for this store we were just at. He says that he normally goes on Sundays because Saturday night he usually eats out and he wants everything to be fresh for the week.

Last Tuesday was when he decided to go shopping today, Saturday. He knew he would be on the road during the week and he wanted to start eating well when he returned. He would need to eat at home and the best way to ensure this would be to go to Dekalb Farmers market. His normal mode is to go shopping on Sunday night. Also he has no need right now for paper products, soap, etc. He says that he lives off very few essentials. He doesn’t wait for toilet paper!!

Yes he always makes a mental list.

When he is running low on numerous items a list usually gets created during the week on a notepad and is kept where he puts his wallet down. He has one right now at home. The list usually has things he needs to do on it as well, action items. He uses this to offload things. If there were many things on the list he would take it shopping or if it were a recipe. For example he is about to go on a trip and he has many things written on his list but they are things that need to be purchased at different stores. Rarely does it include food items. Once he creates this list he usually looks at it periodically during the weekend.

He prefers to do self-checkout because he says that he is fast and he is usually looking for something to do while he is standing in line.

B. Frequents a handful of stores, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Target, and Sams. He says that Whole Foods is too expensive for frequent purchases. Occasionally he will go to Ed’s IGA if he forgets something because it is the closest. He will not purchase fruit or meat there. Maybe late on Saturday night if he wants something, cookies, he will go there.

On the weekend he usually goes to Target, Kroger and Same.

Being single he says that he makes a conscious effort not to keep a lot of things at home.

B. Usually takes the same route through the store every time. He is a member of Kroger and Sams shopping club. He does not like that he has to carry their card around. He does not want to carry another card in his wallet and he doesn’t want it on his key chain. He is a member of Harris Teeter VIC card too. All of these cards are currently in his wallet and it annoys him. When I asked him what advantages he received? He said pricing, that’s it. B. owns a pda and does not own a cell phone. He does not want to carry another device around. He says it would be nice to have a reminder and a self-checkout that you can scan as you go through the store. He might carry his ipager on the weekends if it had a reminder because it is a less obtrusive device. Does not want to carry his palm around.

Things that annoy B. in the store are: People should not be allowed to write checks. There should be the ability to open registers immediately if the lines get full. They should focus on inventory and always have things stocked. Would prefer to shop at different stores for fresh foods like the Europeans do and shop on an as needed basis vs the superstore.

PDA 1 Cell phone 2 Cart 3

IDEAS— Read a recipe – scan it so it could scan directly into your PDA for use at the store Transaction with debit card in sync with PDA so can hot sync to Quicken. #4 Observation: K. Hidalgo Age: 33 Date: July 2

Store: Krogers Location: Georgetown

List = YES Shopping list

2 size carts likes the little cart always gets fruit first, shopping at Kroger Always brings a list this make shopping faster and the grocery bill will be higher when she doesn’t bring a list because she always buys things more at random.

Just getting a few bananas. Looking for alfalfa sprouts. She doesn’t usually buy this item so she does not know where it is located. She starts looking for them. She says that she knows what they look like she just doesn’t know where they are. She finds them. Crossing this item off of the list.

She is thinking that her husband is going to make omelets and she is not sure which type of onion to purchase. He usually gets the vidalia onion so she will get that type. She doesn’t eat tomatoes so she does not know how to pick them. She mentions omelets again and then crosses tomatoes off of the list. Looking to see what else is on the list that is located in the produce section.

She sees grapes at the end of the aisle and this makes her think that their houseguests ate the grapes at the house so she will buy more. This is an impulse buy and not on the grocery list.

Shrooms – looks in the back for the fresher ones. Salad bag – she says that t is easier to make these and she marks it off of the list.

She looks at the list and tries to remember where things on the list are in the store so she can decide where to go next. Almost everything else on the list is in this direction so she goes towards the back of the store.

She passes a few aisles and sees a spaghetti sauce sign and then makes her realize that she forgot something. She glances to see that she is going down the right aisle. Keeps looking at the list. Looks for a red label on the packaging to make sure she buys the right one. She mentions that she called her husband before she came to the store and they made a list together over the phone.

Next she purchases OJ. She is looking for the right brand. It is important to buy the right one because her husband is a diabetic and he drinks OJ when he is low on sugar. She is looking for expiration dates throughout the shopping process.

She crosses milk and hotdogs off of her list. She remembers by walking down th aisle that she needs towels. She was here last time and bought the wrong freezer bags so she is looking for the right ones this time. She finds them by accident as she is pulling away.

She is going to have chicken Caesar salad for dinner so she goes to the deli. She says that if it were crowded she would have gone somewhere else first and then come back to the deli. After she places her order she sometimes goes over to the bread aisle and picks up her bread. She does this because it takes a while to get her order. When she is at the deli she orders ham, says the specific type, points at it and the agrees.

She always reseals the meat when she gets it because she says they do not usually seal the bag.

She knows soft drinks are on the list so she heads down that aisle. She always looks for caffeine free mountain dew. If it is in stock she purchases all of them. Today they have it so she gets the last 4 they have in stock. Her husband probably needs diet coke but she will not buy it here because of the price. She knows she can purchase it at the gas station for a much better price. She says that this has been a habit lately to purchase it at the gas station.

Next she buys hamburger and hotdog buns. She looks to see what is left on the list.

Cheese. She knows that they need sour cream, too. She is looking for expiration dates. She says that she could care less about the brand.

That is everything on the list. She detours in a strategic fashion to get back to the checkouts. She says that she is wondering where she put that stupid card. She does not like keeping up with it or that you have to have it to get a special price. She did not buy anything today based on the specials. Another thing that annoys her is that she now has to unload her cart.

She is not sure when you are supposed to give them the card. So she always gives it to them first. She also has a discount card that saves her $50 dollars after 10 visits. Based on this discount card she has been changing the times she shops because it is for once every week. On her grocery-shopping list she also had reminders and other to do action items attached on post it notes.

K. goes to this store because it is closer even though sometimes it annoys her that she has to bag her own groceries. She uses a debit card. She usually looks at the coupons over the weekend and cuts the coupons and places them in a ziplock bag. She makes a grocery list with her husband based on the dinners they will eat during the week. She will usually take the list and compare it with the coupons for her visit.

She always parks near a grocery cart round up so she does not have to walk to return the cart. ------QUESTIONS------She decided on Sunday that she was going to go for one meal or for the week. She made a physical grocery list on a sheet of paper at work before she left for the day. She called her husband at home and they made the list together as he checked to see what they were out of.

They usually go to Winn Dixie when they run out of something because it is the closest. She usually makes the list. Making the list for the dinner menus of that week usually starts this process. The list is on the fridge and they add to the list.

K. goes to Kroger because of convenience. She knows where things are and she can get in and out quicker because of this. She usually takes the same route through the store. She does not want anything extra to carry around in the store. She has a cell phone but not a pda device. She thinks it would be hard to scroll through her list on a cell phone.

K. is a member of Kroger and CVS sopping clubs. She looks at these cards the same as coupons. The first time she signed up she said she got 5 coupons for different timeframes. By having this extra coupon she will come here for the price advantage.

I asked her what she would do with her receipts. She will look at the coupons on the back and see if they are good for saving. With the other one she will write the total in her checkbook and then throw it away. She usually looks at the screen when they are ringing her up to verify her purchases.