A growing number of environmentally “savvy” consumers consider locally sourced goods to be as important as friendly and helpful staff when deciding where to shop.
That’s according to a recent Ipsos MORI poll, which asked respondents to name the factors that most influence their grocery purchasing decisions aside from essentials such as location, price and range.
Some 28% of respondents ranked locally sourced goods as their first choice, while 26% cited friendly and helpful staff as key.
When allowing more than one answer, the study found 72% named friendly and helpful staff among their top reasons for choice of supermarket.
But this was closely followed by locally sourced goods at 64%.
Among higher earners, this figure rose to 76%.
Gill Aitchison of Ipsos MORI said: “For supermarkets it is an opportunity to incur lower transport costs and promote a positive image by supporting the local community and economy.”
The survey indicated that the importance of friendly and helpful staff was much more important to those who were not working, lower social groups and the over-45s.
