Social groceries and consumer buying behaviour during the crisis

Abstract

The current thesis introduces a new type of social entrepreneurship, the “social groceries” and describes their history, presence and operation in Greece and other European countries. In cooperation with the social grocery of Carrefour-Marinopoulos in Athens, this paper analyses the food preferences of people that are randomly selected amongindividuals below the poverty line in Athens. The consumption behaviour of this selected group of population has never been studied before in Greece. Based on individual level purchase information that took place in the social grocery in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015, we analyse their purchasing behaviour between food and non-food categories and demonstrate in detail their caloric and nutrient intake. Then we model their demand using theWorking-Leser, the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) models with the aim to estimate whether the Engel Law implies for the beneficiaries of the social grocery or not. My results indicate that food products tend to be a luxury for those poverty-stricken households and that the demand of specific food categories is differentiated in comparison with the rest social classes. These issues are of both policy and public interest because they can be exploited and used for tax purposes or for various social initiatives and make food items more affordable for those in need.