Most customers would rather go to a supermarket than a small store, although many do not like it. There are several reasons for this behavior.
The first is that all goods are easily available in one place. It is much more convenient to buy everything at once than to go to the grocery store, then to the butcher, then to the drugstore, and finally to remember that you forgot to buy something at the grocery store.
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Another advantage is that you have time to look at all the products in peace, to see what is where, what is new, and often different brands of products in one place. It is also much faster to pay when the purchases are just laid out on the belt, for example, than when the butcher is wrapping and weighing each piece of meat. This is closely related to the anonymity that introverts in particular prefer. In small stores, the owner often knew the customer\’s name and would chat with him or her at the checkout. In large supermarkets, with so many people shopping and everything flowing so fast, the clerks do not have the opportunity to remember every customer. This favors those who do not want the clerk to know, for example, what they are having for dinner today.
It must also be pointed out about advertising. Small stores usually do not have the funds to pay for advertising in the local newspaper, for example, and rely mainly on recommendations from their customers, but this is not a problem for the large corporations that run supermarkets. They can pay for advertising in prime time on national television and tell people how much cheaper their products are than their competitors. And this brings us to the last point: the big companies are not the only ones who can make a difference in the marketplace.
Of course, the most important factor is price. Small stores cannot compete with supermarket prices. This is because supermarkets handle larger quantities of goods and therefore have quantity discounts that are out of reach for small store owners. Therefore, in addition to their regular prices, supermarkets are able to offer a variety of discount promotions that people really listen to.
Apparently, small stores are not much of a challenge to their larger competitors. Still, they have eager customers who can\’t get enough. And that is a good thing. Because it would be a shame if they quit because they were “out-competed” by the big boys.
