Who sells what adds to shopping difficulty

Shopper Report, The, Oct, 2004 by Mona Doyle

The fact that 50 percent of our shoppers say that some stores or products or packages are difficult for them to shop or use sheds additional light on why so many consumers are talking about giving cash or gift cards for the holidays.

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* "Parking is so frustrating at my local Kroger with new gas station that I don't shop there anymore."

* "I'm a college graduate and an avid reader but there are more and more labels and product instructions that I just don't understand."

* "Every time you find a good product, stores usually change it or discontinue it. It's very disheartening. They really should have a way of finding out which products their customers really like and don't want to do without."

The fact that 50 percent of our shoppers also say that knowing who sells what is something that they are concerned about contributes to shopping difficulty.

* "Cannot be sure where to go to find what you need anymore."

* "The number of choices you have to make does make shopping harder. I have to go through a whole decision process to decide where to purchase which vitamins and herbals depending on who has what in the form and size I want and who is having the best sales. It's not just choosing between store A and store B. It's deciding whether to use a catalog, a drug store, a supermarket, a mass store, or a mix of all of them. It's really a pain.