Super Market Madness

Essay # 6713

Business > Consumer Behavior
Business > Marketing
Psychology > Behaviorism

A behavioral economics analysis of food purchases.

1,775 words () | 5 sources | APA | 2002 New Zealand

Paper Summary:

This paper uses a behavioural economics standpoint to examine problems with the classical economic assumption of rational behaviour. It examines possible explanations for this behaviour such as signalling, herding, status consciousness and imperfect information. The paper concludes that that the main motivation for consumers purchasing more expensive food because it has a branded label on it does seem to be that they simply do not know any better.

From the Paper:

"If classical economists were to look at the other people in the supermarket while doing their grocery shopping, they would observe a high proportion of irrational people. This is because most supermarket shoppers will purchase at least one brand-name food item. Purchasing brand name food items can be considered an irrational act under pure economic analysis, assuming that the brand name does not provide an assurance of quality. The continued survival of brand name food items at supermarket checkouts can be seen as evidence that rational choice theory does not fully explain people s behavior. This suggests that there may well be another, better, framework to examine everyday behavior."