The New Normal Patterns of Consumers’ Food Purchasing in Bangkok after the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic situation

Abstract

The purposes of this research were study 1) Personal factors of consumers in Bangkok after the outbreak of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). 2) Information awareness in the widespread Coronavirus (COVID-19). 3) The new normal style of consumers’ behaviors in food purchasing options in Bangkok after the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. 4) The relationship between personal factors and the new normal style of consumers’ behaviors in food purchasing options in Bangkok after the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19). 5) The relationship between information awareness of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and the new normal style of consumers’ behaviors in food purchasing options in Bangkok after the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The sample was 400 consumers in Bangkok, who were selected by stratified sampling. The research instrument used in this study was the questionnaire. The statistical analysis used in this study included frequency, percentage, means, and chi square.

The results of the study were as follows: 1) For personal factors of consumers in Bangkok, most of them were female (222 participants) whose ages ranged from 20-30 years old. Their education was lower than bachelor's level. Their occupations were company employees / private employees with average income from 10,001 to 20,000 baht per month. 2) Regarding the awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic, the results showed that most of the consumers received main sources of information from Ministry of Public Health, family members, and television channel. 3) In addition to the new normal style of purchasing food options, the results reported that most consumers preliminary examined their readiness health check before going out to buy or use any services. The majority of consumers selected restaurants in the department stores, buying a la carte, for example, meat, rice and curry, fried chicken, bakery products, instant noodles, frozen meats, and various Thai desserts. These consumers spending money less than 500 baht bought these products by themselves and making their own decisions. 4) Personal factors including gender and education level were correlated with the new normal style of consumers’ behaviors in foods purchasing option with statistically significant at the .05 level. 5) For the outbreak information sources, the informants reported that the widespread Coronavirus (COVID-19) was correlated to the new normal style of consumers’ behaviors in food purchasing options with statistically significant at the .05 level.