From “foodies” to “cherry-pickers”: A clustered-based segmentation of specialty food retail customers

With the emergence of the specialty stores in the last decades, we address the following question: “What are the main characteristics of specialty food retail customer segments?”. Data from a sample of 597 consumers residing in the US was analyzed through two-step cluster analysis. Results suggest that specialty food customers could be segmented in “standalone rationals”, “foodies”, “cherry pickers” and “indulgencers”; being the “foodies” the most attractive segment since they are strongly involved with specialty food products. Therefore, specialty food retail customers cannot be seen as a homogenous group and retailers could manage specialty food stores as four different retail settings.