The modernization of fresh food retailing in China: The role of consumers

Since 2002, the Chinese government has initiated the “Wet Market Transforming into Food Supermarket (WMTFS)” program that aims to transform the traditional fresh food retailing system into a more efficient system that adopts a supermarket operation mode. However, after years of effort, the process of implementing the WMTFS program has been painfully slow. In addition to several supply side factors, this paper focuses on the consumer demand side using survey data in three large Chinese cities to identify the factors affecting consumers' decisions to buy fresh food from traditional vs modern retail formats. It further explores regional differences in consumers' shopping behavior. We find that freshness, accessibility, and whether buyers can bargain are influencing factors and the effects of socioeconomic factors such as income and storage facility are very limited. In addition, we find regional difference exists in consumers' retail format preferences. We suggested that managers of fresh food supermarket should enhance product freshness and safety in the future. Meanwhile, since traditional retail formats are still preferred by many consumers, the policy-makers should give a further thinking on the specific way of transformation.