USING FISHBEINs MULTIATTRIBUTE ATTITUDE MODEL: AN ATTITUDINAL STUDY OF RETAIL PATRONAGE AT PERNAMA SUPERMARKET IN TERENDAK CAMP, MELAKA DISEDIAKAN OLEH: ROSIDAH MUSA LENNORA PUTIT CHE WAN NOR FARIDAH CHE WAN PUTRA JUN 1997 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM BIRO PENYELIDIKAN DAN PERUNDINSAN (BRC) (BUREAU OF RESEARCH AND CONSULTANCY) INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI MARA Tarikh Surat kami Samb. : 4091/4264 23 Mei 1996 100-BRC.9/19(13) Puan Rosidah bte Musa Pensyarah Kajian Perniagaan dan Pengurusan ITM, Shah Alam Assalamualaikum Puan Projek Penyelidikan Using Fishbien's Multiattribute Attitude Model: Study on Retail Store Petronage PERNAMA Supermarket in Trendak Camp, Melaka Surat puan bertarikh 17 Mei 1996 mengenai ubahsuai cadangan projek penyelidikan adalah dirujuk. Sukacita dimaklumkan bahawa setelah meneliti ubahsuai berkenaan dengan ini pihak Jawatankuasa telah membuat keputusan seperti berikut:1. Meluluskan cadangan projek penyelidikan yang dikemukakan oleh puan. 2. Peruntukan yang diluluskan ialah sebanyak RM3,960.00 (Ringgit: Ribu Sembilan Ratus Enam Puluh Sahaja). Tiga 3. Tempoh projek dijalankan mulai 1 Jun 1996 hingga 31 Mac 1997. 4. Mengemukakan taporan kemajuan projek setiap tiga (3) bulan sekali. Bersama-sama ini dilampirkan surat perjanjian projek penyelidikan untuk ditandatangani oleh pihak tuan. Sila kembalikan borang peijanjian ini kepada Biro Penyelidikan dan Perundingan untuk tindakan selanjutnya. COPYRIGHT @ UiTM • i11 11 v or iCSEAtCH I COVSULtkMCT Sekian, terima kasih. Wassalam. Yang benar DR NORSAADAH HJ fSMAIL Ketua :AN:hy/rosidah s.k. - 1. Dekan Kajian Perniagaan dan Pengurusan 2. Penolong Bendahari Zon Pengarah (Sila buka vot baru dan sediakan peruntukan berjumlah RM3,960.00) COPYRIGHT @ UiTM Tarikh No. Fail Projek : 30Junl997 : 100-BRC.9/19(13) Ketua Biro Penyelidikan dan Perundingan (BRC) ITM, Shah Alam Puan, LAPORAN AKHIR PENYELIDIKAN "USING FISHBEIN's MULTIATTRIBUTE ATTITUDE MODEL: A N ATTITUDINAL STUDY OF RETAIL PATRONAGE AT PERNAMA SUPERMARKET IN TERENDAK CAMP, MELAKA" M e r u j u k k e p a d a perkara di atas, bersama-sama ini disertakan 3 (tiga) n a s k h a h Laporan Akhir Penyelidikan bertajuk seperti di atas oleh k u m p u l a n penyelidik dari Kajian Perniagaan d a n P e n g u r u s a n d a n Kajian Teknologi M a k l u m a t d a n Sains Kuantitatif, ITM Shah Alam u n t u k m a k l u m a n pihak puan. Sekian, terima kasih. Yi " ROSIDAH MUSA Ketua Projek Penyelidikan • iv COPYRIGHT @ UiTM KUMPULAN PENYELIDIK ROSIDAH MUSA KEZQA PROJEK Tandatangan LENNORA PUTIT Ahli Tandatangan CHE W A N NOR FARID A H CHE W A N PUTRA Ahli * Tandaiangan v COPYRIGHT @ UiTM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Alhamdulillah, we would like to express our gratitude to Allah SWT for HIS abundant generosity, guidance and strength during the process of completing this research project. First of all, we would like to extend our special appreciation to the Bureau of Research and Consultancy (BRC), MARA Institute of Technology for providing us with generous f u n d as well as endless encouragement and guidance. We also wish to express our utmost gratitude to PERNAMA's General Manager, Tuan Haji Abdul Wahab Khalil for his support in giving us the opportunity to carry out our research at the PERNAMA Supermarket in Terendak Camp, Melaka. Special thanks goes to Tuan Haji Ashari Abu Hassan (Corporate Planning and Development Manager) in disseminating us valuable materials and information and to Colonel Hatim Tai Jaafar for his assistance in making our field work at Terendak Camp possible. Last but not least, we would like to hold out our sincere and deepest thanks to our spouses for their continuing support and encouragement and to our adorable children for their love and patience in making our work possible. vi COPYRIGHT @ UiTM ABSTRACT This research investigates a subject of great interest and importance to retailers.Patronage attitudes towards PERNAMA Supermarket. Attitude is commonly viewed as one of the important factors that intervenes between the marketing mix and consumer store patronage decision. The creation of positive consumer attitude is consider a crucial task of store managements because they could benefit from positive consumer attitude and consequently influence store patronage decision and frequency. The primary objective of this study attempts to determine the overall attitudes of Terendak Camp's residents of PERNAMA Supermarket which is located in the camp's Commercial Centre. Our study is designed within the framework of the Fishbein's Multiattribute Attitude Model. A multiattribute model is based on the notion that consumers see a store as a collection of attributes or characteristics. The major attraction of the abovementioned model is it provides richer insights into the reasons behind consumers' decisions. Through examining consumers' beliefs, we could indentify both favorable and unfavorable attributes of PERNAMA Supermarket. The result of our findings on the overall attitude towards PERNAMA Supermarket based on Fishbein's Multiattribute Model formula indicates that the respondents had positive attitude. The variables analyzed shows a mean overall attitude (Ao) of +48.42 with a minimum and maximum value of -91.75 and +182.25 respectively. Analysis on a supermarket's attributes perceived rank of importance in store selection shows that cleanliness is ranked the highest. Whilst analysis on attributes' rank of importance in influencing patronage to PERNAMA Supermarket shows that cleanliness is also ranked the highest. vii COPYRIGHT @ UiTM TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. RESEARCH OFFER LETTER ii LETTER FOR SUBMISSION OF REPORT iv REGISTER OF RESEARCH MEMBERS v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT vi ABSTRACT vii TABLE OF CONTENTS viii LIST OF TABLES xi LIST OF CHARTS xii CHAPTER 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Background of the Company 3 1.2.1 Perbadanan Perwira Niaga Malaysia (PERNAMA) 3 1.2.2 PERNAMA's Mission Statement 3 1.2.3 Shop Categories 4 1.2.4 Merchandise Range 4 1.2.5 Organizational Structure 4 1.3 Background of the Terendak Camp's PERNAMA Outlet 6 1.4 Background of the Study 7 1.4.1 7 What is Attitude? 1.5 Problem Statement 9 1.6 Objectives of the Study 10 1.7 Scope of the Study 11 1.8 Limitations of the Study 11 1.9 Research Methodology 12 1.9.1 Data Collection 12 1.9.2 Questionaire Design 12 1.9.3 Sampling Design 13 viii COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 1.9.4 Sampling Technique 14 CHAPTER 2 2.1 Literature Review 15 2.2 Multiattribute Attitude Models 17 2.2.1 2.2.2 Fishbein's Multiattribute Attitude Model (AttitudeToward-Object) 18 Benefits of a Multiattribute Analysis 19 CHAPTER 3 3.1 Findings and Analysis 22 3.2 Findings 1: Analysis on the Overall Attitude of TC Residents Toward PERNAMA Supermarket 21 3.3 Findings 2: Analysis on the Patronage Frequency Visits to PERNAMA Supermarket Based on Demographic Profiles 21 3.3.1 Respondents'Gender 21 3.3.2 Respondents' Age 22 3.3.3 Respondents' Marital Status 24 3.3.4 Respondents or Spouses in the Army 25 3.3.5 Respondents' Ranking in the Army 26 3.3.6 Respondents' Monthly Family Allowance 27 3.4 Findings 3: Analysis on a Supermarket's Attributes Perceived Rank of Importance in Store Selection 28 3.5 Findings 4: Analysis on Attributes' Rank of Importance in Influencing Patronage to PERNAMA Supermarket 28 Findings 5: Analysis on Any Significant Attribute of PERNAMA Supermarket That Contribute to its Failure in Capturing the Market Share 29 Findings 6: Analysis on TC Residents' Dissatisfactions Toward PERNAMA Supermarket 29 3.6 3.7 CHAPTER 4 4.1 Conclusions 31 4.2 Recommendations 31 4.2.1 32 Price ix COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 4.2.2 After-sales Service 32 4.2.3 Loyalty Scheme 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY 33 APPENDIX 1 PERNAMA Shop Category for Year 1996 35 2 PERNAMA Organizational Chart 1996 36 3 Organizational Chart of PERNAMA Supermarket in Terendak Camp, Melaka 37 Detailed Distribution of the Residents at Terendak Camp, Melaka 38 Survey Questionaire 39 4 5 WORK SCHEDULE 44 x COPYRIGHT @ UiTM LIST OF TABLES Table No. Page No. 3.1 Analysis on the Overall Attitude Towards a Supermarket 21 3.2 Respondents' Gender by Visits 22 3.3 Respondents' Age by Visits 23 3.4 Respondents' Marital Status by Visits 24 3.5 Respondents or Their Spouses in the Army by Visits 25 3.6 Army Ranks by Visits 26 3.7 Monthly Family Allowances by Visits 27 3.8 A Supermarket's Attributes Perceived Rank of Importance in Store Selection 28 3.9 Attributes' Rank of Importance in Influencing Patronage to PERNAMA Supermarket 29 3.10 Dissatisfactions of the Terendak Camp's Residents Toward PERNAMA Supermarket 30 xi COPYRIGHT @ UiTM LIST OF CHARTS Chart No. Page No. 1.1 Distribution of Respondents 14 3.1 Frequency of Visits by Respondents in a 4-week Period by Gender 22 3.2 Frequency of Visits by Respondents in a 4-week Period by Age 23 3.3 Frequency of Visits by Respondents in a 4-week Period by Marital Status 24 3.4 Frequency of Visits in a 4-week Period by Whether the Respondents or Their Spouses are in the Army 25 3.5 Frequency of Visits in a 4-week Period by Ranking in the Army 26 3.6 Frequency of Visits in a 4-week Period by Monthly Family Allowance 27 xii COPYRIGHT @ UiTM CHAPTER 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION Retailing, in all its forms and formats, is one of today's most dynamic, challenging and aggressive industry. complex economic It is continually subjected to fluctuating market forces; the advent of conditions, environmental influences, technology demographic shifts, changing consumers' attitudes and retail trends. breakthrough, At the core of the changes are a shift in attitude and expectations of consumers and the power they have within the economic system. discerned. In the aggregate, today's consumers are much more informed and Success in the next decade then, will depend upon the level of understanding retailers have about the new values, expectations and needs of the consumers. Hence, retailers must be adaptive organizations if they are to survive; retailing is not an industry for the shortsighted or the faint of heart. The distribution and retail environment has never been as complex and competitive as it is today. Today's customers are spoilt for choice, they will no longer settle for mere satisfaction. They want to feel the excitement and pleasure with the services they are getting. Persuading and enticing consumers to shop at one's store is also harder than ever. Today's consumers have moved away from being a simple purchaser of preferred brands at a local store. They have to make choices about dozens of issues unknown to yesterday's consumers: the type of outlet they prefer, what promotions and specials they choose to respond to, how much time they can afford to allocate to shopping. In short, purchasing is increasingly based around the perception of the "total shopping environment". In this environment, retailers need better marketing information on customers in order to position their stores to meet the needs of increasingly demanding and astute shoppers. Understanding COPYRIGHT @ UiTM the factors that shape shopping behavior is a key element in designing strategies for the future and planning tactics for the present. Retailers and other consumer service businesses are continually compelled to make decisions directly towards meeting the varying and changing demands of prospective customers. The more nearly a store's products and services offering meet customers' expectations, the more likely the store will induce customers to become regular patrons. Retailers must also examine and understand the attributes or store characteristics that are most critical in influencing patronage patterns. For all the reasons mentioned above, we decided to carry out an attitudinal study of the PERNAMA supermarket at Terendak Camp, Melaka. Prediction of individual preference is a difficult and elusive task; it is an important task, however, since it represents a fundamental step in understanding consumer choice. Ideally, it would have been desirable to study the relationship between attitudes and purchasing behavior, but this posed methodological and financial difficulties. However, we believe our direct approach provides initial understanding of the respondents' attitudes. This study is to investigate the overall attitude of the Terendak Camp's residents, civilians working in the camp and students of the MARA Junior College towards PERNAMA supermarket at the Terendak Camp Commercial Complex. highly depends and focus on the residents of PERNAMA management to gauge their Since PERNAMA supermarket Terendak Camp, it is imperative for the target customers' overall attitudes towards the supermarket. 2 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY 1.2.1 Perbadanan Perwira Niaga Malaysia (PERNAMA) PERNAMA (Armed Forces Trading Corporation of Malaysia) is the Armed Forces Fund Board's wholly-owned corporation established in 1983. It runs a network of retail outlets primarily for military personnels at army camps nationwide. PERNAMA retail outlets sell consumer and some duty free products to members of the Armed Forces and their families at 66 outlets. PERNAMA took over the entire NAAFI (Navy, Army and Airforce Institute) 35 outlets in July 1983 by virtue of Section 23 of the Tabung Angkatan Tentera Act 1973, to carry out business activities relating to retail, wholesale, distribution and import-export, hire purchase of goods and provision of management services. As at March 1996, PERNAMA already have 69 outlets which includes 2 duty free outlets at the Terminal one Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Airport and Langkawi International Airport. PERNAMA also venture into services retailing by opening 2 restaurants at the TUDM Subang and Terendak Camp, Melaka. 1.2.2 PERNAMA's Mission Statement PERNAMA's mission is to provide a high quality service to the Armed Forces and their families alike by establishing a network of retail outlets at army camps nationwide at reasonable and controlled prices on the basis of credible and excellent management and proactive towards its direct and indirect action of its environment. PERNAMA's motto, "Setia Bersama Anda" manifested to assist them in achieving their mission. 3 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 1.2.3 Shop Categories The shops are being classified into various categories (A, B, C, D and E). Classifications are based on the shops' sizes, amount of sales, number of staffs and future potentials. The shop categorisation is depicted in Appendix 1. Terendak Camp PERNAMA's outlet fall under the supermarket category E. 1.2.4 Merchandise Range The initial stage of PERNAMA strategy was to emphasize and concentrate on the consumer products that government offered for duty free priviledges. The duty free consumer products are divided into two categories:- a. Imported items : exemption from customs duty and sales tax. b. Local manufactured items : exemption from excise duty and sales tax. 1.2.5 Organizational Structure To adapt to the environmental changes and to implement the strategies effectively, PERNAMA has revamped its organization structure in 1996 (see Appendix 2). PERNAMA's organization is divided into four major divisions, namely: a. Operation Division: The operation division is made up of four key departments to support the company's core business that involve retailing and new business venture, that is; i) Operations Administration/Development: The main task of the operations administration is to coordinate and support field operations to ensure the orderly 4 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM implementation of the strategies and decisions made by the management committee. The main task for the operation development is to administer and coordinate the work for the rehabilitation of existing shops, outdoor sales activities, the shop's computerization project and reviewing existing businesses. ii) Duty Free Shop Operation: Responsible for the operations at the airport duty free shops. iii) Food and Beverage Operations: A new business that will support the operation of the PERNAMA's traditional retail and shopping complex. iv) Field Operations: There are currently 66 shops at various locations to provide services and goods to the military personnels and their families and some of PERNAMA shops are also open to members of the public. b. Central Purchase Division: PERNAMA's central purchasing division are divided into three corporate level specialists to deal with the purchasing of sundries items, electrical appliances, sports and durable goods. c. Finance Department / Management Information System: This department is mainly concerned with the managing of the KASUMA debtors and the installation of the shopping system (Point of Sales and Back Office System) to improve services. 5 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM d. Corporate Planning Division: This division is created to monitor at the functional area of warehousing and distribution, personnel services, training and development and marketing services. 1.3 BACKGROUND OF THE TERENDAK CAMP'S PERNAMA OUTLET With the withdrawal of the British Government, Terendak Camp was officially handed over to the government of Malaysia on the 28th of March, 1970. The original name of this camp was "Fort George" which was later changed to Terendak Camp. The camp is located about 30 kilometers from the Melaka Historical City. Changes in customers' preferences, social mobility, social attitudes and resilience economics enjoyed by Malaysia in the nineties indirectly forces existing PERNAMA to change. The existing PERNAMA and the surrounding shops have been converted into a new PERNAMA commercial complex within the military environment. Terendak Arcade or Laman Niaga in Terendak Camp, is a renovation and refurbishment of the existing PERNAMA and its surrounding shops. There are supermarket, food court, children and adult entertainment center in this commercial complex. The PERNAMA new supermarket was officially opened on the 11th of March, 1996. The organisational structure of the supermarket is depicted in Appendix 3. As at 1995 statistics, there are about 21,893 residents of the Terendak Camp (refer to Appendix 4). The population of Terendak Camp is substantial enough to create a captive market for the PERNAMA supermarket. 6 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 1.4 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Attitude plays a vital role in influencing everyone's life. It affects the ways in which individuals judge and react towards others, objects, situations and events. The topic of attitude has been one of the most important subject of study in the field of consumers' behavior. Widespread research to investigate the formation of attitude, influence of attitude towards behavior and influence of behavior towards attitude have been reported in the seventies. Attitude research laid a foundation for developing and designing the positioning of new products, repositioning of existing products, creating advertising campaigns and predicting brand preferences, store patronage preferences, store image as well as general purchase behavior. 1.4.1 What is attitude? The word "attitude" comes from the Latin term aptus, which means "fitness" or "adaptedness". By the eighteenth century the expression had come to refer to bodily posture, and to this day the word "attitude" can mean something's general physical orientation with respect to something else. Late in the eighteenth century, Charles Darwin used the word in a biological sense as a physical expression of an emotion. Indeed, well into the twentieth century, researchers tend to link attitude with the physiological tendencies to approach or avoid something. Over the past 30 years the definition of attitude varies, complex and sometimes confusing. Social psychologists do not agree on the precise definitions of the concept. In 1935, Allport viewed attitude as "learned predisposition to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way". Markin (1969) has described attitude as a mental set or proclivity to respond in a certain way when the appropriate situation occurs. Lunn (1971) on the other hand asserted that attitude is generally held to structure the way in 7 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM which individuals perceive their environment and to guide the ways in which they respond to it. Thurstone defined an attitude as " the amount of affection or feeling for or against a stimulus". Attitude on feeling or an evaluative reaction to object perspective states that an attitude is how positive or negative, favorable or unfavorable, or pro or con a person feels towards an object. Attitudes are characterized as a predisposition or state of readiness to act or react in a particular way to a certain stimuli. Nevertheless, there are disagreements among researchers about the precise nature of attitude, however many agree that attitudes are relatively enduring in nature, in which consequently could influence individuals to make specific responses. Krech et al. (1962) defined attitude as "an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual, and cognitive process with respect to some aspect of the individual's world". This definition view attitude as being made up of three components: (1) the cognitive or knowledge component, (2) the affective or emotional component, and (3) the conative or behavioral-tendency component. More recently, theories have contributed to a new definition of attitude which has generated enormous research and has been useful in predicting behavior. This definition explicitly spelt out attitude as being multidimensional in nature, as opposed to the unidimensional mentioned by former definitions. According to these views, a person's overall attitude towards an object is seen to be a function of (1) the strength of each of a number or belief the person holds about various attributes or characteristics of the object , and (2) the evaluation he gives to each belief as it relates to the object. This last definition has considerable appeal and popularity because it has shown that consumers perceive a product or an object as having several attributes or characteristics, and they form a belief about each of these attributes or characteristics. 8 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 1.5 PROBLEM STATEMENT PERNAMA's Terendak Camp outlet's sales has been improving favorably since 1995, but the overall 1996 total sales of PERNAMA has experienced a drop of approximately 3.6 percent from the 1995 figure. The government's new policy of shrinking the number of armed forces to only 75,000 business. military personnels, indirectly have a detrimental effect on PERNAMA's The ability of PERNAMA to increase sales is restrained due to this new government's policy, as their target market is declining. Most of the PERNAMA's outlets are located in the military camps throughout Malaysia, therefore their target market are those residents of the military camps. Even though the Terendak Camp's residents are the capture market for PERNAMA but, not all prefer to shop at this outlet. This phenomenon is probably due to the mushrooming numbers of supermarkets, discount stores and mini markets sprouting near the Terendak Camp and the Melaka City. PERNAMA inevitably lose their sales to these aggressive competitors. The residents of Terendak camp are attracted to patronize merchandise varieties and assortments offered at these stores because of the wide very competitive prices as well as the exciting shopping environment. Retailing is a highly competitive and aggresive business; new players have to ensure that customers are drawn to their outlets while the existing player must retain their regular customers and attract new ones. The extent to which competing retailers are able to maintain their market positions depends upon the degree to which retail management can creatively adapt their operations to the changing consumers' attitudes. The ultimate survivors in the long term will be those who succeed in retaining their current customers. Analysts Bain and Company highlighted that, " a 5 percent increase in customer retention can improve profits by 25 percent a year". 9 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM An effective marketing strategy have to be formulated, designed and developed by PERNAMA to win back the losing market share, subsequently this could ensure that the customers will not only come back for more, but will also become loyal patrons to PERNAMA supermarket. 1.6 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY For the purpose of this study, a few objectives have been established: 1. To investigate the overall attitude of the Terendak Camp's residents toward PERNAMA supermarket. 2. To identify patronage frequency visits to PERNAMA supermarket based on demographic profiles. 3. To ascertain the attributes of a supermarket perceived as the most important and the least important in store selection. 4. To identify the attributes deemed most important in influencing patronage decision to PERNAMA Supermarket. 5. To determine any significant factors that contribute to the failure of PERNAMA to capture a greater market share. 6. To gauge the Terendak Camp residents' dissatisfactions toward PERNAMA supermarket. It is hoped that this research would later provide PERNAMA's management with valuable insights into their customers' attitudes and perceptions and will enable them to develope effective marketing strategies. It is imperative for the company to identify their customer's needs and wants and to delight their target consumers with total customers satisfaction in every aspect. 10 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY This attitudinal study only focused on Terendak Camp residents' attitudes toward the newly renovated and refurbished PERNAMA supermarket. Issues that the researchers would like to address in the study are: i. Factors that influenced the patronage frequency to a supermarket. Through research experiences, ten salient attributes have been included in the instrument. ii. Factors that influenced the patronage frequency to PERNAMA supermarket. Nine salient attributes have been predetermined. iii. Shopping trips frequency for groceries and to PERNAMA supermarket. iv. Opinions and comments by the respondents who do not frequent PERNAMA Supermarket within a four-week period.. v. Using Multiattribute Attitude Model analysis and contigency tables analysis to derive at findings. 1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The two problems that we encountered were: 1) Time constraint: Due to a tight financial budget, researchers were given three days to complete the field work. Interviewers have to obtain at least 100 respondents per day within a widely dispersed residents' blocks. 2) Respondent's Attitude: Some respondents refuse and reluctant to entertain interviewers' requests to complete the questionaires. A number of respondents obviously were not serious in answering the questions. 11 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM 1.9 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1.9.1 Data collection The research was conducted through the collection of: 1) Secondary data : This method is used to obtain as much literature as possible on attitude and multiattribute attitude model. Secondary source of data includes information on the background of PERNAMA and the current retail industry situation in Malaysia. 2) Primary data: The method of obtaining the primary data is through a consumer survey. The instrument used in this survey is a structured questionaire. 1.9.2 Questionaire design A questionaire, the most common instrument in collecting primary data was administered by the researchers. Prior to the field survey, the survey instrument was pretested on 100 respondents selected through store interception based on convenience sampling. The pretest results were used to further refine and reword the statements and add additional salient attributes deemed important to the respondents. The language used was also changed to Bahasa Melayu because of the problems encountered during the pilot survey. The developed instrument consists of four sections. The first section are questions based on the respondents' opinions of attributes of a good supermarket. This section is the evaluative (e/ ) component of the multiattribute model. Using a ten-point Likert scale, respondents are required to indicate a degree of agreement and disagreement with each of a series of statements about the object. To conduct the analysis, each scale is assigned a 12 COPYRIGHT @ UiTM