Globalization, Urbanization and Food
Choice in China
A project by
Yulia Viktorovna Tyurenkova and Min Song
Supervisor: Peter Kvistgaard
Culture, Communication and Globalization
Aalborg University
December. 2011
I
Content
Globalization, Urbanization and Food Choice in China ...................................................................................... I
1)
Introduction and problem formulation ..................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Problem formulation ............................................................................................................................... 3
2)
Methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 4
2.1 Definition of convenience food ............................................................................................................... 4
2.1.1 The traditional and Chinese definition ............................................................................................. 4
2.1.2 Time is the central ingredient, but also income ............................................................................... 4
2.2 Methodological process .......................................................................................................................... 6
2.2.1 The interviews .................................................................................................................................. 7
2.2.2 Method in analysis............................................................................................................................ 8
2.2.3 Limitations ........................................................................................................................................ 8
3)
Theoretical considerations ........................................................................................................................ 9
3.1 Which factors affect the food choice (in general) ................................................................................... 9
3.1.1 The sociology view .......................................................................................................................... 10
3.1.1.1 Prior experience, exposure and food neophobia ........................................................................ 11
3.1.1.2 Habitual behavior ........................................................................................................................ 12
3.1.1.3 Involvement ................................................................................................................................. 12
3.1.1.4 Perception, ethnicity and variety ................................................................................................ 12
3.1.1.5 Affect (degree of liking of a food)................................................................................................ 13
3.1.1.6 Cognitive information: menus, packages and signs .................................................................... 13
3.1.1.7 Appropriateness of the eating environment ............................................................................... 13
3.1.1.8 Location of food........................................................................................................................... 14
3.1.1.9 Social facilitation.......................................................................................................................... 14
3.1.2 The income view ............................................................................................................................. 15
3.1.3 The disposal of food ....................................................................................................................... 16
3.2 Which factors affects the convenience food choice in china? .............................................................. 16
3.3 How has globalization/urbanization affected the convenience food choice in China .......................... 20
3.3.1 What is globalization? .................................................................................................................... 20
3.3.2 What is urbanization? ..................................................................................................................... 20
II
3.3.3 The effect of globalization and urbanization on the convenience food choice ............................. 21
3.4 How has the demand of convenience food in china developed/changed over the last years ............. 24
3.4.1 International supermarkets made their presence ......................................................................... 24
3.4.2 The 24-7 chains has also arrived .................................................................................................... 26
3.4.3 Fast food restaurants/products has exploded, with the international chains leading the way .... 27
3.4.4 Medium to upscale restaurants is very popular among young people .......................................... 27
3.4.5 Convenience comes at a price. ....................................................................................................... 28
4)
Analysis of interviews .............................................................................................................................. 30
4.1 Brief overview of analysis ...................................................................................................................... 30
4.1.1 The sociology view .......................................................................................................................... 30
4.1.1.1 Prior experience, exposure and food neophobia ........................................................................ 30
4.1.1.2 Habitual behavior ........................................................................................................................ 31
4.1.1.3 Involvement ................................................................................................................................. 33
4.1.1.4 Variety ......................................................................................................................................... 35
4.1.1.5 Affect (degree of liking of a food)................................................................................................ 36
4.1.1.6 Cognitive information .................................................................................................................. 37
4.1.1.7 Appropriateness of the eating environment ............................................................................... 38
4.1.1.8 Location of food........................................................................................................................... 38
4.1.1.9 Social facilitation.......................................................................................................................... 40
4.1.2 The income view ............................................................................................................................. 41
4.1.3 Disposal of food .............................................................................................................................. 43
4.2 Which factors affect the convenience food choice in china ................................................................. 43
4.3 How has globalization/urbanization affected the convenience food choice in China .......................... 47
5)
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 51
5.1 The mix of rising income and increased product offerings ................................................................... 51
5.2 Critical assessment ................................................................................................................................ 53
6)
Perspectives ............................................................................................................................................. 55
7)
Reference list ........................................................................................................................................... 56
8)
Appendix ........................................................................................................................................ CD-ROM
Responsibility for chapters:
Mutual: Chapters 1,2,4,5,6
Yulia Tyurenkova: Chapter 3
Min Song: Interviews
III
1) Introduction and problem formulation
1.1 Introduction
China is developing rapidly in these years, which certainly also goes for the consumption of food. As the
growth of the Chinese economy has increased the income level for millions of Chinese, their spending
ability do not only mean, that many can now buy a car or a flat screen TV, but they can also spend more on
convenience, hereby food. From outside we can see the traditional farming country being turned into one
of the leading industrial countries in the world. Already today China is acknowledged as one of the
locomotives in the world economy, together with traditional economic powers like the US etc. Over the last
30 years the everyday life of many Chinese people has changed. It is often said, that the Chinese workforce
will work hard and work many hours, when they today fulfill their jobs within production, technology,
service or some other job. In this respect the variety of jobs has shifted in China, where many people in
China today have jobs, that maybe are more time consuming, but at the same also do not burn as many
calories as traditional rural work would do. Today many Chinese can and will take advantage of
convenience food offers, and many times food products, that are more rich on sugar and fat, than the
traditional Chinese cuisine. But let us step back in time.
From the 1950`s through the 1970`s the Chinese government entities produced, distributed, and sold
nearly all agricultural commodities. At the same time China was in many ways a closed country, which did
not import a lot of products, hereunder food. Also the affordability of Chinese was relative low (it still is
today compared to for example citizens from Western countries, but gaining). In the early 1980`s, there
was little value-added in the country’s food system. Processed foods were still limited, as most households
prepared meals from rice, noodles and meat, meaning that meals was mainly prepared from raw
ingredients. Service and hygiene in food retail outlets were also poor, while food distribution systems were
inefficient/not so good. Following the implementation of economic reforms in the late 1970`s, food
marketing was actually one of the first sectors in China to be privatized and directed by markets. Producers
were permitted to sell grain, produce meat to consumers in urban farmers’ markets. Small food stores,
kiosks, and restaurants sprang up, and by the late 1980`s, department stores were offering large food
sections. Food processing output value in China reportedly grew at a 14% annual rate through the 1980`s
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and 1990`s (China Food and Agricultural Services). This growing trend away-from home food spending was
15% of urban food expenditures in 2000, which was a considerable increase from very small amounts in the
1980`s (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2002, p. 3). Convenience food became widely available in the 90`s
in China.
Well, not only the landscape for food is changing, you could postulate that all aspects of China are
changing. As we write this project globalization and urbanization is continuing to take footsteps in China.
Today globalization is also used together with “marketization” to truly express the changes that are going
on in the Chinese landscape and cities (Wu, 2006 p. 2). The economic reforms and China joining the World
Trade Organization made China a target for foreign Investors. Going back to 1984, investments in 14 coastal
cities was made possible, which promoted investments in urban development. Today Beijing has become
one of the financial power centers in the world, where some believe it will overtake Hong Kong soon (Cook,
2006, p. 73). Today Oriental Plaza is the largest shopping center in Asia, where the new and growing
middleclass of China will spend some of their money. Back in 2008 we saw Beijing and China host the
Olympics. All these things are signs of a new and global China.
China`s population are huge and thereby also their labor force. Today millions of new jobs have been
created as a part of the economic/industrial revolution that has taken place. Even though that the Chinese
salaries are increasing with up to 15- 20% per year (BCG, 2011), the hourly wage are still quit low compared
to for example the Western world. Both Western and Chinese companies know this, and today tons of
products within all sorts of categories are being produced and exported to the global market. This increase
in manufacturing and production has been one of the main pillars in people moving to the bigger cities, as
these are the centers of business and production.
China`s history and culture are long and plentiful with strong traditions. However, even though China has
more than 1bn people, the world is coming together through communication and media, where the
internet and other media has been and are a critical factor. At the same time peoples education levels are
rising, which sometimes are major contributors, when challenging traditions. In this project we will look at
how globalization and the urbanization have and are affecting peoples convenience food choices in China.
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1.2 Problem formulation
Are globalization and urbanization affecting the food choices of people in China?
In specific we will look at the consumption of convenience food in China. We have identified 3 research
questions (A-C) to be answered for us to be successful in answering our question.
The questions are:
A) Which factors affect the food choice (in general)?
B) Which factors affects the convenience food choice in china?
C) How has globalization/urbanization affected the convenience food choice in China?
D) How has the demand of convenience food in china developed/changed over the last years.
The question will be considered in our theoretically chapters 3.1 –3.3. Chapter 3.4 will describe the
development in demand for convenience food products in China. In chapters 4.1 – 4.3 we will analyze our
theory assumptions through our interviews.
The questions are related and the structure follows a natural order. Just following we will define
convenience food, as this is the central part of our project. It is a broad term that covers both types of food
as well as preparation and serving. After this our methodology will follow.
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2) Methodology
In the following we will start by introducing the definition of convenience food, and then the method used
to examine our problem will follow.
2.1 Definition of convenience food
2.1.1 The traditional and Chinese definition
In order to define convenience food precisely, we need to know what convenience is. Convenience is
associated with reducing the input required from consumers in either food shopping, preparation, cooking
or cleaning after the meal (IGD, 2002). Input referred to in this definition can be time, manual labor or
mental effort. Convenience food can be defined as all products, which have undergone some secondary
processing including ready meals, processed meats, pizzas, pies, savory products, ice-cream and
confectionery products, dairy desserts, soups and other prepared consumer ready products according to
Forbairt (Forbairt, cited in Boer, McCarthy, 1998, p. 61).
Traditional there are a distinct difference between the Asian/Chinese eating culture, and the Western
eating culture. As we will see later in our project, one of the developments from globalization, has been the
introduction of Western type of convenience food in China.
A more specific Chinese definition of
convenience food can be classified into four types of food, which is ready-made food, frozen food, Dried or
powdery convenience food and canned food. Among them, ready-made food like pastry, bread
(traditionally Western bread), Chinese steamed bread, clay oven rolls, fried bread sticks and dumplings can
be eaten directly. Normally they have a short shelf life. Dried or powdery convenience food, like rice and
noodles, instant drinks and milk powder are instantly eaten/drunken by adding water (Liu Wang, Wang,
2007, p. 132). The latter types of convenience food contains additives and preservatives, whereby they
usually have a long shelf life, that can last from 1-2 months to 1 year or even longer.
2.1.2 Time is the central ingredient, but also income
The core subject of the whole concept of convenience food is time. The way people are using their time can
result in more or less consumption of convenience products (Marshall, 1995, p. 163), where the following
changes are important.
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
Changes in consumption (for example, more fast food will be consumed, because more people are
living alone, which results in less cooking – the function of the meal as a social gathering also losses
its effect etc.).

Changes in patterns of behavior, specific to particular categories of people (for example, young
people will eat less meat than in the past, where meat is the important ingredient in the main or
formal meals).

Changes in the “sort of people” recruited into the category (more single parents amongst employed
women - increased use of children’s convenience food etc.)
At the same time the explanation of why convenience food is getting so popular, even though most people
regard it as unhealthy, may lie in the fact, that there is less time available (Marshall, 1995, p. 163). However,
it would be wrong to explain the consumption of convenience food only from the point of view that it saves
time. Another factor that affects consumption of such food is changes in the balance of the population and
their income level. To quote Marshall in his book “those whose time is not spent in the workforce, can be
said to have foregone opportunities to earn money, according to the wage rates they command, or their
potential, based on qualifications, experience, etc” (Marshall, 1995, p. 168). “Where married women were
full-time home workers, a calculation of the value of their time based on their potential earnings in the
labor force revealed, that the higher that value, the more each household spent on convenience food”
(Marshall, 1995, p. 168). Some convenience food will be regarded as inconvenient because of cultural
specifics, related to the conventions of taste and habits/customs (Marshall, 1995, p. 168). In one study
mentioned by Marshall, salary level was positively related with the level of consumption of convenience
food. The higher the salary/income, as more convenience food would be consumed. This also makes
intuitive sense. Moral aspects of using convenience food is one of the issues faced by the consumer. Many
consumers believe, that convenience food is unhealthy, where fast food are made from “rubbish” or
inferior ingredients, or it is full of additives and preservatives (Marshall, 1995, p. 154). Even though people
consuming convenience food think that they save time, that is not necessary so. The use of processed food
could be due to the fact, that some consumers do not possess the required skills to prepare a meal.
Therefore, the term “convenience” is more complex, and it is not only about saving time or the income
level, but also about the capacity of the consumers to use the resources.
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2.2 Methodological process
We use a deductive process aiming at investigating, how globalization/urbanization has affected the
convenience food choice in China. We will start by examining which factors, that could influence the food
choice (in general) and which factors besides globalization and urbanization that has affected the
convenience food choice in China.
The research strategy of the study is interpretivism, from which the analysis of the data collected from the
interviews is interpreted according to the social world of the participants (Bryman, 2008, p. 366). The
researcher’s task is to reach people’s “common-sense thinking” (Bryman, 2008, p. 16), and interpret their
actions and social world from their point of view. We will employ a so-called hermeneuticphenomenological tradition (epistemological approach). Therefore, we will adopt interpretivism in our
project, where we will give interpretation of the interviewee’s interpretations. Finally, we will interpret the
interview answers in terms of the concepts and theories, which we are using in our study (globalizations,
urbanization, food choice, convenience food). Thus, as researchers we would have to put our
interpretations into a social scientific frame, by relating the interviewee’s answers to the theory on food
choice in general and on convenience food choice in particular.
To achieve the aims mentioned above, we have chosen two specific areas, Beijing and Taigu, which
represent an urban and a rural region. They have different characteristics. Beijing, the capital of China, is
the center of politics, culture and international communication. Beijing has a population of 19.612mm
(National bureau of statistics of china, 2011). While Taigu, which is located in the center of the Shanxi
province (an inland and a less developed area), is a typical agricultural county in China, with a population of
298m (National bureau of statistics of Taigu, 2011). The food consumption expenditure per capita in the
urban residence of Beijing increased from 211 RMB (Chinese currency unit) in 1978 to 4934 RMB in 2007
(Gov.cn, 2009). At the same time, the comparable figure for Taigu was 1322,65 RMB in 2010 (drcnet.com,
2011), which is a big difference. By interviewing in a rural and an urban area, we will be able to observe
differences, that could tell or indicate to us, how globalization and urbanization affects people in their
convenience food choice.
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The research method of this project is based on structured interviews, while the research design is a crosscultural design. We adopt a qualitative method rather than a quantitative method, which mainly comes
down to two reasons. First of all, the number of the interviewees we have is not enough to do hardcore
statistics. However 6 households are enough to understand, what makes people change their food choices,
especially when it comes to the food perception and attitudes. We believe that a qualitative method is the
best way to explain the convenience food choice by Chinese people as there are significant food culture
differences between the East and the West (China and the Western world).
2.2.1 The interviews
As mentioned just above we use structured interviews. First, two specific areas in China were chosen,
Beijing and Taigu respectively. The choice of interviews was designed to maximize the variety of answers
given by interviewees. The interviewees were selected purposively rather than randomly. The main
interviewee is the person, who is in charge of cooking and shopping, but we will also interview the other
persons in the household. The purpose of the complementary interviewees is to understand how the family
members can affect each other´s food choice. However, they are interviewed separately in case of affecting
each other’s answers. The reason why we choose three families, but not three individuals from one area is
that, “an investigator can only obtain any reasonable understanding of this environment, and thus of local
behaviors and beliefs, by including whole household units within the data collection“(Macbeth, MacClancy,
2004, p.44). The three families from Beijing and Taigu are categorized into three generations - youth,
middle-age and senior. We have chosen different types of households, such as singles, couples living with
children and without children in order to reflect the diversity of the population in our study. Most of the
interviewees are female due to the commonness, that it is mostly the women, which are responsible for
cooking and providing of food. Therefore, we decided to maintain the imbalance of gender in our
interviews. The recruiting process of these Chinese families was done in Aalborg. They were found based on
personal contacts from one of the investigator’s families or friends. The interviews were conducted via
Skype, an online video chat software. The interview questions were based on theory, and have been
formulated in a way, that would help us to obtain the most precise information regarding the effects of
globalization/urbanization on the convenience food choices. The interviews were conducted in Chinese, as
our interviewees do not speak English (most Chinese do not speak English). All the interviews were
recorded, transcribed and then translated from Chinese into English.
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2.2.2 Method in analysis
We use an analytic induction as a general strategy of qualitative data analysis. We start by defining our
research questions, and then give hypothetical explanation on which factors affect the convenience food
choice in general. We build it from basic factors that affect the individual’s food choice to how the
urbanization/globalization has affected the food choice. Following this we examine these factors through
our analysis leading up to the analysis of how globalization/urbanization has affected people’s food choices.
2.2.3 Limitations
This study is limited to a qualitative research project without quantitative analysis (we do include a couple
of tables). Only six households from two areas were selected for analysis, but it is still possible to see food
choice patterns within the limited amount of interviewees.
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3) Theoretical considerations
In the following we will see from theory and a study conducted in Nanjing, which factors could potentially
affect the Chinese`s consumption of convenience food, and how globalization and urbanization has
affected this consumption/choice.
3.1 Which factors affect the food choice (in general)
The factors influencing the food choice are categorized as those related to the food, to the person making
the choice, and to the external economic and social environment in which the choice is made. It is
considered that the chemical and physical properties of the food will be perceived by the individual in
terms of what can be called sensory attributes, like flavor, texture or the foods appearance. However,
perceiving these sensory attributes in the food does not necessarily mean, that an individual will or will not
choose to consume that food. It is the persons liking for that attribute in the specific food, which will be the
determining factor (Sheperd, 1999, p. 807).
A dimension that is the basic for the food choice will always be the possibility factor – a person living in a
deserted area with scarce opportunities will perhaps be limited in the choices compared to the person
living a big city.
In the following diagram we can see a possible picture of how people make their choices, with the sensory
interaction between the food, the person and the economic/social environment the person finds
him/herself in (Sheperd, 1999, p. 808).
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In the following sections we will look at different aspects/factors. We divide our theory in this part into 2
main pillars, the sociology view and the income view, where disposal of food follows as a third pillar
(smaller effect).
3.1.1 The sociology view
The surroundings and environment, where a person is located can affect the food choice more than the
persons actual food preference and taste. At the same time the surroundings in a globalized world are
changing in return, which surely also can be observed in China, even though China can still be identified
through specific characteristics (Guthrie, 2008, p. prologue). An example is in Shanghai, where the skyline is
dominated with cranes and Starbucks can be seen near the Forbidden City. Today more people will
consume their meals as they transport themselves to work or will take advantage of the still increasing
amount of offers in terms of convenience food, like for example fast food. However, today we also live in a
world where the global economy is not doing so well, which could have an influence going forward. Not to
mention the healthcare aspect, with the focus on lifestyle diseases.
Many of the earlier studies investigating food choice and food habits concentrated more on the food itself
like taste, ingredients, texture and package. It has been noted, that the consumers choice in the real world
10
is affected most significantly by the context of the situation in which the choice is being made, including the
person, the product and the physical environment. Persons will have different expectations for different
eating environments, their prior experience will differ for each eating environment, their habitual
experience may be present in some but not all of the environments, their level of attention paid to their
surroundings may differ, and even their mood at the time will differ.
Marshall indentified 13 factors that can affect the food choice (Marshall, 1995, pp. 294-307). He builds his
framework/theory on two models. One was developed by Randall and Sanjur in 1981 and the other by
Fishbein and Ajzen in 1975. We will use nine of these factors. To test the rest of the factors, we would have
to go to China in being able to study these factors. In the appendix you will find the four factors we have
left out.
The factors have the following headlines:
1) Prior experience, exposure and food neophobia
2) Habitual behavior
3) Involvement
4) Perception, ethnicity and variety
5) Affect (degree of liking of a food)
6) Cognitive information: menus, packages, signs
7) Appropriateness of the eating environment
8) Location of food
9) Social facilitation
The first five factors (highlighted in bold) are factors about, what the individual person will bring to the
eating environment, while the next 4 factors is about how external signals will influence the food choice.
Let us have a look at them.
3.1.1.1 Prior experience, exposure and food neophobia
The term food neophobia describes consumers reluctance to eat unfamiliar or unusual foods, due to the
risk of food poison. However, food neophobia can limit the variety of food the individual may consume to a
number of products he or she is familiar with, because the person accepts only certain tastes and smells.
Willingness is the key word here, once the border of trying a new food has been crossed, other mechanisms
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such as exposure, liking of the food, possible physiological effects, convenience and so on can influence the
further use of the food (Frewer, 2001, p. 161).
3.1.1.2 Habitual behavior
People are creatures of habit and most tend to buy certain food products, which they are familiar with,
where quality, price and taste is essential. In other words we can speak about food habits. Marshall has
defined 4 research perspectives regarding food habits (Frewer, 2001, p. 161). He looked at how do such
habits develop, how can habits be changed, are habits situation-dependent and do habits play a role in
affecting food provisioning in various eating entertainments. Different studies have been conducted, where
one study indicated strong barriers in terms of people changing their eating habits.
3.1.1.3 Involvement
The level of the consumer involvement can affect the behavior, in other words the more important a
particular food is for a person, the greater the involvement will be. Generally two types of products could
be distinguished in accordance with importance to the consumer: low-involvement and high-involvement
products. Low-involvement products are those, that are inexpensive and the person will use very limited
time in making the choice of buying or not buying. In addition, a mistake in making such a choice would not
mean that the person would suffer a big loss. High-involvement products, on the opposite, include a high
risk of making a wrong choice, such as buying a car and therefore could lead to a bigger loss. In this respect
involvement in its basic form considers the flexibility aspect in the food decision making process.
3.1.1.4 Perception, ethnicity and variety
Both perception, ethnicity and variety affect the food choice. They are basic factors in changing the
consumers behavior in consuming food. To affect this behavior, change the food choice, the food has to be
perceived by the consumer, where perceive means to understand. The consumers own culture and
ethnicity also have a great affect on a food choice. The idea is that even though somebody is born in India,
but moved to London and has lived there all their life, and still sees him or herself as Indian, the food
consumption patterns would be similar with Londoners rather than Indians who are still living in India
(Marshall 1995). Also a perceived amount of variety can also affect the food choice as consumers are
12
constantly seeking a variety in food available. It can be called “variety-seeking behavior” (Van Trijp’ 1996,
p.281). Later on in our analysis and interviews we will focus on the variety part, as the analysis of the ethnic
aspect in people’s food choice would involve the study of Chinese people living in for example Denmark or
Danish people living in China.
3.1.1.5 Affect (degree of liking of a food)
The most studied factor affecting peoples food choice is probably the most intuitive as well, taste. You
could describe it as the degree of liking of a food.
Now we will turn our attention to the external factors or environmental factors that affect the food choice.
3.1.1.6 Cognitive information: menus, packages and signs
When the consumer has to make a choice, he or she is often influenced by cognitive information. They will
find signs with sales, reduced prices, directions to a fast food restaurant etc. On the products themselves
there will be different labels with information, with the aim of catching the consumers eye. All these
“marketing/information” efforts can affect the consumers choice. Different studies have been conducted,
where one study showed that the country of origin was a driving factor, when the consumer had to choose
between products from different countries (Bell and Taub, unpublished, cited in Marshall, 1995, p. 299).
Another study with the aim to get people to eat healthier, examined the behavior of people standing in a
line in a company cafeteria, where people were handed a card, where they were educated in what was
healthy. It did change the choices of these people after some weeks. Other healthcare related studies has
shown the same.
3.1.1.7 Appropriateness of the eating environment
Appropriateness of the eating environment is the situational effect on food choice. According to this,
different foods are chosen partly because of if it is deemed suitable for a particular situation. Schultz
(Schultz, cited in Marshall, 1995, p. 301) was one of the researchers, who proposed the concept of
appropriateness, according to which the food choice is based on,
whether the particular food is
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appropriate in the eating environment or not. For example, “not everyone likes mashed potatoes equally,
but we are all more likely to agree, that it is not an appropriate food to eat while driving in a car” (Marshall,
1995, p.301). At the same time, the perception of what is appropriate for a given situation could be one of
the key factors affecting the food choice (Marshall, 1995, p.301). For example, eating a hamburger in a
“high class” restaurant is less appropriate compared to a pub. We can assume, that “by changing the
perception of the eating environments, we change what is deemed to be appropriate for that situation, and
we can ultimately change the behavior of the consumer” (Marshall, 1995, p.301). Moreover, the food
choice is more situational dependent rather than hedonically dependent.
3.1.1.8 Location of food
According to the theory, the more effort that has to be used in finding the food (or food products), the less
food would be chosen. Supermarkets has used these tactics to “encourage” the consumer to buy more,
than the consumer otherwise would do, by for example placing visible signs on the isle in the back of the
store, with a certain food product or category, so the consumer would see it, when the person would walk
in to the supermarket. Studies have shown that the visibility can greatly affect the consumers choices.
Meaning, that the person will buy something else or often more than is planned.
3.1.1.9 Social facilitation
The term social facilitation refers to a theory, where food choice, consumption and food intake depends on
the people that are present when eating. The theory suggests, that “the number of people with whom you
eat has significant effects on how much you eat, and, hence, may have an effect on what you choose”
(Marshall, 1995, p.301). Engell in his research in 1994 instructed a person, called the “confederate” to sit
together with another person at a table and just drink water(Engell, cited in Marshall 1995, p. 304). The
results showed that the “confederate” had an influence on water intake of the other person. The
experiment suggests, that social facilitation can affect our food choice and consumption, when dinning with
other people.
In the following section we will focus on the income dimension in peoples food choices.
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3.1.2 The income view
In classical economics consumer behavior can be explained in two ways. First, the consumer will seek to
maximize the utility or satisfaction with the amount of money the consumer can spend. This build upon the
idea, that the consumers choice is constrained by the consumers purchasing power. Second, non economic
factors like for example some of the ones discussed above plays a role (Frewer, 2001, p. 339).
The higher the income the less important the price is for the consumer. While the influence of noneconomic factors is growing in the Western world or among people with a high income/wealth, the price
on food still plays a very high role in the food choice being made by many people, like in China. However, it
is necessary to mention that price has a different influence on the food choice depending on whether it is
meat, fruits or bakery products. Thus when buying meat products, safety is far more important than price,
in other examples, like bread, taste and freshness plays a more important role studies shows (Ritson,
Petrovici, 2001, p. 342).
A study in the US back in 1985 found, that 97% in the variation of a demand for a food could be explained
by price movements (Frewer, 2001, p. 340).
In one study conducted in Eastern Europe in 1995, respondents had to rate the factors that influence their
food choice, such factors as "price" and "value for money" were far ahead of the "origin of the food" and
"brand" (freshness was rated as number one criteria in the food choice) (Frewer, 2001, p. 343).
Looking at household income (see income per capita in China just below), the relationship between the
food choice and income is known as "Engel's Law", which is named after the German statistician, who was
the first to extract this relationship. According to this law, when income rises, the share of the household
expenditure allocated to food declines (Frewer, 2001, p. 352). However, households with a higher income
tend to buy food with more calories, which are more expensive, while the households with low income buy
cheaper versions of the same product categories.
The price of the product has a direct effect on the food choice and purchase decision, as it can reflect the
product quality. In one of the studies on willingness to pay for high quality, the respondents said, that if the
price on sausages was too low, they would not buy it, because they would think, that the quality of the
product was directly linked to its price (Frewer, 2001, p. 355). Later in the project we describe how foreign
15
supermarkets have seen increasing sales in China not only because of variety etc. The food items in foreign
supermarkets (or foreign products), are sometime seen as more fresh and healthy by the consumers.
The price of food do play an important role, especially in developing countries. Chinas income per person is
rising fast in these years, however coming from a low level. In 1990 the average income (yearly) per capita
was US 350, while it increased to USD 2900 in urban areas in 2010 and USD 898 in rural areas in 2010
(China Daily, 2011).
3.1.3 The disposal of food
In determining your food choice, disposal of food plays a role, however a minor role in the total
consumption of food by a person. The move towards consumers using more processed and packaged food
products (convenience food), has alerted many observers, thinking about disposal as a problem (but more
from an environmental perspective) (Marshall, 1995, p. 314). However, the disposal of food also involves
other aspects affecting the consumers choice, when dealing with food. A research study conducted in
Newcastle, England, showed that people did not buy much fresh fish because they did not know, what do
with the leftovers. At the same time they preferred to buy frozen fish, because they then avoided the smell
from the fresh fish and the leftovers (Marshall, 1995, p. 317). Other stimuli, like vision, about disposal, can
play a role. What if you observe the disposal left behind a restaurant or discover, that the kitchen are very
dirty. The same goes for supermarkets etc. and for different products that affect your senses (Marshall,
1995, p. 319).
The disposal of food can affect the food choice.
3.2 Which factors affects the convenience food choice in china?
The world is changing! This statement can often be heard and seen. The rapid technological change with
the introduction of the internet has brought together people around the world. Suddenly the world has
become a lot smaller, and at the same time grown the basis for people to communicate, explore culture
and peoples lifestyle much closer than ever before. At the same time the political barriers between the east
and the west seems to be a distant memory as boundaries and borders are being broken down.
16
As part of China`s economic development urbanization and globalization plays a very important role.
Economic growth and urbanization are linked. In developing countries economic growth often implies the
conversion of rural land to urban uses (residential, commercial and industrial), as regional economies
transition from an agrarian-based economy to an urban economy based on industry and services (Irwin,
2004). At the same time China has experienced a very high growth rate, where peoples income has been
rising steadily (especially in the urban areas).
The consumption of convenience food in China is related to a faster pace of life and economic growth.
However, other factors rather than economic ones should not be ignored. Despite of rapid economic
growth and availability of convenience foods, not all Chinese people are enthusiastic about buying these
types of food. One particular explanation of this attitude is, that traditionally people in China prefer to buy
fresh food, that is coming directly from the farms as well as seasonal fruits and vegetables as they are
cheaper. These attitudes are especially strong in rural areas of China, where the standard of living is
relatively lower compared to the urban areas.
In the following sections we will focus on a study that was conducted by Ann Veeck and Alvin C. Burns
(2002) in Nanjing, which is the largest city in the Jiangsu province, with a population of 2.8mm,
Time was found to be one of the major factors affecting the food choice. As one of the respondents says,
“we would like to be able to use money to save time” (Veeck, 2005, p. 647). Many people in China are
finding themselves short of time, and those who can afford to buy time-saving food, such as convenience
food or services, are doing so in order to save time. Interviews with food retailers suggested, that the
demand for services that saves time for the consumer is getting higher, as the majority of people get more
and more busier at work.
One example is the sale of vegetables, where something simple like the sale of prepared and cleaned
vegetables has been introduced, and another example is restaurants starting to sell snacks, serving the
food from the front of the restaurant (just outside, by the door or by the windows). There is strong
evidence from a field study, that the busier and/or wealthier the consumer will be, as more tempted the
consumer will be in using convenience foods (Veeck, Burns 2002, 647). The study shows, that time is
something people can buy, and not only save. Moreover, in some of the interviews, that was conducted,
people mentioned, that if they had more money, they would “buy more time” (Veeck, Burns, 2002, p. 647).
17
The interviews also showed the willingness to pay extra for already cleaned and cut vegetables, as well as
for prepared food. One of the reasons being, that the tempo of life is getting higher, and people do not
have as much time to cook as they did before, especially those who are living in urban areas, where they
prefer to spend more time on themselves. On the contrary, people who have less money, but more free
time are more willing to spend time on cooking. One of the interviews, a laid-off factory worker, said that
he will not spent extra money on prepared vegetables in order to safe time, because he could easily do this
job in twenty minutes. This example shows that household incomes are one of the main economic factors
affecting the choice for convenience food.
Maybe this is here in the study conducted by Ann Veeck and Alvin C. Burns, that they could recognize
Engel`s law as described earlier.
However, an increase in income do not always mean, that people would be ready to pay extra money for
convenience, especially the older generation, which economically many times can adopt to a new
consumption patterns. They have become accustomed to their lifestyles, without restaurants and
convenience foods. As one of the people interviewed said, “many things were not available in the past and
old people still have their habits of making all their food from the bottom” (Veeck, Burns 2002, p. 648).
They are simple just not used to buy convenience food. As we wrote earlier, one of the factors Marshall see
as a determinant is habits. Habit is a part of every person, in all respects.
The example mentioned above suggests, that there are factors affecting the food choice rather than
economic ones. One of the non-economic factors that influence food choice of Chinese people is the
freshness of the food. For that reason some of the Chinese consumers would prefer to buy fresh food every
day. Meaning, vegetables that comes straight from the ground or meat, where the animal has just been
butchered. One of the explanations why Chinese people are so preoccupied with buying fresh food is, that
Chinese cooking traditions require fresh ingredients. Freshness is associated with good taste, nutrition and
safety. Later we will write about how the demand for convenience food has developed over the last years
in China, but one thing we have observed is that especially foreign super markets live up to this freshness
definition in the Chinese opinion. Some people in China also do not see dinner prepared from convenience
products as a “real” meal, because it do not taste the same as if it was cooked from the very bottom.
Some producers has experienced, that when they sell vegetables, which are clean /have been washed, the
consumer would sees this as a signal, that the vegetables in fact was not so fresh. Soil/dirt thereby
becomes the sign of freshness. Some of the respondents were unwilling to change their eating habits in
18
order to save time, however the exception could actually be when it came to pre-cleaned vegetables that
normally require a lot of time to clean at home.
The process of cooking food and eating together with the family has an important role in preserving
identities and relationships in China. That is why some Chinese people are very reluctant in changing their
food choices. Most of the consumers explain their food choices in terms of how these would benefit their
families, especially those who have children. As one of the respondents says “now that we have a child, we
buy fresh food, because we want our child to have a good nutrition” (Veeck, Burns, 2002, p. 650). In the
study it is interesting to note, that when it comes to traveling to another city or having guests, the people
interviewed are not so negative about convenience food, moreover, processed foods also seemed to be
frequently used to supplement meals that are served to guests. Some of the people interviewed, who at
the beginning of the interviews claimed to ‘‘never’’ use convenience food, later did say, that they could
include a dish or two that came from a package etc. as part of a meal prepared for guests. Several of the
informants mentioned, that when guests eat at their homes, “they might buy an already cooked duck or
chicken to supplement the home-cooked dishes” (Veeck, Burns, 2002, p. 650).
The results of the mentioned above study suggests, that the household’s income and time are indeed
important factors affecting the convenience food choice, but yet there are other factors that can play a
significant role as well. Other factors such as freshness of the food, preoccupation with family and eating
together have a high influence on Chinese consumers.
The factors identified here, which we will examine in our analysis is faster pace of life, economic growth
(household income), time, freshness and influence on the family.
In the following questions we will discuss how globalization and urbanization has affected the convenience
food choice in China. We will therefore also focus on the opening up of China for foreign suppliers and
vendors and the preference for Western style convenience, which can be observed especially in the urban
areas among young or younger people.
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3.3 How has globalization/urbanization affected the convenience food choice in China
3.3.1 What is globalization?
By searching you can see that the term was first used in a publication called “towards a new education”
from 1930. However, we found a quote from a speech given by Ambassador Zha Peixin at the Chinese
Economic Association Annual Conference in April 2003 (Chinese-embassy.org.uk, 2003).
“Globalization is the objective trend of economic development in the world today, featured by free flow
and optimized allocation of capital, technology, information and service in the global context. It is the
inevitable result of the development of productive forces and advances of science and technology,
especially the revolution of information technology since the 1980s and 1990s. As a result, economic
interdependence and interaction between countries are becoming ever stronger. In this massive tide of
economic globalization, no country can develop and prosper in isolation. China has learnt from history that
isolation leads to backwardness. Development, progress and prosperity can only be achieved through
opening up to and integrating with the outside world, through stepping up exchanges and cooperation with
other countries and letting people interact with people from outside China to learn. Therefore, we should
embrace and seize the opportunities presented by globalization and adopt reforms to keep up with the
steps of the changing world” (Chinese-embassy.org.uk, 2003).
China has created the door for the outside world to affect China`s culture and peoples habits.
3.3.2 What is urbanization?
Urbanization is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change (Wikipedia, 2011). People
are moving from land to cities as it is believed, that to increase your living standard, the best opportunities
for jobs etc. will be found in the cities, with business and capital being located in these areas. China has
taken this road.
All around the world we have seen urbanization take place, and especially in China, see the graph below
(Leto, n.d, slide 10.). We can see that until 2010 the urban percentage of the total population increased to
around 45%. This trend is expected to continue.
20
The urbanization process in China is structured. With structured we mean, that it is being driven by the
state through regional and local authorities. We know that rural areas are being transformed in to urban
areas, and we know that people are being relocated to urban areas as a part of Chinas economic
transformation. In the last years the urbanization has happened through a process, which could be called
“city-centering urbanization” (McGee, 2007, p. 6).
3.3.3 The effect of globalization and urbanization on the convenience food choice
Earlier we discussed from theory which factors is believed to affect the food choices of people. What we
found was, that the food choice is influenced by personal factors and environmental factors, hereunder
purchasing power of the individuals. External limitations like shortage of a specific food (dry season, natural
catastrophes etc.) or other chocks can of course alter the equation.
The changes in food consumption patterns are indirectly/directly also affected by demographic factors,
particularly lifestyle changes brought about by urbanization, away-from-home employment of women, and
increased levels of information. While income growth, which affects the purchasing power of consumers, is
one of the most important factors contributing to demand changes, urbanization has been equally
21
important in changing the composition of the food products being consumed. In the urban areas there are
often more offers in terms of convenience food, which offers a nice an practical way to save time, when
time is limited. A study from 2006 showed, that the average working hours per week in a Chinese industrial
company was 73 hours (Level works limited, 2006, p. 28)!.
Urbanization is accompanied by shifts in a broad basket of factors, such as access to mass media, modern
technologies related to work, leisure, transportation, and enhanced access to a variety of foods across all
seasons of the year. Many of these changes may be attributable as well to the increased flow of goods,
services, and information associated with globalization (Mendez, Popkin, 2004, p. 220). The
clustering/urbanization of populations in urban centers affects dietary patterns by changing the way people
interact with their environments, as well as by changing the environments themselves in ways, that
transform food production and distribution systems compatible with peoples lifestyles/needs. For example,
urban living is associated with occupational patterns less compatible with home food production and
consumption, and often with limited land availability for cultivation. Urbanization sees infrastructure being
improved and more resources, such as improved transportation and refrigeration systems. Today, in
developing countries undergoing rapid urbanization combined with globalization and urbanization, the
process includes changes in the socio-cultural environment, such as mass media marketing and the
widespread availability of less traditional foods, which play an important role in influencing tastes and
preferences. Growing foreign involvement via investments and introduction of foreign supermarket
chains/fast food restaurants has also affected the consumer, which may also influence consumer food
choices by offering greater variety, quality, convenience and competitive prices in high-value added foods,
in addition to perceived higher social desirability (status symbol). These changes in the food environment
are occurring at a rapid pace. For example in China, Western-style supermarkets are now found in smaller
cities and towns along the Eastern coast.
With the life style changes observed and greater spending power, the demand for convenience food has
increased a lot, see more on this in chapter 3.4. This is an effect that has also been seen in other countries
(Veeck, 2005, p. 458).
Urbanization and income growth are also associated with more household amenities that enable
consumers to purchase and store food products, as also noticed above. This seems strange to mention in
the Western world, but to have a refrigerator alters the choices of food you can storage. The already
22
prepared Chinese chicken salad you have just picked up in the supermarket can be kept for more days.
During the last years, the percentage of households possessing refrigerators increased significantly in most
developing countries, where China is highlighted in red. Similarly, the percentage of households owning
microwave ovens has been rising in China. See the following table (docstoc.com, 2010).
It can be seen that figures from 2008 shows that 55,6% of the households in China owned a refrigerator 3
years ago, but that was still a big increase from 43,8% in 2002. In terms of Microwave owns the number
had gone up to 26,9% in 2008 from 17,2% in 2002 We do not have the figures before 2002, but both
amenities have gone up a lot the last years.
The changes that have taken place in food consumption patterns and tastes in China over the last two
decades are plentiful. The most notable changes are increased consumption of dietary fat, including meats,
oils, dairy products, fruits and vegetables. However, in the examination of changing tastes and
consumption patterns in China, one change which has only been touched upon, is the increased
consumption of convenience foods in China, especially Western-style convenience foods, including meals
23
away from home and processed and pre-packaged products for home use. The increased consumption of
Western-style convenience foods in China, especially in urban centers, is likely the result of the
modernization of consumer preferences, where the consumption of imported foods, is viewed as a “sign”
of modern living, especially among young people. In other words “trendy”. It has been seen in other Asian
Countries, that the local population has taken the Westerns products and fitted/localized them, so they
match the local’s taste/needs. In China it can be observed, that a family can spend hours in a McDonald`s
restaurant, which is different from for example in the US, where people will eat fast and then leave. It is
believed that people in China see foreign brands as status symbols (Curtis, 2007, p. 3). With the rising
income and a growing middleclass people shop now for fun and joy, and not just because things are
needed. When it came to foreign convenience food in the form of snacks, a study showed that people
would spend 9% of their total grocery bill on snacks (snacks like popcorn, chocolate, candy, ice cream and
crackers), a quit high percentage (Curtis, 2007, p. 4).
As rural to urban movement continues in China, consumer preferences are likely to adjust simply due to the
increased availability of foods in urban market (Curtis, 2007, p. 2).
It seems like urbanization and globalization affects peoples food choices by offering more choices and also
convenience. The factors identified here, that we will look at in our analysis is the change in lifestyle, more
offers of convenience food products in urban areas versus rural areas and the offers and consumption of
Western style convenience food in the urban areas versus the rural areas.
3.4 How has the demand of convenience food in china developed/changed over the last years
3.4.1 International supermarkets made their presence
Many different suppliers have entered the food retail sector over the last years. From smaller private
companies, through state-run companies and their privatized spinoffs to foreign investors. China’s food
retail sector was transformed dramatically during the 1990`s by the rapid rise of supermarkets, including
large domestic chains, such as Lianhua, Hualian, and Nong-gong-shang. Several foreign supermarket
operators based in Japan, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong entered the Chinese market, but most pulled
out or reduced their presence, as they found it difficult to compete with domestic firms. However, when
China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 the market changed. Today giants like WalMart and Carrefour has solid presence and are continuing to open up new stores. France-based
24
supermarket chain Carrefour opened 30 stores in China in 2010, raising the number of China stores to 176.
US-based Wal-Mart opened 44 stores in China, bringing its total to 221, while UK retailer Tesco opened 21
stores leaving it with a total number of stores at 91. German chain Metro opened 48 stores (PacificEpoch,
2010).
Margins for retailers are many times thin. Most places the competition is very high and the variety
tremendous. This development can also be observed in China. Chinese consumers are very price sensitive,
but their spending powers are also increasing. The foreign supermarket chains, often with many years of
marketing experience in establishing supermarkets around the world has been successful in attracting the
Chinese with their convenience food.
The foreign supermarkets sometimes offer low prices and a big variety of goods and services under one
roof. They have extensive dry foods and frozen foods sections, fresh and frozen meat, seafood, prepared
foods and foodservice counters. They also include restaurants, fashion and sporting goods outlets, and
other specialty shops. You can call them hypermarkets. Many analysts/observers in China predicted, that
hypermarkets would not be a success because Chinese consumers seldom shop for large quantities of
goods and lack automobiles to carry home large purchases. However, hypermarkets won shoppers over by
offering convenience, comfort, and low prices (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2002, p. 4).
The following table shows the development in demand for certain food products. We can observe the
average annual growth rate over the time period 2003-2008. We can compare with the same figures for
other countries, see the following table (Euromonitor, 2009).
25
When we look at this table, we notice the growth of 43,8% in breakfast cereals in China (docstoc.com,
2010). This is average annual growth. The growth in ready meals is lower at 11,8%, but this is still a high
growth rate. In the time period 2000-2010 the total growth in the Chinese population was less than 10%
(Banister, 2010, p. 4).
With rising food prices, observed over the last couple of years, imported food products has actually
continued to grow because of a believe by the Chinese people, that imported food is of high quality, are
safe and nutritious.
3.4.2 The 24-7 chains has also arrived
In 2009 7-eleven opened four stores in China, starting out in Shanghai. Their plan is to reach 500 stores in
china before 2015. 7-eleven are regarded as the biggest convenience store brand in the world, but they
entered a market already very fragmented, with many other foreign brands like Circle K, Family Mart and
Lawson’s, as well as domestic competitors such as Kedi, Quik and Haode. To compete 7 – eleven are
26
offering hot food, and at the same time are bigger than comparable local convenience stores (U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 2011, p. 11).
3.4.3 Fast food restaurants/products has exploded, with the international chains leading the
way
Restaurants and fast food has seen a boom over the last years, where Western and Asian chains are
competing over the increasing demand for restaurant meals. According to an article published in Financial
Times (Financial Times, 2011) the people of china have more spending power, but they also have less time
to cook. This is the perfect recipe for growth of ready cooked meals. In urban China, high property prices,
long commutes, terrible working hours, a later marriage age and smaller families all add up to more fast
food. The food service industry has seen rapid growth since 2003, where multinational fast food chains like
KFC and McDonalds was some of the first foreign chains to arrive and now have a strong market presence.
At the time of the article been prepared, apparently KFC were opening one restaurant per day in China.
McDonald offers something in China, that is quite interesting, home delivery, according to the article.
Today they have around 2000 restaurants in China. But the local players are also starting to become more
competitive, where they are learning from the international chains. Some have attracted capital and are
starting to expand, while offering traditional Asian/Chinese food. In the article a local woman is also
quoted for saying that, the Chinese will always chose Chinese food if they were forced to chose. However, it
is also noticed, that the international chains will not go away again as they have claimed strong positions.
KFC have for example introduced breakfast dish with a local touch, that apparently is sold out most
mornings before 8am.
3.4.4 Medium to upscale restaurants is very popular among young people
Going out to eat has become more and more popular across China, especially in the big cities. Young
people, which often consume fast food or convenience food for breakfast or lunch, due to the faster pace
of life, also enjoys going out in the evening with their family, friend or business contacts etc. The hectic life
pace, higher living standards, increasing disposable income, as well as the fast development in the
restaurant sector have made dining in a restaurant an affordable social event. The demand of dining out
has also given rise to the development of Western style restaurants that serve as a good channel to
introduce foreign cuisine to many Chinese consumers (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2002, p. 10).
27
However, there has been signs that this development has peaked somewhat, because of rising prices on
food and health issues (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2011, p.2).
3.4.5 Convenience comes at a price.
The landscape for the Chinese people has opened up, with many foreign products coming to the market.
The Consumers’ pursuit of convenience is a contributing driver to boost the variety in processed food etc.
Ready meals, breakfast cereals, instant noodles, baked items has become increasingly popular. Retail chains
carry a wide range of convenient food varieties to satisfy this consumer demand. Public consciousness of
food safety has significantly increased. Incidents of food poisoning, food of poor quality, misuse of additives
in the food industry have commonly gained media exposure in recent years and damaged consumers’
confidence in food safety. No wonder, that consumers favor products supplied by reliable companies. The
government has strengthened surveillance and tightened punishment. This will put those food
manufacturers and processors operating at low levels in a disadvantageous position (Gale, 2002, p. 6). The
desire for Fast Food in China has consequences for the health. Not long ago it was rare to see overweight
Chinese people in the streets of big cities such as Beijing or Shanghai. This is no longer the case. Health
problems, such as diabetes, can be linked to the growth of the fast food industry. Zha Jian Bing, a
researcher in the Chinese Nutrition Society, says that “Western fast food has an impact on the lives of
Chinese people, because it is high in salt, in protein and has a lot of calories. In developing countries such as
China, fast food can cause numerous chronic illnesses such as heart disease, high cholesterol and diabetes”.
The opinion of Mr. Bing accords with an estimate of the World Health Organization (WHO), that states that
more than 30 percent of Chinese adults are now overweight. It is estimated that there are more than 92
million people (or just around 7 %!) who have diabetes in China -- more than any other country worldwide.
“To eat fast food once a month is OK” says Mr. Bing, “But there is a tendency for some people to eat fast
food frequently; a situation which has severe impacts on people’s health”.
We can understand why people in China are drawn into Western fast food chains. The food is not that
expensive and offers a refreshing change from the flavors/tastes of the local Chinese cuisine. At the same
time the food is often served in a more clean setting. The food is served quickly and efficiently, and is
adjusted to fit local tastes. Fast food is also eliminating some of the small, local restaurants. China must
educate people about fast food and the consequences of eating too much of it. Should it fail to do so, the
world might have to deal with yet another obese nation.
28
However, in the table below we can observe that the annual aggregate growth rate in convenient food was
very high between 2000 – 2005 (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2007, p. 7) for China. But also canned food
saw a high growth rate.
29
4) Analysis of interviews
4.1 Brief overview of analysis
In the following sections we will analyze our theory through the answers we got on our questions. The full
interviews is attached in the appendix. During the analysis we will refer to the answers that were given. The
order of the analysis will follow the theory on food choice as presented in chapter 3.1, the observations
made on the convenience food choice in chapter 3.2 and the effect of globalization/urbanization in chapter
3.3
4.1.1 The sociology view
4.1.1.1 Prior experience, exposure and food neophobia
It was argued that the consumer will be unwilling to eat new food, or food that the consumer is unfamiliar
with. The key question would then be if the person would be willing to cross the border in terms of trying
some new type of food, that otherwise could be regarded as not tasting good or having a bad smell etc. In
other words, would the person be willing to try for example different kinds of convenience food or other
types of food.
One of the questions we asked (our question 41) was for example, if the person interviewed had a
preference for traditional Chinese/Asian or Western type of convenience food. In 5 of the 6 interviews the
respondents preferred Chinese food because of reasons like, that the taste and flavor of Western food was
largely different from traditional Chinese convenience food, as one person noted. Another respondent also
commented on the taste and flavor by saying it was too sweet. One respondent, the young girl from the
urban area did notice, “I love the taste of Western food”. However, 3 of the 5 persons that had a
preference for Chinese type of convenience food did indicate, that they eat Western type of convenience
food from time to time.
We also asked the question if the person would easily include new types of convenience food when putting
together a dish or menu like for example frozen vegetables or precooked food (our question 58). The
answers were in general negative as one respondent noticed, “Not that easy, there’s no sense for eating
30
these new types of convenience food”. And when it came to answering specific on frozen vegetables one
respondent answered, “I prefer to eat fresh vegetables. It is not difficult to cut them into pieces and fry
them. Moreover, I don’t know how they process these foods, are they clean and fresh or not?”
Another question we asked, was if the respondents could see a change in the eating habits or choice of
convenience food compared to 5-10 years ago (question 61). Mostly we got the answers, that a change in
the consumption of convenience food could be observed. As the woman from the middle aged couple in
the rural area noticed, “we eat more than we did 5 or 10 years ago. I was young and not skilled on cooking,
and I needed to take care of our child, time was tight. We eat instant noodles quite often. And convenience
food was a new thing at that time. Eating canned food and instant noodles became a trend”.
Maybe it is not surprising that we trace a reluctance to try new food or food products. However we did also
notice that the girl living in the urban area answered “I love Western type of convenience food” as we saw
just above. Other studies has shown that especially in the urban areas young or younger people are more
intrigued by for example Western type of convenience food, see page 24 in our project. She also answered
to question 47 “I love trying new things, so I do not miss out on things”.
4.1.1.2 Habitual behavior
People are creatures of habit, meaning, that when it comes to food, people will buy and eat the food they
are familiar with. The essential questions here are related to quality, price and taste. Because of taste was
one of the main questions when analyzing the factor just above, there is an intersection.
If peoples spending power did not have any limits, then people would be given an unlimited range of
choices, when selecting what food they would like to eat or buy. So when asking people if for example
quality is a deciding factor in their food choices most people would say yes. When we asked our
respondents in question 43 and 42 about the quality of convenience food, and the comparison between
imported/Western and Chinese convenience food, and price, we got the answer in 5 of our 6 interviews,
that price was an important factor. As the young man living in the rural area responded “I buy more
Chinese convenience food. Imported convenience food are too expensive compared with local convenience
food. And it is also acknowledged for its freshness. I think imported convenience foods have a better
31
quality, because problems with food security is a serious issue in China in these days. But we cannot eat
foreign convenience food just because of this, mainly for the sake of price and habits”.
The woman interviewed from the couple living in the urban area responded to question 43, that they buy
more Chinese convenience food, mostly short shelf-life convenience foods. She thinks local convenience
foods are fresher, but she also saw foreign convenience food as having a better quality. At the same time
imported commodities is more expensive than national ones, but if the price is in accordance with quality,
she accept that. Two people responded to the question, “do you pay attention to where the food materials
come from (question 29), local or other regions”, that quality was an important factor, noticed by the
middle aged woman from the rural area and the woman living alone in the urban area.
Taste is important as noticed in question 20 regarding, which restaurant people would chose when going
out. The young man from the rural area answered, that flavor and taste was important, and again he
noticed that price was important (would prefer Chinese and he only goes to Western fast food restaurants
(not high end) as they were the cheaper version of Western restaurants). When we asked in question 53,
about, “how important the taste of convenience food are in making the choice”, we got positive responses
in 5 of our interviews, meaning that taste is important. People noticed for example, that some flavors in the
food were not possible to create at home, and one respondent noticed, that she wanted to buy more
convenience food products now. So, we basically got two answers in on, by “yes it is important” and “we
cannot cook food with this taste/flavor at home”, meaning, that convenience products adds value.
When asking about the effect of media advertisements (question 44) the young girl said, “yes, many ads
about food have a great influence on my food choice. I think food have a better quality if I am familiar with
the food”. Familiarity is a key ingredient, when looking at prior experience, exposure and neophobia, but
this is tightly related to habitual behavior.
In our answers people would agree about the combination of quality, price and taste being very important.
Later on we will see that the respondents from the urban area have a bit more spending power, when it
comes to buying convenience food.
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4.1.1.3 Involvement
Peoples spending power and time invested in the decision making process in terms of which convenience
food to chose will be connected. This would also seem natural, especially if you get closer to your spending
limit. Formulated in another way, what flexibility do you have.
Just below we have created a table, with some figures regarding household income, food consumption etc.
Observing the spending as a percentage of household income in the 6 households we can see. that the
households in the urban areas on average spend more than the households in the rural areas. Notice that
the middle aged couple from the rural area spend very little compared to the rest, but the woman
answered in question 10 (spending on food) “500 RMB per month. If the food expenses is higher, we can
afford it. But my husband and I stay at home, and our diet is simple. So we do not spend that much on
food”. When looking at convenience food we see the same pattern, people from the urban area spend on
average more on convenience food than people from the rural area. Notice that the figures we have from
our respondents on food consumption are somewhat lower, than the average figures we found for Beijing
and Taigu, see page 6. Especially for the urban area.
Rural
Rural
Rural
Urban
Urban
Young man Middle
Senior aged Young
living alone
aged
couple with living alone
couple
couple
daughter
daughter
7000
3500
5000
10000
3600
700
500
1000
2000
3000
1000
350
200
500
600
500
500
Food/Total in 28%
7%
29%
40%
30%
28%
6500
2500
3000
7000
2600
Total income 2500
girl Middle
Urban
aged Senior woman
with living alone
in RMB
Food
consumption
in RMB (total)
Convenience
food in RMB
income in %
Available after 1800
food in RMB
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In question 28 we asked, “if the price seems high to you, will you then spend more time on making your
decision”, and all responded positive. So the logic and intuitive assumption is present.
Peoples believe of what is expensive will probably not be the same, but will be some “frame” around
price/quality/need etc.
To study the logic we looked at our respondents patterns, when they will go out to make their purchases of
food. Most people would go to the markets, and not that often to the supermarkets. But the middle-aged
woman from the urban area said “I go to the market or supermarket every day on my way home. I went to
the market more before. But now I go to supermarkets more”. Maybe the income aspect plays a role here,
when you observe their household income compared to the others. Remember, that the Low-involvement
products are those that are inexpensive and the person will use very limited time in making the choice,
whereby she will just pick up what is needed, and not spend so much time thinking about the price. This
interpretation is maybe not completely correct, but combined with some of her other answers we can
observe a higher degree of freedom in her decision making process, than for some of the other
respondents.
When we asked question 35 we made an interesting observation. We asked the question, “if convenience
food was cheaper or more expensive, than cooking from the bottom yourself”. Two of the respondents
from the rural area said, “yes, the use of convenience food are more expensive”. However, for time reasons
and as long as it was not that much more expensive, they will still take advantage of the convenience
offers. However, two of the respondents in the urban area expressed convenience food as being cheap on
an absolute basis, and also compared to cooking themselves. The middle-aged woman gave a further
supplement by saying “I am not sure which is cheaper, but price is not the most significant criteria for me.
Nutrition and health are more important”.
This do not say anything about the level of involvement, but the answers do indicate a higher spending
capacity by the people in the urban area and thereby flexibility. The same tendency can be seen, when
looking at question 19, “how often do you go out to eat”, there was a clear overweight among the people
in the urban area.
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4.1.1.4 Variety
As peoples possibility set of choices expands, there will be a tendency for people wishing to explore these
possibilities. It can be called variety seeking behavior. At the same time this variety seeking nature has
limits. For example, a determinant will be your spending capacity. Another thing will be the physical
distance to a supermarket, which might offer out a new kind of tea. In our question 69 people in the rural
area noticed, that there are no foreign supermarket chains in the region of Taigu as an example of a
limitation.
However, in our question 47 we asked, “do you prefer to use the same brand or would you like to try some
new brand when buying convenience food”. Well, 2 people supported the idea of trying something new,
but 3 answers leaned against this, where they would prefer to buy the products they were used to. The old
lady living alone in the rural area said, that she would follow the advice of where to go and what to buy
from discussions with her friends. What we did see in the answers was, that it was the young respondents,
who wants to try new things, whereas the middle-aged to elderly respondents would stick to the products
they know. This is maybe not surprising as curiosity is something believed to be more profound by young
people. When looking specific at China, the offers the young or younger generation face today is very much
different from the offers the middle-aged to older generation faced, when they were young.
However, when we asked the question about “which restaurants our respondents would like to go to”
(question 22), we can see that our respondents in the urban area will take advance of the offers of Western
type of restaurants. Some more than others, where price and taste are important factors. The woman from
the senior-aged couple living in the rural age answered “I have never been to a Western type of food
restaurant before. I even don’t know what kind of food they have”. Whereas the older woman living in the
urban area answered “once in a while my children will take me to enjoy some Western food (not fast food),
but not that often”.
The woman from the middle-aged couple living in the urban area answered “we mostly go to Chinese
restaurants. We prefer the taste of Chinese food. However, when we want to try something new, we will go
to an advanced Western type of food restaurant. Fast food are rubbish and bad for health”. The young girl
from the urban area answered “mostly Chinese because Western-style restaurants have a higher price than
Chinese ones. I go to eat fast food maybe once every two weeks because I love fast food. Sometimes I
35
award myself, and then I will go alone or with my friends to eat at an advanced Western-style restaurant,
but they are expensive and I cannot go to often”.
We can observe a link here between income, variety and urbanization (globalization from the offers).
4.1.1.5 Affect (degree of liking of a food)
The taste of food is perhaps an obvious factor when examining food choices. Unless you as a person are
constrained from certain types of foods from for example health reasons, taste should be an important
factor, when you chose your food.
The constrain caused by healthcare related issues/diseases might become and even more important factor
in the consumption of convenience food going forward. Today the number of people with diabetes has
exploded in China, coming from the fact, that Chinese people on average has gained a few kilos from the
intake of oils, fat etc., see table on page 26. When we asked people in question 55, “if they saw
convenience food as being healthy or unhealthy”, all responded unhealthy. One however did notice, that
her opinion was based on what could she would read, hear or see on TV.
However, from our interviews we do observe, that taste and flavor of the food are important, as we also
touched this question earlier under habitual behavior. The most obvious answers was from our question
62, where we asked, “do taste of the food affect your convenience food choice”, and all responded
positively. We could also see, that taste was a deciding factor, when making the choice about which
restaurant to go to. When it came to the husbands in the three households they also see taste as
important, where they however have 3 different views on convenience food. One of the husbands in the
rural area likes convenience food, the other one is neutral, while the husband from the urban area have a
negative view ( the same goes for the son in the family, because they prefer their wife/moms cooking).
It would be surprising if the importance of taste would be different among the people living in the rural
area and the people living in the urban area, as it comes more down to which preference you as an
individual would have.
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4.1.1.6 Cognitive information
The keyword here is advertisement through different sources. Information is supposed to catch the eye of
the consumer and strengthen the informative level of the consumer. Expressed in another way, cognitive
variables are meant to motivate selection. Thereby it is not only the classical marketing way cognitive
information has to be understood, but it could also be healthcare related articles or programs on TV
regarding food safety.
Over the last years there has been an increasing problem with food safety, where for example 6 children
died and 300.000 became sick in 2008 after some powder milk was infected with melamine. Since then the
government of China has enacted ever-more-strict policies to ensure food safety, but it has not completely
worked, as another incident happened during the summer, where more than half of the people attending a
weeding with 500 guests got sick after eating pork meat, where the meat was infected with clenbuterol, a
steroid that makes pigs grow faster and leaner (LA Times, 2011).
When we asked question 44, “do media affect your food choice, especially regarding convenience food”,
we got a positive answer in 5 of our 6 interviews. In 4 of them we heard “…especially if it is regarding health
or quality problems, we will not buy the product”. In this context it has to be noticed, that the process of
decision making becomes easier, if the product can make you sick or even lose your life. The young girl
from the urban responded “yes, media presenting many ads about food have a great influence on my food
choice. I think food have a better quality if I am familiar with the food”. Food safety could be the main part
of a problem formulation for another project.
We asked a couple of questions more, were the first one was, “are you affected by signs (question 45)? –
With signs we meant marketing (signs with price, or sales, or reduced price etc.)”. Out of our 6 interviews
we again got 5 positive responses, where people did say, that they would look at products with for example
a reduced price. The middle-aged woman from the rural area said, that she would go out and buy what was
needed. If we look at our table with the consumption percentage on food of total household income we
also remember, that they fell a bit outside the “normal” range with a percentage of 7%. This could indicate,
and also on the basis of some of her other answers, that she will not let herself into for example impulse
buying and she knows what is cheap.
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It seems like people are affected by information both in terms of general information and also marketing
efforts like price reduction etc. We would also expect this. This is not specific for either living in a rural area
or not. What could be different is what you buy, where we have seen that people in the urban area spend a
bit more, but they also face a bigger variety and more advertising.
4.1.1.7 Appropriateness of the eating environment
The situation in which a person will be enjoying the meal can also be an important factor. We asked one
question about, “when our respondents would invite guests or would celebrate some specific day like a
birthday, holiday etc., how that would affect the food choice” (question 50). Our answers were a bit mixed
as 3 respondents would take advantage of convenience food, where the rest would cook themselves. The
respondents that would avoid convenience products, would for example say, that it was not formal
enough. This is probably not different from most other countries in the world.
If you look at appropriateness as the match to the individuals lifestyle, then we can see our respondents
responding to a lifestyle change, where a busier lifestyle is having a high influence. We saw that by our
young and middle-aged respondents.
4.1.1.8 Location of food
When the consumer will go to the supermarket or another place to pick up food or eat, convenience plays a
role. If the person has a preference for a certain food item, which can be found at a certain place, the
various variables that otherwise will affect your food choice like for example price, quality, taste, freshness,
variety etc. could be challenged by the physical distance or the time it would take to get it/find it. In
Marshalls book it was referred to as for example visibility of food items, when for example walking in to a
supermarket.
Just before when looking at cognitive information most people responded positively in being affected by
signs, when for seeing a sign with a reduced price (or something else). At the same time our respondents
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would definitely also listen to other kinds of advice regarding food choices, like for example when it could
be related to health/safety issues.
We asked another question regarding the location of supermarkets, “if convenience in the supermarkets
was an important factor”, and all people responded positively (question 46). The focus was on physical
distance to shopping possibilities. Not surprising would the answers also be based on how much you have
to carry, as one of the elderly women expressed.
You are bound by your possibilities. We saw earlier, that there are no foreign supermarket chains in the
area of Taigu (according to our responders), which for example could exclude some possibilities in terms of
certain products. These could otherwise be present in Beijing. In the urban areas the variety is bigger,
especially when it comes to foreign products. In a related question, question 70, we asked about “if our
respondents would buy foreign brands, when shopping for convenience food” and the people in the rural
area would say no, where one noticed, that she never sees foreign brands in her supermarket.
To get an idea about the possibilities, the young man from the rural are noticed, that he used to study in
Beijing before coming back to the area of Taigu, but “I used to study in Beijing and restaurants are
everywhere nowadays and we had lots of choices. When I came back to my hometown, I could see that
more fast food chains had been opened, but generally more types of restaurants had opened, although it
cannot be compared to Beijing, question 17.
An as the respondents from the rural area explained, there are no foreign supermarket chains in the area of
Taigu, question 69.
Moving on in our search we asked the question, “do you prefer to buy food that is placed near you, like
near the entrance or cash register, or do you prefer to find exactly, what you want to buy” (question 27).
Our responses were a bit divided, but 4 of our respondents did say location was important and 3 would
buy, what their eyes would catch first. The young girl from the urban area however expressed “I notice that
good locations are often used for food on sale or for promotion. So I would like to choose food from its
normal place”. She has noticed the obvious marketing trick in supermarkets.
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One thing globalization has brought is many new supermarket chains from abroad and at the same time the
whole concept of supermarkets has developed quit rapidly over the last years in China, where marketing
efforts and experience are bigger, than in the traditional Chinese landscape with smaller shops.
4.1.1.9 Social facilitation
People’s decision making process could be another study, but when making your choice you could be
influenced by for example the people you eat with. That could be in terms of size of the meal or what you
eat. Your living environment is important like for example, how many people are in the household, will
some of these persons have specific eating requirements based on religion, believe, healthcare or some
other factors etc.
We got different indications in our questions. The young man living alone in the rural area noticed, that he
eats a lot more convenience food now, and when he lived at home he would eat more “richer” food
(question 61). At the same time he said, “my eating habits are different now from when I was at home and
when I was studying. I eat fewer kinds of dishes now, than when I was at home” (question 21). His
consumption of meat, ready-made or half cooked food has gone up (question 24). He is not alone in this
respect, as the meat consumption In China has increased quit a lot, see our table on page 29. The older
woman from the rural area said the same “I cook more meat than before. The living conditions have been
remarkable improved on one hand, and on the other hand my granddaughter is in senior school and I need
to guarantee the nutrition in what we eat”. This is one of the signs of globalization and the opening up of
the food market in China.
To question 21 the middle-aged woman from the rural area said “I think, that who I eat with influence me
more”. The question was “if the respondent would think he or she was affected in the convenience food
choice by the environment the person was living in”. But we got from her an answer, which was very much
useful looking at social facilitation.
From question 23 the middle-aged woman from the urban area responded “I have no plan for the meals. I
will listen to my son and my husband’s advice to see what they want to eat”.
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To question 21 the middle-aged woman from the urban are responded “I think people will influence me
more. I eat more when I am having a meal with others”.
From the answers we can see, that people are affected by their living environment. It could be in terms of
which food the respondents will eat or how much of it they will eat. The availability of convenience food
has exploded in China, but at the same time product offerings are still been rolled out to the different
areas.
When we asked in question 49 if people you eat with will influence your food choice in terms of size of
meal and type we had 5 positive responses. Meaning, this makes the environment affect your choice.
We will now focus more on household income and the price of food.
4.1.2 The income view
We have already seen in our earlier analysis of answers that price is an important factor, where peoples
sensitivity to this factor will vary depending on their spending capacity. Your income is of natural reasons a
determining factor in terms of what you can buy, when it comes to convenience and convenience food.
We can see from the tables on page 26 and 29, that the consumption of different kinds of food products
and convenience food has increased at a high percentage rate, where one of the tables covered 2003-2008
and one covered 2000-2005. Our answers also indicated, that people are spending more on for example
meat and convenience food than they did before, where people would cook more at home and eat things
that was for example cheaper than meat. This indicates that the development of peoples spending power
is linked to the convenience food consumption pattern.
Comparing our interviews from the urban area and the rural area, a good indication of affordability is when
looking at, what they can spend on leisure or convenience going out to restaurants (also types of
restaurants), where the respondents from the urban area would go out a bit more, than the people in the
41
rural area. At the same time people seemed more incentivized to take advantage of the convenience offers
in their area.
The middle-aged woman from the urban area indicated, that she was not so price sensitive as maybe some
of the other persons interviewed from the rural area. This woman answered in question 35, that price was
not the most important criteria for her, when making her convenience food choice, while the young girl and
the older woman in the area noticed that it was cheap. We saw people in the rural area would indicate,
that convenience products was not cheap.
Engels theory says that people will spend a smaller proportion of their income on food, as their income
level go up. In trying to make this observation we could for example look at how much money our
respondents will spend on food as a percentage of their income. Here we actually get the opposite picture,
as the people from the urban are spends a higher percentage on food, but in a country like China, where
the income level is low, even though it is rising thereby giving the consumer more choices, it is maybe not
the right setting for this theory. And more important the people in the urban area do have more of their
income left after their food purchases. Even though the couple from the rural area spends very little on
food compared to their income, the couple from the urban are still have more of their income left (500
RMB) even though they spend much more on food.
Looking at how the individual households spending on food has developed individually, we first asked “how
the income has developed over the last 5 – 10 years”, and all our respondents verified that their income
had gone up, with salaries and pensions going up, see question 37. In 5 of 6 of our interviews we got the
answer, that our respondents now are spending a lower proportion on food than before (confirming Engels
Law), where our respondents will spend more on housing, socializing etc., see question 38. However, we
did see 3 of our respondents express, that they today spend a higher proportion of their income on
convenience food than before, with 2 of these responses from the urban area. But we noticed that the
reason for the other 3 to say no was because of the growing awareness of health (lifestyle diseases), see
question 39. However, the higher expenditure on convenience food is probably linked to what will just
follow, as quality and convenience is linked with in affordability (higher income).
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Another observation made by Engel is that high income people will have a tendency to buy more food
items that is regarded as being of higher quality either in terms of nutrition, taste etc. The middle-aged
woman from the urban area is very much focused on nutrition and health, and it was also very easy for her
to say, that there is a clear connection between the price and quality in food.
Going back to our theory part, a study showed that if the price was too low, then the quality would
probably be low. Well, our young man from the rural area did say the same, when answering question 43.
4.1.3 Disposal of food
The issue about dealing with different food in terms of the “raw material” is theorized in being another
possible determinant in the choice of convenience food. An example would be buying frozen fish instead
cleaning the fish yourself, because people might not know what to do with the leftovers.
We asked in question 65, ”if the disposal was a consideration, buying something that was easy to dispose
and something that was easy to clean”. From our interviews 3 people said yes, with the young man and
young woman saying it was a factor in their decision making. The three persons that did not see it as a
deciding factor also responded, that they really did not think about the influence of this factor. They were
more focused on the food. From our reading we also did not see this as one of the most important factors.
But maybe it also indicate, that they skills required to “clean a fish” will not be mastered, when you can just
buy it prepared.
4.2 Which factors affect the convenience food choice in china
In the following we will take our lead from the study conducted by Ann Veeck and Alvin C. Burns (2002) in
Nanjing, which is the largest city in the Jiangsu province with a population of 2,8mm. It should be noted
that our respondents comes from two other regions, Beijing with app. 20mm people and Taigu with app.
300m people. However, the dynamics translating/transforming through China are the same in these years.
43
It has been argued, that a faster pace of life and the economic growth are affecting the Chinese food
choices. Today many people are working many hours thereby realizing, that there is less time available to
cook. At the same time they can also use their increased income to buy themselves time through
convenience. If we look at our respondents, they will typically work 8-9-10 hours daily referring to question
7. Work schedules are for some a bit different than for example in Denmark, as some people will have a 2-3
hour break from 12 – 14/15.00, which however is seen in Southern Europe. So perhaps in this way the
Chinese everyday family life could be compared to the Western world. We notice the “industrial”
revolution in China that has taken places over the last decades. Earlier we wrote about, that a study had
shown that on average a Chinese industrial worker would work 73 hours per week. Well, we can see this
was not the case for our respondents (also not industrial jobs). The middle-aged couple from the rural area,
that owns a shop would work many hours.
When we asked our respondents, “if they had more money to spend on food compared to 5-10 years ago,
and if they would spend more today”, we had positive responses. However the older woman from the rural
area said she was not sure, because of the rising prices of food. What she is seeing is what the world has
been seeing the last couple of years, with rising food prices. One of the reasons is the rising food
consumption in China, where food prices has been increasing at a 10% yearly rate lately
(Asian
Development Bank, 2011, p. 8). However most of our respondents also noticed, that they spend more on
convenience food, where 4 responded positively, where all 3 respondents from the urban area was among
those.
Going on, when we asked in question 60,” do you think your consumption of convenience food is related to
a faster pace of life”, we got 4 positive responses, where the older woman from the urban area answered in
another way “Not really. I eat more convenience food, because I am unwilling to cook”. She is retired, but
at the same time she is studying 5 hours per day in a college for seniors.
When looking at the time aspect our respondents noticed different things but the keywords was “save
time”, “busier lifestyle”, “do not have time to cook” and “life is easier now”.
As the young man from the rural area noticed “in the morning I am in a rush (works in a bank), and I do not
have time to cook (will eat cereals)” and “convenience foods do a good job in saving time. Moreover, I do
44
not know how to cook. It will cost more in energy consumption if I learn how to cook, and I also do not
want to learn. So I will choose to eat convenience foods as long as the price is not too high” expressed in
question 51 and 35.
The middle aged woman from the rural area said I am unwilling to spend too much time on food, because I
am very tired every day after work. We have no weekends because of my working type (have her own
shop, where her husband helps her during his work breaks) coming from question 6 and 12 (also 7 from
complimentary interview). Going back we could see that this couple spend very little money on food( in the
morning they will eat leftovers from yesterday or some ready-made Chinese pastry) , but what we also see
is that their main meal is lunch, where they will cook something themselves based on for example fresh fish
or vegetables, see question 23. A bit later we will look more at the freshness aspect in the food choices.
Not very surprising if you have more “spare time” then your incentive to cook yourself will be bigger and at
the same time older people will stick to traditions. The older woman from the rural area has been a
housewife for many years, even though helping out her son in his shop some hours every day, we can see
from their normal eating schedule, that she gets up early in the morning to prepare breakfast. Later she will
do lunch with homemade noodles etc. She responded to question 35 “Convenience food is more expensive,
so I cook home as long as I have time; what’s more, cooking at home is cleaner”. She was also one of the
people that answered negative to question 60 saying “I don’t think so. Now I retired and have a longer time
for cooking. But sometimes I just don’t want to cook and buy convenience food.
The young woman from the urban area noticed “my job is busier and busier and spare time becomes less”
and at the same time she said in question 24 “I eat more patterns of food when I was at school, like more
different types of breakfast. But now if I cook at home, I eat very simply. I don’t know how to cook and I
choose the simplest dish to cook”. She is only one young girl out of many millions in China, but the phrase
“don’t know how to cook” maybe tells a bit about the new “modern” role of woman in China, working
more in more demanding jobs. She also said in question 35 “I think convenience foods are cheap. If you
cook yourself, it consumes both more energy and money. But I think convenience rather than price is the
main reason why I choose convenience food”.
45
Another factor that Ann Veeck and Alvin C. Burns had found in their study was, that freshness matters a lot
to the Chinese. We also saw that in our answers. At the same time we saw, that our respondents again are
affected by the health issue, which as we write have become a big topic in China, because of the increasing
number of people with for example lifestyle diseases caused by sugar intake etc. This could cause a
movement back towards the traditional Chinese way of eating. However, moving on, freshness is
important.
We asked in question 32, “how important is the freshness of food to you”, and not surprising in all our
interviews the response was, that it was very important. Many of our respondents made the connection
between nutrition, health and taste. The woman from the middle–aged couple in the urban area said, “I
prefer to cook myself from fresh ingredients”, see question 34. We can also see from some of our
respondents in question 30, that the kind of convenience food they will buy is many times products with a
short shelf life. Of course the freshness (health, nutrition) definition could contradict with the agreement
by all respondents, when they expressed, that convenience food is not healthy in question 55. However,
the choices made are not made in a mindset, where only one factor will be having an influence. Dependent
on the life situation, we can see our respondents will use a variety of convenience products more or less
depending on their income, time availability for cooking and the offers being presented (trying to influence
the respondent).
Family relations are very important in China and a big part the culture, where the meal like for example
eating together plays a big role. But we asked our respondents, “if they saw the use of convenience food as
helping or hurting the family”, where 4 people said it was hurting the family, where the young man from
the rural area said “it hurts family, not just health, but also weaken the bridge of communication between
family members”, see question 63. The others mostly mentioned the healthcare aspect. Of the remaining
respondents, the old woman from the urban area saw it as helping in the everyday family life because of
the saving of time in cooking.
46
We will now move on to how globalization and urbanization has affected the convenience food choice in
China. However, we can see that a faster pace of life, rising income, time and freshness are important
aspects in the food choice.
4.3 How has globalization/urbanization affected the convenience food choice in China
When examining the influence of urbanization and globalization on the convenience food choice, you are
moving up to an analysis level, where it will be the clustering of people and their ideas, and a variety of
offers (and the consumption of these) based on origin, that will be the center of attention. Our respondents
might feel in their mind, that it is easier to express an opinion about factors that are close to them like for
example price, taste, time to cook, convenience etc.
A basic condition that has to be present, when examining peoples consumption of convenience food is the
specific type/brand of convenience food. If you as a consumer do not have access to a specific type of
convenience food, then you might desire it, because you have seen it on television, read about it etc., but
you will not be able to actually try to eat it. Besides this you will find the natural obstacles like spending
power or other obstacles, like religion etc.
Regarding the physical presence, and thereby opportunities we asked our respondents different questions,
where two were important in this respect.
When looking at globalization we think about the consumption of convenience food away from the
traditional Asian/Chinese food culture. In our question 70 we discovered, that in the rural area there are no
foreign super market chains. This is not the case in the urban area of Beijing. At the same time we saw in
our question 69, that our respondents would seldom buy for example foreign brands compared to more
often for our urban responders.
When we asked the question about, which restaurants people would like to go to (question 22), we can
see that the people in the urban area will take advance of the offers of Western type of restaurants. Some
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more than others, where price and taste are important factors, see page 35. The young man from the rural
said in question 17, that the variety is simple bigger in Beijing and Taigu. The same we would probably
observe for Copenhagen versus Aalborg. The reason being simple coming from the fact, that the restaurant
owner can target a bigger market, especially if the flavor and taste is new for the consumer. With the
transforming of China into an industrialized country with people clustering around some main centers like
Beijing it is not surprising, that the variety is bigger.
So one conclusion from globalization/urbanization is that people in urban areas, like Beijing, will have more
opportunities to explore and challenge their own habits compared to people in for example Taigu. People
are free to travel, maybe yes, but we have to consider that even though people’s incomes are rising, you
simple do not just travel around because of still a limited spending power. At the same time, only the
couple from the urban area had a car in our interview, see question 26.
When looking at habits people get more challenged on these in urban areas like Beijing, because of the
more international and mixed community compared to Taigu. The attention from foreign “invaders” will be
on areas with larger populations, where fast food chains, foreign supermarkets, 7-11 and specific types of
foreign restaurant will shoot up. This will spread and do spread, but still new trends and tastes will most of
the time be planted in urban areas to start with. Our young man from the rural area had moved back to
Taigu after studying in Beijing, and he did say, that there are more opportunities in an area like Beijing,
when it comes to convenience food. We noticed that he was living a life, that is probably getting more
typical for young or younger Chinese, that you will take advantage of the convenience offers, just like other
people will do in the rest of the world, as their income go up and offers will be more plentiful. Maybe he
was influenced by his stay in Beijing.
When we looked at the factors from Marshalls book we found that before you will try a new food, you have
to cross a personal border in your mind, where habits in your choices are a strong determinant. The price,
taste and quality are important factors here. The income level of our respondents in the urban area is on
average higher than the people from the rural area, meaning that they have a wider range of possibilities
all else being equal, when looking to try something new or buying something with a perceived higher
quality. For example in question 42 the young man from the rural area noticed, that imported convenience
food is of better quality, but the price was an obstacle. Well, one of the developments in China has been a
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higher income for people, especially for people in the urban areas. A higher income gives you an
opportunity to change your lifestyle. We also saw, that our respondents from the urban area would spend
more on average on convenience food products.
When we asked our respondents if they thought they were affected by living in a rural area versus an urban
area in their choices regarding convenience food, 4 of our respondents said yes. The answers was from life
is busier in the urban areas to there is a bigger variety, and more offers of convenience food, see question
40.
The income does matter a lot, when we asked people in question 68 if they would spend more money on
convenience food if their income would go up, 4 of our responders said yes. The middle-aged woman from
the couple living in the urban area said, she would buy more expensive food of a higher quality. The older
woman from the urban area said no, because she will not change her habits. This is maybe not so surprising
as elderly people sometimes will be more reluctant to change their habits. Compared to her equivalent in
the rural area she actually already spends a lot on convenience food. The middle-aged woman from the
rural area also said no, but their spending on food is already very low compared to the rest. She expressed,
that she her and her husband`s diet are simple.
Another interesting observation we made was the perception of the price of convenience food, where the
respondents from the urban generally saw convenience food being cheaper than the respondents from
the rural area.
Looking at our respondents we did not see a huge difference in lifestyles based on for example working
hours between our respondents in the rural area versus the urban area, but we did however see both of
our young people expressing, that they had very little time to cook per day in a very busy everyday life.
They have similar types of job, he works in a bank, while she works within accounting.
The income level affects the lifestyle. But not only this, you will also be affected by for example the
influence from other cultures. Tourists will come more often to Beijing, where hotels will try to attract
people by offering things they know from their home country. Foreign companies will send local employees
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to work in China, where the bigger cities or urban areas will see more of these people, than the rural areas.
Billboards and commercials will be more plentiful in urban areas and so on. The combination of culture and
communication among people affects you.
Eating Western style of convenience food could be considered modern or trendy and we saw that behavior
by the young girl from the urban area, see question 22. This means that for her there are some kind of
status value dinning at Western types of restaurants. The middle-aged woman from the urban area
expressed a bit of the same by saying that, ”sometimes we will go to an “advanced” Western type of
restaurant”.
So, in this respect urbanization affects peoples choices through variety, lifestyle and income. The same goes
for globalization as our responders can take advantage of more offers. We did see in our answers, that
most people would still prefer to buy Chinese type of convenience food because of flavor/taste, and at the
same time we can see in our answers, that people are getting more aware about health and the unhealthy
consequences of fast food, or other types of Western style convenience food that has been brought with it.
The desire for freshness in the food is still present.
As the Chinese economy has boomed the spending power of people has gone up, thereby giving people
more opportunities. Even though culture and habits are strong, we did see that also the elderly people in
our interviews would take advantage of convenience offers. However, the older woman in the urban area,
more than the older couple in the rural area. The older woman in the rural area had been a housewife, and
that is something that has changed in China, where this traditional woman roll is disappearing. The younger
people in our interviews are interested in trying new things, even though they seem to be aware to some
extent about the consequences that fast food or to fating Western type of convenience food can have on
their health.
Away from the discussion of products, Western type etc. we should remember another effect of
globalization and urbanization, maybe especially globalization. The offering out of convenience food, the
idea of supermarkets, the idea of fast food, these are ideas also seen in Taigu, where the inspiration has
come from globalization.
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5) Conclusion
5.1 The mix of rising income and increased product offerings
The food choice can be both simple and not so simple.
Our focus area has been on the consumption of convenience food and the role globalization and
urbanization plays in this respect. In this context we started out by looking at different basic factors, which
is believed to affect the food choice of people.
When you as a person are faced with choices you would probably see it as something positive or good, but
it can also lead to frustration or a defensive attitude, that will lead you in to the safe choice. When we
looked at prior experience and neophobia, we did trace a reluctance to try new convenience food products,
which was maybe not so surprising. However, we did also see that the process of moving away from the
“safe” choices had taken a foothold as our respondents did notice, that they would use different products
and also taste the Western type of convenience food. In this respect it does not matter that much, if the
persons will say “we still prefer Chinese products” as it shows that people are going through the phase of
crossing the border. We could see our young respondents taking a lot of advantage of convenience food,
and at the same time we did see the young girl from the urban area express “I love Western type of
convenience food”.
Moving on to habits, we could also see that people are influenced in their choice by the combination of
price, quality and taste. We saw in our responses, that the respondents would agree to that these are
important elements, but also a tendency for the respondents with the highest incomes to say “you get
what you pay for” compared to maybe make a denial saying “no, there is not a connection between price
and quality, when you are not earning so much money”. The spending power/flexibility based on the
income figures seems higher on average by our respondents from the urban area. Here we notice that
convenience food products in general are more expensive, than cooking from the bottom yourself.
When it came to variety we did see, that our respondents will take advantage of the offers that will be
presented to them if they can afford it. Meaning, we do see the variety seeking nature, but we also see by
some of our respondents an awareness about their habits, maybe especially by some of our elder
responders. So, we did not see any “panic – seeking variety behavior”, if we can use this expression. We did
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also see some of our respondents say that today, they are more focused on health (instead of trying new
products). Back again, at the same time it was noticed that if our responders income would go up, they
would probably take advantage of more convenience food products. The attitude here is not that different
between people from the urban/rural area.
The health dimension plays a role at the moment in China, where one of the first things our respondents
would notice was health/safety, when we asked about if they were affected by cognitive information. This
comes from the issue of cases with food safety, and also the growing attention from media/public
authorities on lifestyle diseases (like diabetes). When it came to general marketing, not surprisingly our
respondents would pay attention to signs with reduced price etc. This is not so much related to, where you
live, however the other dimension “pre-cooked rice with vegetables sold only here in Beijing in the
supermarket 100 meters ahead” plays a role. There are more signs and variety in a place like Beijing, than
Taigu. This we also saw in our response from the young man from the rural area. In this respect looking at
location, our respondents would prefer to shop their convenience food close to where the live and would
also seek the same convenience in the shop or market, where they shop. Another factor in this dimension is
transportation. Even though car sales are booming in China, most people still have their feet, bicycles or
public transportation as their choices. This maybe narrows your choices.
When we looked at social facilitation, we learned, that our respondents are affected by the group of people
they eat with. This is in both type and size of meals. There are no major difference here between people
from the urban/rural area, but the mix of cultures are bigger in Beijing, than in Taigu.
The income of people in China has been rising fast over the last years because of the high economic
growth. We looked at Engels Law to see if people would live up to the rule of food spending going down as
a percentage of your income, as your income climes. We did make this observation. We would at the same
time expect peoples use of convenience food to go up, where 3 out of 6 respondents said that this was the
case. From the urban area 2 of the 3 positive answers came. We see this as a function of income, lifestyle
and offers.
We found that the disposal of food had a little affect, as it is more convenient to use convenience food. We
observed however at the same time, that our respondents look for freshness in their food.
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Globalization and urbanization in China are changing the lifestyle of people. Today young people in China
see themselves in a world where a fusion between their inherited culture and the Western type of culture
is taking place. The education and job functions have changed a lot in China, which is still going on. The
symbolic of this perhaps is urbanization. People are moving from the rural areas to the cities, as this is
where a string of new job opportunities have been developed. We did see from our respondents, that they
notice having a busy life. However, we did not only see this in the urban area, but also by our young man
and the middle aged couple in the rural area. Maybe this is because, that he has a job in a bank, and they
have a shop (husband has a job), which are similar job functions as you find in the cities. However, our
respondents did notice, that life seems to be busier in the cities. Income is normally a function of, where
the good jobs will be found, and they will most often be found near corporate head quarters, where these
will be found near universities etc. We did see our respondents from the urban area having on average a
higher income, than the people from the rural area.
Even though there are more convenience now, the desire for freshness is still an important parameter in
peoples food choices. Even though the middle aged woman from the urban area likes convenience
products and is spending more of their food expenditure on these compared to before, she expressed, that
she prefer to cook herself with fresh ingredients (but also expressing more “easy”, when looking at the
price/quality combination, when buying food).
At the same time people noticed that convenience comes with a price, which maybe makes life easier for
families, but at the same time could jeopardize the socializing and health of people within families.
Globalization and urbanization are affecting our respondents through a rising income (as long as growth
will continue), a bigger variety of products and possibilities, an external influence by other cultures with is
spread through media or other communication channels and the need for convenience and curiosity of
trying something new and trendy.
The idea of convenience food products and different types of
restaurants etc. is also seen in Taigu.
5.2 Critical assessment
We believe we have connected our theory assumptions with observations made in our interviews.
However, as a representative for a rural area, we chose Taigu, but we could have found an even more rural
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area, where culture and traditions are even more outspoken. As we saw, the effect of a widening mix of
offers (local or global convenience offers or ideas) is also spreading to Taigu. There are maybe no foreign
supermarket chains, and maybe not so many foreign products on the shelves, but the idea of supermarkets
and product offerings are spreading.
In doing our interviews we could have used more respondents. We used Skype to make our interviews, but
maybe it would have been better to make the interviews face to face (not web based). At the same time we
could have done actual observations in the areas, where people live. This would give us a better idea of the
mix of products and external factors like billboards, commercials etc.
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6) Perspectives
We touched briefly the issue of health and lifestyle diseases. As the people of China has obtained a higher
spending power and started to eat more fating food, the number of people suffering from for example
overweight today is around 30% and at the same time around 7% of the population now suffers from
diabetes. Alarm clocks are ringing. What is going on? In Brazil, Russia etc. the growth is also high and
people are also getting more and more choices. One perspective is perhaps, that the lifestyle is changing
more rapidly than it did or is doing in for example Brazil and Russia, where the same kind on urbanization is
not taking place. Maybe in these countries the eating habits has also not changed as much. We believe this
subject will gain more attention and perhaps already have, as our respondents indicated an awareness. But
at the same time it seems like the high growth in China will continue for a while lifting more and more
people out of “poverty” to lifestyles, which in terms of culture and jobs are very different from the
traditional Chinese culture. If we look at Asia, where China as an economic power on GDP level can be
compared with Japan, we see the opposite. Even though Japan experienced rapid growth in the 80`s and
some of the 90`s they maintained their good health (as often referred to). However, maybe from an Asian
perspective you can compare the culture in some ways, but the political development and system cannot
be compared. Maybe it the sudden opening up for the outside world that combined with a rapid increase in
spending power that has caused these problems. The issue of lifestyle diseases could be another project.
Convenience was the topic, and food the item. In these days life convenience products are being expanded
in a rapid pace, where the number of millionaires in USD are following track. Company`s around the world
are targeting China and the Chinese consumer.
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8) Appendix
Appendix can be found on the CD-ROM.
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