L'organisation des achats alimentaires

Organization of food purchases What are the specificities of the customers of each food shop ? Food purchases suppose a management of the household budget, but also an organization of the frequency of purchases, which leads to a third problem : who, in the couple , goes shopping ? Are the constraints of the living conditions (proximity of offer, available income and time) sufficient to account for the organization of the provisioning ? Using French national food surveys and time budget surveys, we show that if these surveys tend to define taste as a consumption habit, it is because the organization of food purchases is mainly determined by supply. But we also show that taste defined as a norm plays a statistically significant part. This leads us to regard food purchases not only as a problem of budget and logistics managing, but also as a personal activity, implying self-respect, reputation and social status. The structure of supply acts directly on the organization of the purchases through the proximity of each different shop. Thus, in terms of proximity, supermarkets compete with hypermarkets and grocers, but these last two shops do not compete with each other. The supply also acts by forming habits specific to each type of town and each generation. On the side of demand, the location of purchases depends on the available resources and internalized norms. Prices, schedules and possibilities of grouping purchases induce different types of rationalities according to the available time, the size of the household and its income. The sexual division of housework in a couple depends on available time, but mainly on norms linked to social status and generation. The organization of food provisioning depends on the importance attached to domestic life and the degree in which it contributes to self-respect and reputation. Many variables (income, household structure, social category, having a job or not) can be interpreted at the same time as indicators of resources and as indicators of norms. It is thus impossible to know the own effect of material constraints or normative constraints in the consumers' behavior.L'approvisionnement alimentaire désigne les pratiques par lesquelles les ménages répartissent leur budget et leur temps entre les sources qui leur fournissent leurs denrées. L'analyse secondaire d'enquêtes de l'INSEE montre que l'organisation des achats alimentaires dépend à la fois de déterminants propres à l'offre commerciale et propres aux consommateurs. L'offre agit directement par sa proximité, mais aussi en créant des habitudes spécifiques suivant la taille des communes et selon les générations. L'organisation matérielle des achats dépend des ressources du ménage (temps et revenu disponibles). Les achats représentent aussi une activité personnelle, gouvernée par certaines normes : la division sexuelle des tâches domestiques, les relations de sociabilité, le statut social. Les déterminants de l'offre ont vraisemblablement un effet plus important que ceux liés aux consommateurs.Larmet Gwenaël. L'organisation des achats alimentaires. In: Cahiers d'Economie et sociologie rurales, N°63, 2e trimestre 2002. pp. 51-84