15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

After my interviewing three different people and discussing their purchasing trends I have uncovered both what I expected while also learning about something I didn’t think about previously. What I mean by this is that when discussing how they would purchase a majority of their product the common answer would be online with the occasional purchase from their local stores. But what I found surprising is the idea of convenience as people are willing to spend an absurd upcharge on common products just because it is closer to them. I witness this phenomenon before in the time at the POD market but never realized the power of this until I conducted my interviews.

When asked How/Where they purchase their goods? The common answer was online as the internet is quickly becoming a universal shop as now even groceries can be purchased online and be delivered to your door almost instantly. The internet is a behemoth of a retailer as one interviewer admitted they don’t even go out to their goods but rather have it sent to the door. It is the idea of convenience that attracts them the most like the idea of not having to leave their home to get the things they want is the most attractive option even if it would be cheaper to just go the store which is less than a mile or two away. It is the idea that one interview admitted they were willing to pay more for McDonald’s through Ubereats even though the closest McDonald’s was less than a mile away. This brings me to what surprised me the most when an interviewee told me how much they enjoyed purchasing snacks from the POD market which was downstairs from their building. For those who don’t know POD market is a University of Florida exclusive convenience store which is open almost 24 hours a day. The only problem with the POD is all the goods in the POD are overpriced as everything in the shop is at least 10% more than what it would be if they were to go to any other store. The reason why that this surprised me the most was that even though I know the power of convenience as people are willing to use Ubereats to order a 5$ meal from McDonald’s but the idea that someone is willing to 5$ for a 2$ bag of chips that is available anywhere really made me think. When I asked how they would make these purchase it was almost unanimous that if they could they would pay with a card they would as it was explained to me “card money isn’t real money”. What they meant by this is that cash can be used in a lot more places than a card. The idea the money on the card is not as universal as cash some places don’t accept some cards or any card at all.



The most important thing for a customer is convenience.