Salient environmental attributes and their value for small independent grocers

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on the consumers’ decision process to clarify the salient attributes within the in-store environment of small independent grocers. Thus, the relative importance among environmental factors and their explicit monetary values is clarified. Design/methodology/approach: The conjoint approach was applied to form a set of hypothetical environments virtualised through an interactive computer-aided simulation. Each of the 241 respondents was asked to evaluate their patronage intention on the basis of a given set of 18 virtual environments. Findings: The results revealed the greater importance of the social environment in comparison to design and ambient cues, which consumers use in determining their patronage of stores. The final recommended environment offers some explicit value added to customers. Originality/value: In contrast to most environmental studies, this study considered consumers’ decision processes, using conjoint analysis to clarify the relative importance and value of the environmental aspects affecting small independent grocers.