Alltägliche Wegekopplungen beim Lebensmitteleinkauf: Empirische Erkenntnisse und ihre Relevanz für die angewandte Handelsforschung

The slimming down of the bricks-and-mortar retail sector has led to significant gaps in local supply, especially in rural, sparsely populated areas, but also in urban subregions. This creates new challenges for spatial shopping behavior and the mobility of consumers. Although the general criteria for the choice of shopping location are well documented, the role of everyday trip chaining has been investigated only a little. Approaches and models based on the nearest-center hypothesis are still in use in location planning; however, grocery shopping is relatively often embedded in everyday activities. The present study analyzes the role of everyday trip chaining in grocery shopping. With the help of a household survey (n = 2300) it was found that about 42.5% of the most recent shopping trips were related to other activities. The spatial characteristics of the surveyed shopping trips and with which socio-demographic attributes the shopping chains are associated were further investigated. The consideration of trip chaining creates new challenges for the analysis of accessibility in grocery supply, but also in other areas of individual mobility. Everyday practices such as work or outdoor activities have a significant influence on the choice of supply location. The results provide new empirical data for a more in-depth analysis of everyday action spaces and a potential basis for further modeling in the fields of location analysis and market research.