Survey on Grocery Consumption

This survey was used to define the target audience for recipe books. The preferred portion size, cooking style and ingredients were important elements to be established by the survey, as well as consumption habits. A little less than thirty (in fact, 28) people answered this survey. The average respondent is part of a household of 2 or 3 members and spends $100 to $120 weekly on groceries. The average grocery purchased is composed of 20% to 40% vegetables, 20% to 40% meat and substitutes and less than 20% each of flour products, prepared foods and desserts. The choice of a recipe is based mostly on whether it tastes better or whether it is better for health. Our respondents have mixed feelings about organic food: 44% believe in buying it while 48% don’t. Desserts are usually eaten after dinner. Preparation for breakfast must take less than 15 minutes, preparation for lunch between 15 and 30 minutes and preparation for dinner between 30 minutes and an hour. A majority of respondents prefer stovetop cooking, followed by oven-baked meals. Recipes are mostly gathered from recipe books and friends and family. In general, people are not influenced by food advertising. Overall, the survey met our goals. It gave a precise portrait of the target audience for a recipe book and the criteria used to select recipes. Questions #5 and #10 are not specific enough, question #3 would benefit from a 10% incremental scale starting at 0% and question #2 needs ''per person'' added at the end of the question. It is difficult to prepare a survey that can reach each person’s possible answer. In a future survey, we would ask clearer and more precise questions.

William and Ghislain


Our analysis of the survey reveals that most people spend around 60 dollars per person per week on groceries. Most people spend a relatively small percentage of money on frozen foods; less than 20%. This is rather surprising because the frozen/prepared foods section has grown a lot in the past decade. We believe that people may not have answered entirely honestly to this question because the purchase of frozen foods is badly seen in today's society. We can back this up because the majority answered ''NO'' to wheather or not they believed in buying organic foods. The survey also revealed that people spend more time cooking dinner than they do lunch, and they spend yet again more time on lunch than they do on breakfast. Although we cannot see a commun theme to the questions of the survey, it does provide interesting results for analysis.


Pawel & Vincent