Q.30 is a five part question which is attitudinal in construct
4.3.1 Coding System for Interviews
The content analysis process was undertaken in order to chart any recurring themes or motifs during the interviews and any questions within the questionnaire where the respondents were asked to choose ‘other - please specify’. Transcripts of the interviews were printed and the responses forensically examined. Whenever a topic was mentioned by a respondent, it was noted and once all the interviews were examined, it was possible to detect a pattern forming. By this method, the author completed an analysis of the keywords and phrases that were repeated by the respondents.
A coding system was adopted in order to aid identification during the process of content analysis.
For the interviews, this consisted of allocating each respondent in initialised code name as follows:
For the answers included from the questionnaire, these were allocated the same numbers as in the original questionnaire. (See Appendix 1 Survey Questionnaire.) For analysis purposes they will be coded as follows:
As there were 157 valid respondents each will be assigned a number from 1-157. For example, an answer to question 12 from respondent 45 would be coded Q12/R45.
117 4.3.2 Content Analysis - Interviews
Figure 3: Word Cloud Content Analysis - Interviews
Throughout the qualitative research which consisted of interviews and semi-open questions from the questionnaire, a number of themes and patterns became apparent.
The questionnaire covered 157 respondents and the interviewees were all drawn from this cohort, therefore a large number of opinions were present. In order to analyse the content of the interviews and the qualitative segments of the questionnaire answers, the author conducted a keyword count to establish exactly which themes were recurring within the sample. Sorted by frequency from highest to lowest the top twenty results were as follows:
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Phrase /Expression/Word Frequency
1 Shop 23
2 Take-Away 20
3 Buy 20
4 Aldi 19
5 Lidl 16
6 Tesco 11
7 Less 10
8 Cook 9
9 Money 9
10 Veg/Vegetables 8
11 Cheaper 7
12 Myself 7
13 Conscious 6
14 Value 6
15 Treat 6
16 Recession 3
17 Fresh 3
18 Deal 3
19 Bargain 3
20 Stigma 2
Figure 4: Content Analysis - Keyword Frequency
The analysis showed the following:
N.B. Keywords in sentences are in bold.
119 4.3.2.1 Shop
The word shop was understandably a recurring motif. It flagged twenty three times in interviews and interestingly on two occasions it was immediately followed by the word around. ‘Shop around’ was a theme mentioned by KC & LT in their interviews.
KC said: ‘If you shop around what’s on special offer, you have your Aldi, you have your six a week that you get for 39 cent and stuff’.
LT’s comment was: ‘There is Aldi’s in Tallaght and all that now, when years ago there wasn’t. So they can shop around everywhere’
Most interviewees referred to shops in terms of their brand, for example:
VK ‘I shop in Aldi now mostly, because it’s cheaper.’
Many other interviewees answered in a similar vein:
AR ‘I’d shop in Lidl far more than maybe I would have before’
COD ‘We shop from multiple outlets.’
ME ‘They were starting to shop in Lidl and Aldi’
Most other interviewees mentioned shops in simple functional terms such as DB who said:
DB ‘Sometimes if I'm at home and my aunt and we’d shop together, because we pool the car’
Or DB again, mentioning timing and frequency:
DB ‘I shop on a Saturday and on a Sunday’
The inherent nature of the word ‘shop’ and its viability as both a noun and a verb account for its appearance at the top of the keyword list, beyond that it is instructive as an identifier (Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and so on).
120 4.3.2.2 Take-Away
The subject of take-away food came up twenty times in interviews (take-away food formed part of the structure of the questions).
Many respondents considered take-away food as an option instead of cooking, however a large number of those interviewed reported that their expenditure on take-away food had been severely curtailed and most in fact had witnessed the paradigm shift where the take-away meal option had become an occasional event and had altered in nature from being a meal solution when the respondent was too tired or busy to cook to one where it had in fact become a treat or self-gift perhaps at the weekend.
COD ‘possibly might be a little bit less take-away’
COD ‘we’d probably have a take-away or occasionally (or) eat out, but take-away’
COD is referring here to take-away meals being both a replacement for home-cooked meals and as a treat. COD also alludes to the diminishing frequency of both
DB ‘when I would have earned more money, it would have been simpler to get a take-away’
DB ‘A away is a treat now’ / ‘which means I can afford the take-away’
DB here contrasts the level of take-away with the comparative lack of discretionary income to previously, furthermore DB now reports that take-away food is a treat and finally DB claimed that the point was that the take-away was purchased with money saved by doing the grocery shopping in discount retailers
VK ‘I suppose, people can’t afford eating out, can’t afford take-aways’
VK ‘… can’t afford take-aways at all’.
VK quite clearly states here that ‘people’ cannot afford take-away food in the current economic climate.
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KC ‘once a week we always get a take-away, say every Saturday night’
KC states here how take-away food has become a weekly ritual and is considered a treat
LT Say one day, we’d get a take-away
LT is referring to using take-away food as an alternative to home-cooking LT I think we probably got more take-aways six or seven years ago.
LT here is referring to the diminishing frequency of take-away meals ME Usually get a take-away.
ME is referring to using take-away food as an alternative to home-cooking SL It would probably be a take-away.
This is in answer to a question regarding the days when a home-cooked meal was not prepared
SL We would have got more take-aways, before.
SL is referring to the diminishing frequency of take-away meals
SL But even the likes you see the Chinese restaurants are all closing down or they are all doing special meal deals now for, that wouldn’t have been available seven years ago.
SL claims that many take-away restaurants – in particular Chinese restaurants are either closing down or attempting to gain (or re-gain) market share by offering deals to customers.
4.3.2.3 Buy
The word buy was repeated twenty times during interviews. As part of the substantive question of this study regards purchasing, this is not an unusual development.
Most interviewees used the word to describe their fundamental purchasing habits.
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AR I’d like to say I’d buy the ingredients, and make it up;
AR is describing her attitude to a set question regarding the making of a shepherd’s pie for dinner
DB ‘I wouldn’t necessarily buy my meat there, but I would certainly buy cleaning products’
DB is describing inherent attitudes towards Aldi and Lidl DB ‘I’d buy the ingredients and make it myself.
DB is describing the attitude to a set question regarding the making of a shepherd’s pie for dinner
DB ‘we’ll buy the two for one offers’
DB is discussing the sharing of two-for-one items with an aunt whom DB habitually shops with, in order to car-pool.
DN ‘Yes, so we would make vegetable lasagne, so we would basically we’d buy the pasta sheets from Dolmio’
DN is describing the attitude to a set question regarding the making of a shepherd’s pie for dinner. DN’s partner is vegetarian so the question was changed to reflect this.
KC ‘I would buy processed foods, but I’d get whatever is on special offer in the shops, is what I’d usually go for, for fresh fruit and veg’
KC is describing the attitude to buying special offers. Whilst fresh food (fruit and veg) are the usual target, the shopping remit extends to almost anything that is on offer, this includes processed foods.
KC ‘I’d go out and I’d buy like you said, expensive piece of fish’
KC describes the buying habit for a dinner party for guests or a treat for KC and partner.
LOC .’I wasn’t a huge fan of frozen anyway, but now I definitely wouldn’t buy anything’
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LOC is explaining here how the relative low cost of fresh fruit and veg available at Aldi and Lidl makes the purchase of fresh foodstuffs affordable and contrasts with LOC’s long held aversion to frozen food,
‘LOC We all have our few bits that we can’t buy, where we do our main shop. For example there are a few things, we just love that Tesco do and we have buy them there. But other than that, it’s price.’
LOC is describing how buying the weekly shop in Aldi does not satisfy all LOC’s purchasing needs and explains the necessity of visiting Tesco for certain items in certain cases. In all other cases LOC is guided by price point.
LOC ‘Yes, in our case yes, or if you were going to get a nice bottle of wine, then it would be buy, I suppose it’s stereotypical but a nice steak and a nice bottle of wine’
LOC is describing buying habits in answer to a question regarding a treat.
LT ‘Yes, we buy less now and we look around different places now’
LT is describing the new reality of the weekly shop, explaining that buying trips often involve multi-outlet comparisons.
LT ‘No, not really now, we don’t buy luxury foods anymore really’
LT is explaining that since the start of the recession the family unit do not buy non-essential ‘luxury’ foods.
ME ‘just buying cheaper meat’
ME claims that people are coping with a shrunken food budget by buying less expensive meat, ME claimed that some people would buy sausages instead of chops and further that people were using more eggs in their diet.
ME ‘my husband would buy steaks definitely it’s one of his treats’
ME is describing buying habits in answer to a question regarding a treat.
VK ‘I don’t buy anything like ready meals or anything prepared or anything like that’
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VK is describing attitudes regarding processed foods, VK has a son who VK describes as a ‘foodie’ consequently VK tends to exclude processed or pre-prepared foods from the domestic weekly grocery shopping.
4.3.2.4 Aldi
Aldi are one of the German-owned supermarkets (the other being Lidl). They opened their first store in Ireland in 1999. Aldi have 105 stores in Ireland (Republic) and are currently still expanding.