Consumer Shopping Habits for Wellness and Environmentally ...

Services Should be Physically Separate
Regardless of store context, consumers generally feel that any quasi-clinical services should be
performed in a closed off, spatially distinct area, apart from other parts of the store. In many
instances this is driven by privacy concerns, however, in stores where food is a focus, this is also
motivated by a strong urge to keep food and anything that may involve bodily fluids and/or sick
people separate from the rest of the store.
Expertise Drawn from Outside the Store
Consumers look to authorities outside of the retailer to confirm that personnel performing health
services have received the proper training. In other words, a ―regular store employee‖ should not be
administering such service; consumers don‘t trust ―someone who might as well be slicing turkey‖ to
provide such services. Instead, they expect a ―real nurse‖ or equivalent, just like, for years, they have
trusted that pharmacists have been through a specific educational and certification process prior to
working as pharmacists.
Who Pays What?
The tangled web of health insurance is a top-of-mind concern for consumers when they consider the
idea of in-store services. Consumers want to know who will pay for what, and seek to avoid many of
the complications of insurance that they have experienced in the past. This strongly suggests that
any retailer offering such services make insurance/payment details immediately available and as
uncomplicated as possible. Of course, those lacking health insurance have no such concerns, and
would look toward in-store health services as perhaps a less-expensive way to get basic care.
Quantitative Findings on Desirability of Health Services
Learning Features
By learning features, we mean in-store features that inform consumers about H+W in almost any
form, however, in large part we mean advice from store employees and signage and other fixed
materials that serve as information resources.
As we‘ve mentioned in several places in this report, the thirst for knowledge that consumers tend to
exhibit in the Mid-level is very important to keep in mind when constructing H+W strategies. This is
particularly important in retail spaces, which for many consumers, serves as the primary source of
H+W information.
There are some unique challenges for some retailers here. In an ideal world, a retailer would be able
to devote significant resources to providing informational features, especially dynamic elements such
as staffed displays. But, of course, the reality is that resources (and space) are limited, and often
fixed displays are the only option.
Focus for Learning Features
Learning features should focus on explaining, in compact language, what distinguishes products and
what particular attributes make products desirable. For instance, if building a display to explain the
advantages of an entry-level natural cleaning product, which typically begins to have appeal to
consumers in the ―shallow‖ Mid-level (i.e. just into the Mid-level near the Periphery) there are three
155