The need for effective nutritional education for young consumers has become increasingly apparent given their general food habits and behaviour, particularly during adolescence. Aims to analyse the interaction between young consumers’ food preferences and their nutritional awareness behaviour, within three environments (home, school and social). Preliminary findings in this study would indicate that the perceived dominance of this home, school and social interaction appears to be somewhat overshadowed by the young consumers, developing “independence” trait, particularly during adolescent years. This appears to be reflected in their food preferences within the associated three environments. Suggests that such food preferences are often of a “fast food”‐style and consequently the food habits of many young consumers may fuel the consumption of poor nutritionally balanced meals. While young consumers were aware of healthy eating, their food preference behaviour did not always appear to reflect such knowledge, particularly within the school and social environments.

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The question of access to food has three components: physical access to food, financial access to food and access to information about food. This study explores the issue of financial access to food. The affordability of food is a major consideration for consumers, an important marketing tool for retailers and a principal theme in food policy. Research methods included a comparative shopping exercise (shopping basket analysis) in 109 stores across four towns (two urban and two rural) in Northern Ireland. Store type included multiples (major supermarket chains) and symbol group stores (those stores operating under a franchise from one main buying group). Results indicate that in the main it is cheaper to buy from the multiples, shopping from a symbol group store can incur cost penalties of up to 39.4% above the multiples’ prices. Price disparities, analysed using z‐scores, were apparent between towns and across store types. Similarly, an availability audit of foodstuffs portrayed the multiples as the most comprehensive from which to shop, whereas symbol group stores fared poorly in the availability of fresh green vegetables, carcass meat and wholemeal breads. This is an important issue because it plays an integral part in the health inequality debate and also relates to social exclusion. Fundamentally, financial access to food impinges upon the whole question of food‐purchasing behaviour in terms of accessibility, affordability and availability. Therefore, economic access to food can be used as a useful precursor to a comprehensive analysis of food access in its entirety. It is also useful as an indicator of social exclusion. This study seeks to inform and influence the food policy debate.

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Purpose -An understanding of consumer behaviour will enable service providers to segment their client base and target specific customer groups with strategies designed to meet their retail needs. Hence, an insight into and understanding of how consumers interact with and evaluate a retail offering will help improve customer service and satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in consumers' food retail behaviour with regard to the demographic variable of age, based on the older population. This paper focuses on food shoppers aged over 60 years living independently in Northern Ireland. The retail geography in Northern Ireland has changed and whilst affecting all consumers has impacted to a greater degree on older consumers. This and the fact that the over 60 age group is increasing demographically illustrate why this consumer segment is worthy of greater consideration. Design/methodology/approach -A quantitative methodological approach is employed and data are collected using a consumer questionnaire (n ¼ 791). The questionnaire is analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. Findings -The results show that as age increases older consumers' retail buying and food-related behaviour changes. A decline in patronage of multiple retailers is evident as age increases; as is consumers' perceived value of multi-purchase promotions and nutritional confidence. Alongside increasing age there is an apparent increase in the use of local shops, the enjoyment gained from shopping, the difficulty experienced in accessing food retail sites and the problems experienced when cooking. Practical implications -This paper suggests that age may be used to differentiate between customer groups and retailers must take age into consideration when providing a product offering and in retail provision for the elderly consumer. Originality/value -This paper fulfils a need for information on older consumers' retail behaviour in Northern Ireland and offers advice to food retailers attempting to better serve this increasingly important consumer segment.