Changes of Urban Food Purchase Habits during the First Wave of COVID-19: Hungarians Living in Romania and Hungary Compared

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, the emerging economic uncertainty, a declining trust, digital solutions, and the home office have changed consumer behaviour, including food-buying habits. Given that the epidemic in Central and Eastern Europe has developed differently due to territorial differences, we have focused our study on the comparative analysis of two countries. The aim of our research was to examine the food purchase habits during the first wave of the pandemic together with consumer decisions and their motivations emerged due to the epidemic among the Hungarian urban population of two countries. In the present study, we conducted a survey among Hungarian urban consumers in Romania and among the urban population in Hungary at the beginning of the pandemic when lockdown was implemented. Over a two-month period, we collected more than 2,000 completed questionnaires.