Convenience-Oriented Food Expenditures of Working-Wife Families

Consumers' convenience orientation towards meal preparation: conceptualization and measurement

“…TV dinners do not seem to offer enough preparation convenience to be preferred more by convenience oriented consumers. This is in line with the findings of several studies (Dare, 1988;Darian & Klein, 1989;Darian & Tucci, 1992;Douglas, 1976;Kim, 1989;Reilly, 1982;Strober & Weinberg, 1980) showing that there is no relation between wife's working status and the use of convenience foods. We did find a relation between the use of TV dinners and the valuation of the ease of cleaning up ( 0Á226, p`0Á01) as well as the valuation of variation between meals ( À0Á276, p`0Á01).…”

“…The latter consumption strategies apparently are most adequate in satisfying consumers' need for convenience. The present study also sheds some light on the absence of a relation between wife's working status and the use of convenience foods (Dare, 1988;Darian & Klein, 1989;Darian & Tucci, 1992;Douglas, 1976;Kim, 1989;Reilly, 1982;Strober & Weinberg, 1980). Although we found that working status was related to convenience orientation, there was no relation between convenience orientation and the use of TV dinners (which may be considered a prototypical convenience food).…”

“…A number of studies (Dare 1988;Darian & Klein, 1989; Use of convenient food variants 0Á43** 0Á34** Number of convenience providing devices owned 0Á20 0Á13 Frequency of using frozen TV-dinners 0Á43** 0Á00 Frequency of going to a restaurant 0Á36** 0Á20* Frequency of using a take-away meal 0Á32* 0Á24** Frequency of preparing warm meals 0Á35** À0Á21* Frequency of preparing new recipes 0Á44** À0Á31** Frequency of baking bread 0Á29* À0Á25** Frequency of making marmelade 0Á31* À0Á26** *p`0Á05; **p`0Á01 in two-sided tests. Darian & Tucci, 1992;Douglas, 1976;Kim, 1989;Reilly, 1982;Strober & Weinberg, 1980) found no relation between wife's working status and the use of convenience foods. Since TV dinners can be considered the prototype of convenience food, we also expect there to be no relation between convenience orientation and the use of TV dinners.…”

“…The role that convenience orientation may play in understanding food consumption is illustrated by one important finding reported in a number of studies (Dare, 1988;Darian & Klein, 1989;Darian & Tucci, 1992;Douglas, 1976;Kim, 1989;Reilly, 1982;Strober & Weinberg, 1980). These studies find that the use of convenience foods (such as TV dinners) is not related to housekeeping time-pressure, as measured by number of hours of paid employment.…”

To cook or not to cook: A means-end study of motives for choice of meal solutions

“…Studies dealing with convenience in meal preparation have been almost entirely devoted to the analysis of its demographic and economic determinants, such as employment status, household size, education level and income (Bonke, 1996;Darian & Tucci, 1992;Yale & Venkatesh, 1986). A view of convenience based on economic rationality-consumers choose the meal preparation alternative that offers the greatest perceived time and effort savings for a specific situation-has also framed the few studies devoted to its psycho-social determinants like convenienceorientation, role-overload or perceived time-pressure (Candel, 2001;Reilly, 1982;Scholderer & Grunert, 2005;Verlegh & Candel, 1999).…”