How Taiwanese Housewives Buy Grocery

choi

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, for both working and non-working housewives.

Only (1) (10) (13) (14) (15) (16) and (17) deal with
working housewives

(1) 小さな幸せ (author's name), 買菜.
http://blog.youthwant.com.tw/maykao/maykao/113/

(2) 買菜. Oct. 19, 2007.
http://blog.roodo.com/Alanruo/archives/3954809.html

Note: The following are Taiwanese/Fujianese.
安捏 means "That is all" or "Just that."

安捏nia？ --Is that all?
安捏tio好 --That is all, pretty good.

(3) 史洪, 到竹蓮市場買菜.
http://www.taipeimarathon.org.tw/story95/950630a.htm

(4) 成功國小五年四班 | 你有幫忙採買年貨嗎?
http://blog.ilc.edu.tw/blog/blog/644/post/14371/90587

(5) Grocery shopping.
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:Of1vjmhwotIJ:www.asianjoke.com/2009/10/02/grocery-shopping/+taiwan+grocery+shopping&cd=29&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

My comment: Taiwanese are remarkable for being unflappable. People generally
do not laugh at another--if they do, they do that behind the back of the
subject. In any event, Taiwanese do not care what others people think, even
if they are laughed at; in other words, they will do it again.

(6) miltownkid, Grocery Shopping Taiwan Style. May 10, 2007.
http://miltownkid.com/2007/05/10/grocery-shopping-taiwan-style/

Note: The author misspelled. Not McGuyver but
MacGyver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGyver
("The story arc of MacGyver follows the intelligent, optimistic, laid-back,
resourceful secret agent Angus MacGyver, played by Richard Dean Anderson. He
prefers a non-violent resolution to fighting where possible, and refuses to
use a gun")

(7) Hypermarkets battle for hearts and minds of island's consumers. Taiwan
Today, Feb. 14, 2010.
http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=29898&CtNode=427
("Taiwan's consumers choose traditional markets over hypermarkets when
shopping for fresh food. * * * wet markets are still many people's ideal
spots for shopping. Eighty-two percent of people stated they go to
traditional markets for fresh meat, vegetables and fruit; among them, 43
percent remarked that the quality was better, and 27 percent said that the
markets are closer to their homes.")

(8) Bridgette, Thanksgiving in Taiwan. Aug. 20, 2002.
http://www.epinions.com/content_2816647300

(9) Taiwan retailing in transition: a boom in western-style commerce.
AdExporter, May 1, 1994.
http://www.allbusiness.com/agriculture-forestry-fishing-hunting/442506-1.html

(10) Sammy, 上班媽媽省時必備．網購一家親. Aug. 17, 2008.
http://sammy.zh-tw.org/archives/907

My comment:
(a) Sammy is the nick name of Sam, which in turn is short for "Samantha."
(b) The subtitle ("全職雙子媽的台東新生活，開心ing！") of the blog ("Sammy’
s Talk") betrays the family lives in 台東--the county or its county seat.

(11) Amanda, 傳統市場買菜趣味多. Nov. 23, 2009.
http://amanda326.pixnet.net/blog/post/24609279

Note: The author is a homemaker "家庭主婦," rather than an office worker.

(12) 一開始就不孤單 (author's name), 上市場買菜，洗米又洗菜（4.1ys）. Oct. 7
, 2008.
http://blog.roodo.com/zozoyoyo2/archives/7326545.html

(13) 有上班的上班族會那時候去買菜？
http://tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=1105060908834

(14) KAY8603126, 跟公婆住,有上班&沒上班的水水是如何解決三餐? Jan. 10, 2010.
http://verywed.com/forum/wedlife/1217823-1.html

My comment: I can only imagine that 水 is a woman and 水水 is the plural
form.

(15) 愛吃素的小 寶寶, 給我些許好建議吧?! Sept. 15, 2003.
http://www.suiis.com/Forum/Reply.asp?no=76819
(replies: (a) "由於工作的需要常需做些加熱、切削及烘烤的實驗 所以就順便在實驗
的同時也能完成燙青菜、烤地瓜的美味小菜 回到家中只要把定時設定好的電鍋裡的飯
拿出來 再將公司中做好的小菜" (b) "愛煮飯的我,需上班 我總是沒時間,所以簡單煮
湯麵或鹹稀飯,買菜--就用宅急便;每星期寄送一次;若吃完了就請外面廚師囉!")

(16) gigi8104, 打工者. Feb. 24, 2010.
http://kingcross.com.tw/discuz/redirect.php?tid=5261&goto=lastpost
("大半年以來。每天早上他都會從菜市場買菜帶去他上班的工廠（路程大概需要40分鐘
）。。路過我們這時。順便買上幾份早餐。。。。 ")

(17) 考試院院長現身說國家考試. 1111人力銀行, Ma.r 91, 2010.
http://www.pcschool.com.tw/careers/report/newsInner.aspx?sno=938&type=6
("以前的公務員的確很輕鬆，還有人利用上班時間買菜、洗頭髮，整體考績卻還是有「
74%甲等，25%乙等，丙等與丁等加起來不到1%」的現象。近年來因為經濟不景氣，各界
紛紛想打破這鐵飯碗，現正修定的《公務人員考績法》，將會嚴格執行獎優汰劣制與退
場制度，未來的公職鐵飯碗不會再像以前一樣輕鬆。")

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I also find two research reports.

(1) Jane Lu Hsu and Wei-Hsien Chang, Market segmentation of fresh meat
shoppers in Taiwan. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and
Consumer Research, 12: 423-436, October 2002.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713770668&db=all

My comment: Full text is not free.

(2) Kamhon Kan and Tsu-Tan Fu, Analysis of Housewives’ Grocery Shopping;
Behavior in Taiwan: An Application of the
Poisson Switching Regression. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics,
29: 397-407, December 1997.
http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/15064/1/29020397.pdf

My comment: Disregarding mathematics, "Results" section of the paper can be
summarized as:
(a) "the value of time has a negative effect on shopping frequency for both
working and nonworking groups of housewives. * * * as wage rate increases, a
working housewife will allocate proportionally less household production time for
market work."

(b) "Both working and nonworking housewives go shopping more frequently if
they have a bigger family. However, while working housewives are not so
responsive to demographic characteristics, such as their age and to the
number of children under the age of 12 in the household (CHILD), for
nonworking housewives, shopping frequency decreases with age and increases
with CHILD."

(c) "Previous studies suggest that households with working housewives tend
to substitute food consumed away from home for food consumed at home. This
is borne out by the present results. If a household with a working housewife
ever eats out more than once in a usual week, the frequency of grocery
shopping decreases significantly. However, for households with nonworking
housewives, the effect of eatout is not statistically significant. The statistical
insignificance of eatout indicates that eating out is not for the purpose of time
saving. Rather, eating out is perhaps a leisure activity for households with a
nonworking housewife, so that whether or not they eat out more than once a
week does not significantly affect the frequency of grocery shopping."

(d) "Neither the presence of chronically sick household members nor the
income of the husband in the household affects the shopping frequency for
working or for nonworking housewives."

(e) "A working housewife has a significantly lower shopping frequency if she
has more years of education.* * * better educated housewives tend to work
more, so that less time is spent on household production."

(f) "Other things being equal, an urban working housewife shops more frequently
than a working housewife who resides within the suburbs.  Conversely, a
nonworking housewife shops more frequently if her household is located in the
suburban area (CITY). The opposite effect of CITY for these respondent groups is
attributable to the different time constraints faced by working and nonworking
housewives. In the urban area, shopping facilities are often more numerous
and are located closer to residential areas, which makes shopping trips less time
consuming and affords working housewives the opportunity to shop more
frequently. This may imply that urban working housewives spend less time per
grocery shopping trip and make more trips per month, but use less time per
month on grocery shopping than their suburban counterparts."

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