Drawing on the Big Middle theory of retail evolution, an analysis of primary survey data on Thai shopping behavior seeks to understand the relative satisfaction of consumers with wet markets and supermarkets, identifying the factors that affect frequency of visit to, and purchase behavior within, these retail outlets. This provides the basis for engaging in a wider debate on the possibility of a ‘Global Big Middle’ for food retailing. On all salient attributes affecting retail outlet choice, supermarkets perform better than wet markets. However for fresh produce, wet markets continue to account for the majority of expenditure, albeit to a far lesser extent than in previous studies. A bootstrapped bivariate ordered probit model identifies that supermarkets... |