Food Market Hygiene in the Consumer Experience

Abstract

The market "Las Manuelas" located in the canton Duran, Guayas province is the subject of this research, this market is new in its location, has a modern infrastructure design, but there is a paradigm about the municipal markets maintain poor hygiene, lower than supermarkets and this condition affects the experience of customers and consumers. This research aims to determine the association between the cleanliness of the "Las Manuelas" market and the experience of its consumers. Survey technique was applied for data collection and the Somers coefficient was used for statistical analysis through the SPSS 22.00 program. The results indicated that there is an association between the two study variables. Through the analysis of the contingency table, 37.5 % of the consumers motivated their purchase by the observed cleanliness; they qualified the experience of their purchase as regular. The market "Las Manuelas" could take awareness measures to promote an optimal hygiene culture to improve the experience of its consumers, 48.1% of them choose to buy in the market for the convenience in prices and 19.4% for the variety of products. In view of the growth of supermarkets in the country, isolating the cleaning factor as a purchasing decision could put this supply centre identified as a cultural symbol at risk.