“This year, we wanted the shopping habits survey to reflect several responsibility-related topics like food waste, waste sorting and loyalty charitable programmes, which I personally find the most appealing. More than in the past, respondents mentioned various regional food producers although the best-known brands are still dairies. What I find positive is the gradually declining emphasis on the price of groceries and a rising emphasis on their quality and ingredients. Overall, the improving state of the economy is reflected in people’s spending,” says Karel Růžička, partner of KPMG Czech Republic in charge of food and beverage industry services and CSR.

People buy specific types of coffee depending on their net personal income. People with lower incomes most often buy instant and ground coffee. People with higher incomes tend to buy whole bean coffee and people with the highest incomes prefer coffee machine capsules, which have become popular with every fifth city inhabitant. Similar outcomes result from an analysis by the size of the place of residence. At least every second household in villages and small towns with up to 4 999 inhabitants buys ground coffee. The bigger the town, the lower the proportion of people buying ground coffee. In cities with 100 000 or more inhabitants, only a little more than one third of households (37%) opt for ground coffee.

Czechs are not at all used to buying fair trade coffee: only 7% of Czechs say they buy it “always” or “most often” and 12% say fair trade coffee makes up half of their coffee purchases. Seven out of ten respondents do not buy fair trade coffee at all, the most frequent reason (45%) being never having heard of it. The awareness of fair trade coffee significantly correlates with age. While 70% of respondents aged 18 to 24 are aware of it, the same goes for only 43% of the 55- to 64-year-olds.

Three fourths of Czech buy take-home beer in hyper- and supermarkets. Every third respondent also purchases it at discount stores. Specialized shops are marginal: beer houses were mentioned by 6% of respondents, specialised shops with a wider offer of alcohol by 5% of respondents. Beer shoppers include more men than women, and young people under 24. Only every seventh Czech, a few more (15% vs. 11%) women than men, does not buy take-home beer in shops.

Most Czech have become used to recycling plastic; as many as 80% of people in small villages say they “always” sort it, compared to 65% in cities. The correlation between the size of the place of residence and recycling is even more apparent in the sorting of metal: 51% of people in the smallest villages say they “always” sort it, compared to a mere 27% of city people.

Only about every fourth household does not throw away any food. Most Czechs, however, throw away up to 10% of their purchased groceries, either because they have expired or turned rotten. Every hundredth Czech throws away more than 25%. Small, one or two person households, on the other hand, have no problem eating all their purchased groceries; one third of them do not throw away any groceries at all. On the contrary, the bigger the family, the more respondents say they throw away from a tenth to a fourth of purchased groceries (17% is thrown away by at least four-member families; one-person households throw away only 7%). Lower-income families, in particular, do not throw away groceries at all, with 35% of people with net monthly income of up to CZK 20 000 claiming that. On the other hand, every fifth family with net monthly income of over CZK 50 000 throw away 10 to 25% of groceries; only 14% of these families say they do not throw away any groceries at all.

The proportion of people not throwing away any groceries increases with age. While 11% of people under 34 do not throw away any groceries, the same applies to 20% of people aged 35 to 44 and to 38% of people aged 55 to 64. Younger respondents throw away more groceries: 20% of younger respondents throw away 10% or more of their groceries while the same applies to only 4% of people aged 55 to 64.

More than half of Czechs (52%) do not sort biological waste and throw away leftovers and scraps to mixed waste. One fourth of respondents have their own composting system and approximately every sixth respondent uses biological waste containers.

Nearly two thirds of Czechs (64%) usually carry up to five loyalty cards with them. They most often (16%) carry five cards with them. Quite a high number of respondents (13%), however, said they carry 10 cards with them. On average, we carry 5.9 cards. Women (6.8 on average) carry their cards more often than men (3.9 on average). Only 5% of Czechs do not carry any loyalty cards with them.

Despite most often carrying five loyalty cards with them, more than a fifth of respondents (21%) use only three cards.

As asserted by nine Czechs out of ten, the most popular bonus under loyalty programmes is a discount for the seller’s goods. Bonuses in the form of free services or other goods ranked second (83%). Consumers find the possibility to contribute to charitable or non-profit projects via their purchases (53%) and award competitions (48%) less appealing.

For detailed results of the shopping habits in the Czech Republic survey, go to the full study page (in Czech).

KPMG Czech Republic fifth annual survey of shopping habits in the Czech Republic was conducted by Data Collect, an independent research institute. The data was collected on-line among 1 000 respondents from a representative sample by age and region between 23 and 27 February 2017. The sample included 70% of women and 30% of men. Only those members of households in charge of shopping were selected as respondents for the survey.