How Americans and Europeans buy food

Living in the US means you're more than likely to purchase food systematically at the lowest price, a result of a culture that favors food abundance, an emphasis on quantity. To Europeans, one look at our super-sized refrigerators will tell you the same.

Americans are more likely to spend on high quality alcohol, wines and furniture than food. England and Germany share the US hunger for bargain food and use it, like Americans, to adjust the family budget. In economically troubled times this is leverage becomes important.

Germans will more likely frequent hard discount stores (48 percent) like the U.S.'s Wal-mart, Costco, B.J.'s and Sam's Club. However the German hard discount stores are thought to have higher quality with a more extensive variety to choose from.

Meanwhile the Italians and Spanish continue to spend as much as they can afford, the importance of food and healthful eating outweighs economic concerns.

Source: European Market by Sharon Greene, Managing Director RISC International in Produce Business 2/10