Traditional Foods at the Click of a Button: The Preference for the Online Purchase of Romanian Traditional Foods during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The 2020 quarantine demonstrated that online food purchase has become one of the main protagonists of the pandemic. The present study valued the Internet as a mediator between producers and consumers with the power to create new demand for Romanian traditional food during the COVID-19 crisis. Author...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2020-12, Vol.12 (23), p.9956
Main Authors: Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina, Vermeir, Iris, Petrescu, Dacinia Crina, Crista, Florin Laurentiu, Banatean-Dunea, Ioan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Consumers
Consumption
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Culture
Electronic commerce
Food preferences
Food products
Internet
Internet access
Natural resources
Pandemics
Shopping
Sustainability
Taste
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Summary:The 2020 quarantine demonstrated that online food purchase has become one of the main protagonists of the pandemic. The present study valued the Internet as a mediator between producers and consumers with the power to create new demand for Romanian traditional food during the COVID-19 crisis. Authors aimed at carrying out an exploratory research about the online purchase of traditional foods (TFs). Within this context, the study, firstly, outlines the meaning of traditional foods in the Romanian consumers’ minds and, secondly, it identifies the variables that can predict the preference for the online purchase of TFs during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was carried out to investigate the Romanian consumers’ perceptions (n = 223) of TFs and online purchase of TFs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Binary logistic regression tested the relationship between the preference for the online purchase of TFS (vs. in-store) and seven perceived characteristics of TFs. Results show that the preference for the online purchase of TFs during the COVID-19 pandemic can be predicted by five variables—“TFs taste”; “Effect of TFs consumption on health during the COVID-19 pandemic”; “Effect of online TFs purchase on health during the COVID-19 pandemic”; “How cheap/expensive is to buy TFS online during the COVID-19 pandemic”; and “Easiness to purchase TFS online during the COVID-19 pandemic”. It was concluded that TFs have to claim their place within this digitized landscape by finding the balance between old and new, between preferences for foods taste passed through generations and new life lifestyles at 5G speed.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su12239956