FOOD PURCHASE AND CONSUMPTION HABITS DURING COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS IN BOGOTA

ABSTRACT

The covid-19 pandemic has had implications in multiple areas, including consumer behavior. One of the first segments affected by the pandemic was the food industry due to the demand of essential goods. This paper analyzes the main changes in food purchase and consumption habits during the covid-19 lockdowns in Bogotá. To do this, we proposed a quantitative, non-experimental field design with the participation of 506 university students. Findings show that consumption behaviors related to staying-at-home, such as online shopping, cooking and homemade food consumption, and the importance of logistics and digital strategies increased during the lockdowns. Furthermore, we defined three types of consumers (i) those who showed significant changes in their habits during the lockdowns, (ii) those who kept relatively similar habits to those before the pandemic, and (iii) those who continued out-of-home habits despite lock-downs. Finally, this study seeks to outline a perspective that contributes to understanding consumer behavior and the changes caused by the covid-19 pandemic beyond the relationship between food consumption habits and health, which has been the dominant perspective in the existing literature. © 2022, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. All rights reserved.