Cameron Dufour
Consumer Behaviour Journal
Week of October 30th, 2011

Items/Services Purchased | | Cost ($) | Details | Groceries - Wal-Mart & Sobeys | | $55.00 | Personal | Gasoline - Macewen North | | $20.00 | Social | Fast Food - Subway | | $15.00 | Social | Picture Frame - Wal-Mart | | $15.00 | Personal | Cell Phone | | $60.00 | Personal | Total | | $165.00 | |

Summary:
As I look over for my purchases for this week, I have noticed that they were pretty even for personal and social events. Both the groceries and picture frame purchases were mandatory. From the grocery bill, $20.00 was a purchase from Wal-Mart for a box of chicken. The specific reason why I purchased the brand of chicken from Wal-Mart rather than any other store is because after evaluating different brands of boxed chicken this brand from Wal-Mart gives me more quantity for a cheaper price and the quality is more satisfactory to me. The extended problem solving for me ended up making my satisfactory level higher, and also made my budget a lot easier to organize. The rest of the grocery bill was spent at Sobeys. Reason being is because it was spontaneous shopping. Since only doing groceries last week and the box of chicken was purchased because of a shortage at home, the purchase was not mandatory but ended up being a surprise for even myself. Sobeys had sales on food that I regularly purchase at No Frills at the time being, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity presented to me. I managed to save at least $8.00 so the purchase was smart on my end. I see why marketers research into spontaneous purchases. It gives them a sense when to promote and advertise when consumers purchasing habits suddenly change. Gasoline was a social purchase for my girlfriend’s car, since I borrowed it to drive it to hockey. The purchase for more of a convenience factor for me, Macewen North was on the way to the arena and prices all looked high, so for me it really didn’t matter of what gas stop I decided to use since either way the car would be filled regardless. Fast-food was a total of $15.00 this week, I bought my roommate a sub from Subway, and we are both loyal to the Subway brand and could possibly eat there every day. Subway constantly markets over the radio and television in North Bay, no wonder there are so many stores in this town. People crave the sandwiches they offer and being an employee at Subway I can agree that our marketing campaigns attract and keep consumers coming into our restaurant. It is a well-organized company that knows how to keep the consumers eye solely on them and no other competition. Even though the purchase was not mandatory, the persuasion factor of my roommate was too great, plus the television ads that were on prior to the conversation took place. The last and final payment for this week was my cell phone bill. It has never been so high before, and the reason for that is most likely because of my long distance calling to home. I would do anything to save money with meant not buying a home land-line for our house, which makes me force to call everyone with my mobile phone. This was a personal payment, it is money coming out of my own pocket, and it has definitely has taught me more about my memory process. I look at the consequences about calling long distance and now I can re-evaluate my decisions and perhaps avoid a huge bill next time it has to be paid.
Week of November 6th, 2011 | | Cost($) | Details | Nipissing - Cafeteria | | $25.00 | Social | Gasoline - Canadian Tire | | $40.00 | Personal | Sears - Pants, Slippers | | $35.00 | Personal | Video Games - Xbox console | | $80.00 | Personal | LCBO | | $25.00 | Personal | Subway | | $4.00 | Social | Total | | $209.00 | | | | | |
Summary:
This week consisted of spending a lot of money. It involved a few road trips from North Bay to Sarnia and back. So to start off we will look at the purchase of the Gasoline, it was not my decision to purchase Canadian Tire gas, and it was my girlfriends. It was her car, and she tells me she always fills up with the Canadian tire gasoline, she seemed very loyal to the brand and tell me she likes taking full advantage to represent our nationality. I looked more into her purchases of that day, and her behaviour seemed quite like the average 20 year old women. Her purchases were all related in a certain way, and when we walked into stores she knew exactly what aisles each item was in, you can say that she has bought these products and brands before. Prior to leaving North Bay for the weekend, I had a busy week at school that consisted of me buying food at the cafeteria almost each day it seemed. They would be small portions of food, such as a small bag of Sweet Chilli Heat Dorito’s, a banana, Dasani bottle of water, and a small sandwich from the sub section of the cafeteria. I can honestly say that my stimuli were the reasons for my purchase during the week; it was more of sight and smell who played the major role. Seeing all the kinds of food in the cafeteria made me convinced to purchase something, but what? Product placement in the cafeteria was a great idea to make student by their chips, right before the cash register and around the cafeteria itself. The bag of chips was an extra purchase on top of my sub and banana. Next day my purchase at the cafeteria was not mandatory but I needed something to drink, so me being all about health concerns, and dieting a bottle of water was perfect to meet my satisfactory level, and my health standards. The reason why for Dasani water is because I believe that it is the only brand of water the cafeteria sells, but I am not too sure but regardless has made my purchasing decision a lot easier to make. Once arrived in Sarnia for my dad’s 50th birthday party it was time to celebrate. The LCBO purchase was mandatory for so many reasons that I can’t say. Alcohol can be stress reliever, and traffic on the 401 can give you stress, so a few drinks to celebrate someone very special to you birthday is always going to be a fun time.