Impact of covid-19 outbreak on consumers’ grocery purchasing in east coast of Malaysia

Covid-19 pandemic has a great impact on a wide range of economical and industrial sector which includes the grocery purchasing among the consumers in East Coast of Malaysia. Therefore, this survey was carried out to investigate the effects of Covid-19 on the frequency of grocery purchasing among Malaysian people with different income status and household size, and to examine the changes in the pattern of grocery shopping among Malaysian consumers. The questionnaire was constructed based on KAP Model and was distributed through online medium to 207 respondents in Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu. Findings were analyzed through Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The reliability of the questionnaire was identified by using Cronbach’s Alpha test and the result was 0.725. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze demographic profile of respondent. Chi-Square Test revealed that there are relationships between household size and income status of consumers with their attitude and practices of grocery purchasing during the Covid-19 outbreak. From this study, the most significant factor that influence the consumers in their frequency of grocery purchasing during Covid-19 outbreak turned out to be the knowledge factor which accounted the highest percentage of variance explained. Understanding the impact of Covid-19 especially in terms of consumers’ grocery purchasing would help food and grocery items producers in the supply chain to make innovation and improvement on their business in order to adapt to the changes made by the consumers due to the new norms during the Covid-19 outbreak.