The impact of Covid-19 on consumer consumption. How does Covid-19 affect consumers' product preferences? A country comparison between The Netherlands and Sweden.

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The impact of Covid-19 on consumer

consumption. How does Covid-19 affect

consumers' product preferences?

-A cross-country comparison between The Netherlands and Sweden.

Akter Lipi, Shajada

Khales, Ouasim

School of Business, Society & Engineering Master Thesis in Business Administration FOA403

15 credits

Supervisor: Edward Gillmore Date: 03-06-2021

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Abstract

Date: 03-06-2021

Level: Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits

Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University

Authors: Shajada Akter Lipi Ouasim Khales

(1991/12/20) (1994/01/23)

Title: The impact of Covid-19 on consumer consumption. How does Covid-19 affect consumers' product preferences? A country comparison between The Netherlands and Sweden.

Tutor: Edward Gillmore

Keywords: Product preferences, Consumer behavior, Buying behavior, Panic buying, Product consumption, Covid-19 pandemic.

Research

question: The impact of Covid-19 on consumer consumption. How does Covid-19 affect consumers' product preferences?

Background: At the beginning of 2020, a global crisis hit in the name of Covid-19. As a result, many countries in the world closed their borders, economies went into recession, supermarkets, shops, pharmacies faced panic shopping behavior where consumers experienced empty store shelves and products were stock out. The pandemic forced retailers to limit the number of purchases of high-demand products. As consumption on product preferences changes in a crisis, it would be interesting for the researcher to explore the impact of global health crises on consumption. This paper gives an overview of the recent changes in consumption patterns that occurred due to Covid-19 and how consumer behavior on product preferences changed because of the crisis. Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of the recent Covid-19 pandemic

on consumer’s product preferences towards food and clothes, the impact on product supplies, and governmental restrictions between the Netherlands and Sweden.

Method: Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 7 people living in The Netherlands and 7 people living in Sweden.

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Conclusion: The findings indicated aspects of consumer behavior, buying behavior, product consumption, and factors affecting buying behavior became tied to the pandemic in the context of the health aspect of Covid-19. There were not many changes in food consumption, there were large shifts in clothes consumption. It became evident that consumers favored certain products during the pandemic.

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Acknowledgments

First and foremost, we would like to thank our thesis instructor Edward Gilmore for his constant support and help as well as for his constructive feedback and guidance throughout the whole time. All this time invested during the collaboration to write this thesis is much appreciated. We would like to express our gratitude to our family, friends and spouses for their encouragement, emotional support, and motivation.

We would like to thank all participants who only made it possible to conduct our research by providing valuable data and insights during these difficult times.

We would like to thank our opponents and fellow students for giving us useful and precious feedback. This helped us writing the thesis and ensured we delivered the best results possible.

Thank you

Shajada Akter Lipi Ouasim Khales

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1. Introduction

This chapter will provide a general introductory overview of the thesis. It will start with a brief background of the thesis and then will go into the problem discussion to highlight the importance of the research topic. The chapter will end with the purpose of the study and research question.

1.1 Background

In recent world history, people have faced many epidemic outbreaks, for example, Ebola, SARS, MERS, Spanish flu. Most outbreaks have had a greater impact on two categories of human behavior: first, consumer behavior and second, health risk mitigation behavior (Laato et al., 2020). On March 4, 1918, Albert Gitchel was declared as the first person in world history that was affected by coughing, a fever, and a headache which was later identified as the Spanish flu. At the time, he was working as a cook at Camp Fuston in Kansas. Within three weeks, 1100 soldiers had been hospitalized with more people affected. This spread to different countries like Spain, France, Great Britain and Italy. In August 1918, important measures were taken to control the spread of the Spanish flu by making limitations on public transport, people were restricted to visit shops and meeting people in public places. Measures were taken such as street cleaning, disinfecting of public places (Martini et al., 2019). WHO (World Health Organization) reported (SARS) severe acute respiratory syndrome disease cases on April 22, 2003. Most cases were found in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Toronto, Canada and Taiwan (Hsieh et al., 2004). As a result of the outbreak's rapid spread, the local and regional economies were impacted. SARS was quickly recognized by the WHO and they issued several recommendations to control the outbreak. Hong Kong was the first city affected by SARS, and its healthcare community suffered heavily from the disease (LeDuc & Barry, 2004). On March 23, 2014, WHO was notified about the Ebola virus disease, and on August 8, 2014, they declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea. Approximately 4507 cases and 2296 deaths were reported by September 14, 2014, from West Africa like Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone (WHO Ebola Response Team, 2014). In September 2012, a novel coronavirus was found in a patient who died in Saudi Arabia because of acute respiratory distress and acute kidney injury, but the analysis revealed the disease was due to a novel virus which was named Middle East

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2 Respiratory Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The WHO had been informed of many cases and deaths and the cases spread to 27 countries (Al-Omari et al., 2019).

The WHO declared Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) as an infectious disease with a global pandemic outbreak on the 11th of March 2020. The disease originated from Wuhan China and was caused by SARS-coV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). It had rapidly spread into 196 countries and territories. For that reason, most countries took immediate decisions regarding safety measures and strict restrictions on people's daily lives, for example, social distancing, working from home, temporarily closing businesses, schools, colleges, universities, and remote working to slow down the transmission of the virus (Ben Hassen et al., 2020). The activity of human life is affected due to the crisis which changes social, economic, and cultural perspectives for the long term. Covid-19 is a global health crisis that is already having a greater impact on the world economy. The effects of pandemics vary from country to country. It depends on the general health of the population, the evolution of disease cases, development and modernization of national health care systems, and economic level. The global world takes several measures to manage the medical crisis which affects the world economy. In a normal situation, the products a consumer wants to buy depend on their intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics. However, in the context of a global pandemic like Covid-19, consumers are changing their preferences for products, changing their lifestyle and business environment too. The challenges faced by the healthcare system also affect people's living standards and economic stability (Stanciu et al., 2020).

The global outbreak of Covid-19 affected human life and the physical world. It brought several effects on the environment, both positively and negatively. Due to strict restrictions to control the spread of the virus, air quality has increased in many cities because of fewer social gatherings and economic activities, and water pollution has decreased in many countries in the world. On the other hand, the use of PPE (personal protective equipment) is increasing every day for pandemics such as facemasks, hand gloves which impact the environment (Rume & Islam, 2020). According to Grashuis et al. (2020), the early stage of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States shows that household consumption regarding cost of air travel, grocery delivery system, public transportation, etc. changed dramatically (Grashuis et al., 2020).

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3 People's behavior regarding the purchase and consumption of food and the supply chain has been changed throughout the whole world. On the supply side, restrictions the people, border restrictions, and lockdowns in many countries are facing labor shortages. However, pandemic interference in supply chains and that's why it is not able to enter markets for selling products which increases food loss and waste mainly in perishable products like fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, and dairy products. In many countries, farmers are burying perishable products because disruption heavily affects the supply chain. As a result, they are failing to meet consumer demands. International food markets faced export restrictions during the pandemic, which created food shortages around the world, instability in global food markets, rising world food prices. On the demand side, at the beginning of the pandemic, consumers focused on panic buying because of the uncertainty of future shortages. Food is the most essential item for human beings and that's why panic buying is a very common response to a crisis as a consumer (Ben Hassen et al., 2020). The use of digital technology has also increased significantly during the pandemic. For example, video telephone, online chats, using social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Zoom. Social distancing and lockdowns forced people to change their consumption patterns. People also started doing home-based work because of Covid-19 like cooking, cleaning, working, shopping, socialization, and gardening (Cambefort, 2020).

1.2 Problem Discussion

With Covid-19 still being widely spread and continuing to spread, some studies have been able to show a significant impact on consumer behavior. In times of crisis, consumers tend to buy mostly essential products, become more focused on the price of a product, and start to value more socially responsible companies and products (Ivkovic, 2021). Ben Hassen et al. (2020) showed a strong difference in consumer behavior regarding food preferences of people living in Qatar during Covid-19. People tended to shift more towards healthier diets and chose domestic products. Campbell et al. (2020) presented that consumer behavior when buying plants during the pandemic presents a change from offline to online. The effects of the pandemic show implications for marketing managers that are necessary in times of a crisis. Loxton et al. (2020), suggest that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can predict the consumer behavior of a country in terms of panic buying, herd mentality, and discretionary spending during shocks and crises.

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4 The Financial Planning Association (2020) states that the pandemic currently has an impact on consumer behavior but also in the future, suggesting that online communication, shopping, and business will take a bigger part in the consumer's role in the future.

Covid-19 has impacted many industries and elements of society. This research tries to examine the gap described as a double-sided shock consisting of the behavior of consumers (demand) and the effect on suppliers (supply) because of panic buying behavior. Due to Covid-19 being unique in many ways and how it has impacted the world, research on this topic is currently slim. Very few studies have compared countries during the pandemic in terms of restrictions and consumer behavior. An example is Anastasiadou et al. (2020) that compared Greece and Sweden but with less focus on the restrictions of both countries. This research would be the first to compare The Netherlands and Sweden regarding their restrictions and the effect on consumer behavior. These two European countries have very similar cultural characteristics according to Hofstede Insights (n.d.b-) but with different approaches when it comes to a pandemic. The Netherlands introduced a heavy lockdown for its residents, closing social gathering places such as restaurants and bars and introducing a curfew for residents prohibiting them from being outside after 9 pm every day (Ministerie van Algemene Zaken, 2021). Sweden is, however, on the other side of the spectrum. The country has chosen a different strategy to prevent the spread of Covid-19 by for example keeping restaurants and bars open with serving restrictions, advising distant learning and distant working and in general taking a more advisable approach as a government as opposed to implementing heavy restrictions Granberg et al. (2021). It would therefore be interesting to find out how and if these approaches from the government influence the consumer behavior of people in times of a crisis. The second part of the research consists of a focus of Covid-19 on the supplies of companies and how this is affected by both consumers and government restrictions.

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5 The research is also directed towards companies and how they can take better control of a natural crisis, now and in the future. This is beneficial for smaller trade companies in particular. The theory of consumer behavior has been widely studied and plays an important role when assembling the corporate strategy of a company (Clemons, 2008). It is therefore important to understand the behavior of consumers to alter the strategy of a company accordingly as consumer behavior is an ever-changing phenomenon (Fullerton, 2013). While consumer behavior is well defined and understood within the literature, the behavior of people in times of a natural crisis (demonstrated by Covid-19), is however, not. This is mostly limited to consumption behavior in times of a financial crisis. The main problem with the effect of Covid-19 on consumer behavior is that it hasn’t been thoroughly researched and that findings seem to be related to the country's characteristics and culture. The level of restrictions a government puts on the country in combination with the culture seems to have an overall impact on the level of Covid-19 on consumer buying behavior. This problem has resulted in companies being mainly dependent on the number of restrictions a government has introduced. This brings companies in a crisis where they usually tend to be late in reacting and mostly depend on government aid to survive.

1.3 Purpose

The main purpose of this research paper is to examine the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumer behavior regarding product preferences of food and clothes. Both in the theme of government restrictions and the impact it has on both elements during a pandemic and its behavior. An underlying aim of the research is to find out the impact a government has on the consumer behavior of residents from The Netherlands and Sweden. The authors tried to find out which elements play a key role for consumers on how to react to the pandemic that led to different product preferences. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic being new to the world and therefore not widely researched yet, the thesis contributes to the existing literature by focusing mainly on consumer preferences regarding food and clothes and the role a government plays in this. Furthermore, this research tries to contribute to the topic by providing marketing managers from around the world with valuable information regarding the impact of Covid-19 on marketing strategies and how to overall adapt to a similar crisis.

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6 Covid-19 has provided the world with both negative and positive aspects in terms of business. Producers of food and sanitizing products have experienced the pandemic as a positive effect on their sales as opposed to the leisure and Horeca industry. Understanding consumer behavior during a crisis could have prevented some of these businesses from closing prematurely.

1.4 Research Question

‘’What is the impact of the global health crisis on consumer consumption and how does Covid-19 affect consumer product preferences’’?

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2. Literature Review

This chapter aims to present literature and theories that are relevant to this study. It will allow the reader to understand the previous research and theories relevant to this study, within the fields of consumer behavior, buying behavior, product consumption in a general context, and a crisis context.

2.1 Consumer behavior

The idea of consumer behavior originated in the 1940s and 1950s of the last century when sociology, anthropology and psychology were used to explain why and how consumers buy (Fullerton, 2013). Consumer behavior entails the process of selecting, purchasing, using, or disposing of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy the needs and desires of an individual or group (Solomon et al., 2010). According to Sharma and Sonwalkar (2013), consumer behavior is the learning process that individuals or groups go through when making their buying decisions to satisfy their needs and their buying behavior depends on factors like earning, demographics, social and cultural factors. It has been changed over the last 25 years (Sharma & Sonwalkar, 2013). According to Mina and Campos Jr. (2018), consumer behavior is the study of how the consumers react or how they behave when buying or purchasing products, and also the process which includes the individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products and services to satisfy human needs and wants.

The necessary things that need to be established by marketers is to analyze and to gain the buyer’s reactions to their marketing strategy because understanding consumer behavior is complex. Consumers have some specific behaviors in terms of shopping, such as tastes, preferences, information seeking, purchase behavior, and new product ideas that consumers show when they search for, buy, use, access, or dispose of the products and services that they expect to satisfy their needs (Khan, 2018). Consumers now travel a lot, which leads them to have more information about different products, lifestyles, and behavior patterns of other countries. Consumers and products are moved freely across national borders and people often work in a different region as to where they live.

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8 This changes consumer behavior. Consumer buying patterns have also changed because of the internet, websites, social media, etc. (Douglas & Samuel Craig, 1997).

Due to the rapid changes in the competitive global business environment, decision-making has become very complex for consumers and is also considered very important for them. How a consumer makes a decision is very important for companies. Consumers' personal factors such as age, gender, personality, lifestyle, occupation, economic situation, self-concept are significant elements to understanding consumer behavior. Consumer behavior involves studies, which focus on how people decide to buy products, what they want to buy, what they prefer to buy, why they want to buy, and when they buy products. In other words, it is a mix of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economic elements (Muniady et al., 2014).

2.2 Buying behavior

Consumer decision-making mainly depends on what type of product the consumer wants to buy. This makes the concept of buying decisions connected to consumer choices. Previous research on consumer behavior states that people always buy products and services not only because of their main function but also for their perceived value or for the solution that might solve the consumer’s problem (Mina & Campos Jr., 2018). Some researchers have been able to describe the consumer decision making process in detail, such as Kotler and Keller (2012) and Hawkins et al. (2019). Kotler & Keller’s (2012) decision making process consists of (1) need recognition, (2) searching for information, (3) evaluation of alternatives, (4) the purchase and (5) post-purchase behavior. While the Hawkins et al. (2019) theory and model are similar to the one presented by Kotler and Keller (2012), some differences can be observed. Hawkins et al. (2019) argue that the decision-making process is dependent on the level of involvement regarding a purchase. This means that a person buying toothpaste doesn't go through the same decision-making process as someone buying a house. In addition, Hawkins et al. (2019) argues that consumers aren’t always rational buyers and purchases based on emotions should also be considered.

There are two different types of consuming parties, one is the personal consumer (buying goods or services for own use or family) and the other the organizational consumer (buying goods or services for business, government, organization, or for agencies to run the function).

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9 To consume, consumers choose a product or brand by evaluating many choices, and these variations of choices influence consumers in product consumption and in buying behavior.

Consumer buying behavior of products is affected by both individual and environmental factors. Individual factors are highly influenced by how much knowledge a consumer has about a demographic, by their perception, motivation, personality, attitudes, and lifestyle. Environmental factors are factors that influence consumers’ decision making, such as culture, social class, reference group, family, etc. (Sata, 2013). Nowadays, decision-making has become more complicated, and is considered crucial for consumers. This is due to rapid changes in the competitive global business environment. Consumers are now aware of various advertising campaigns, news sources, the internet, social media which give them a huge amount of information. The increasing number of product and service options, shopping centers, the availability of similar products, and e-commerce facilities broaden consumer wants and choices, making purchasing decisions more complex (Muniady et al., 2014).

2.2.1 Buying behavior during a crisis

Planned and unplanned purchase behavior depends on the consumers’ financial situation and consumers adopt unplanned or impulse purchase decisions when they go through stressful situations. Hence, situations are associated with consumer well-being. Consumers adopt new purchasing practices because of the feeling of anxiety and fear about future changes in consumption patterns which might affect their lives. Consumers who are not financially stable and who have low income prefer to buy cheap products and only like to buy necessary products (Boutsouki, 2019). According to Lemieux et al. (2020), a crisis can impact certain professions and industries more than others. Regardless of the crisis, public facing roles tend to be mostly impacted during a crisis. These consist of accommodations, food services as well as young people and hourly paid staff (Lemieux et al., 2020). The career path of a person can significantly change due to a pandemic or crisis (Simosi et al., 2015). Individuals that don’t have a strong professional identity are more likely to engage in a different career than what he or she studied when anticipating a pandemic or crisis.

A financial crisis is one of the reasons that changes the economy and, due to this changing environment, marketing strategies are affected. As a result of the new situation consumers switch their buying behavior, which is why marketers change their strategies to adapt to the situation.

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10 The crisis affected both consumers and businesses. Consumers face a critical situation in their lives when in a crisis, their attitude and behavior change because of unemployment or raised product prices. They are more conscious when buying products during a crisis and prefer to evaluate products more to get as much benefit as they can receive from the products (Leskaj et al., 2011). By considering the situation, consumers give priority to the price as it is a major factor for them, and for that reason, they purchase necessary products, avoiding luxurious products (Ang et al., 2000). Loxton et al. (2020) summarize panic buying by the behavior presented by consumers when they purchase unusual amounts of products or an unusual variety of products during, before or awaiting a disaster. Keane and Neal (2021) describe that panic buying depends on government announcements of internal movement restrictions and when the government makes these announcements. Panic buying is described by Naeem (2020) as a social interpretation where people respond differently according to their background but also to seeing other people panic buy. This can create a domino effect where more people are influenced into panic buying by experiencing it around them. According to Keane and Neal (2021), panic buying usually lasts for around 10 days after it has started, and consumer behavior is then expected to turn back to normal.

2.2.2 Factors influencing consumer buying behavior

To gain a competitive advantage, sustain and attract new customers but also retain existing customers in the market, firms should understand the factors that influence consumer buying behavior. By understanding the consumer’s needs and wants, marketers can produce the desired products and can serve better than competitors (Nazan Gunay & Baker, 2011). Many factors, specifications, and characteristics influence an individual on what they want, who is part of the decision-making process, shopping habits, purchase behavior, what brands they want to buy, or which shops they go to. In the beginning, the consumer tries to find what commodities he wants to consume, then he decides only those commodities that give much utility. After choosing the commodities, the consumer sees how much money they must spend on the product and then analyzes the prices and makes decisions about what to consume (Ramya & Mohamed Ali, 2016). According to Kotler and Armstrong (2018), a consumer's buying behavior is dependent on many factors surrounding a consumer. While price is generally perceived as the main driver behind consumer behavior, Kotler and Armstrong’s (2018) model and theory argues that consumer behavior is dependent on external factors and it is different depending on the individual culture. These factors are: (1) culture, (2) social, (3) personal, (4) psychological.

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11 Cultural factors influence consumer buying behavior and culture, subculture and social class are the sub factors. A culture is where a set of values, beliefs and form of behavior is learned by members of society. Every culture holds different small subcultures that also influence buying behavior, such as religions, nationalities, geographic regions, and racial groups. Consumers from different social classes have similar ways of thinking, values, and behaving. Social class is decided by occupation, income, education, wealth etc. and according to the class, consumer buying behavior is also influenced (Furaiji et al., 2012). Consumer buying behavior is highly influenced by social factors such as family and reference groups. There are two types of families that exist in this society. One is nuclear and the other is joint family. The nuclear family size is small and individual decisions are made, whereas joint family size is large and group decision making gets more preference. Every person in the family is engaged in purchase decisions and therefore strongly influences the buyer behavior. A reference group is where two or more people share a set of values, norms, attitudes, and behavior influenced directly or indirectly. The reference group could be friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers who have a direct influence, as well as religious groups, aspirational groups, and professional groups who have an indirect impact but have a strong influence on individual buying behavior (Kalotra & Sharma, 2016).

Personal factors are factors such as age, occupation, income, and lifestyle. People buy different products at different ages because the choice, taste, and feelings are different at every age. The occupation or profession highly influences consumers as well as income. It is another major factor that influences consumption patterns, since buying products depends on the individual's income. A person has a different lifestyle, living conditions, interests, and opinions which influence consumers to buy a product (Ramya & Mohamed Ali, 2016). Psychological factors such as motivation, perception and learning influence individual buying behavior. It is called motivation when consumers realize from their inner drive that they have a need which they have to fulfill. Perception is a phenomenon where consumers interpret information according to his or her point of view. Individuals learn from every situation and they gather experience from the situation. Therefore, their behavior is changed due to experience (Małgorzata Łatuszyńska et al., 2012). According to Banks and Xu (2020), a pandemic where people go into a lockdown can have a large impact on their mental health. This depends on the size of the subgroup, sex, and age, as young people and women are more likely to experience mental health issues during a lockdown.

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2.3 Product consumption

For the purpose of the paper, product consumption is taken from a consumer’s perspective, making it goods that are consumed. Consumer goods are products sold to consumers for their own use and/or fulfillment (Investopedia, 2020a). Consumer goods can be classified into durable and non-durable goods. According to Kates (2000), consumption is an understanding whose meaning varies according to the industry addressing it and there is no general agreement as to what consumption includes. In addition, Kates (2000) describes that consumption, in the economic context, refers to what a consumer buys with their monetary aid and then consumes.

2.3.1 Changes in product consumption during a crisis

It has become evident that consumers behave differently under different circumstances. According to Diallo and Kaswengi (2016), in terms of a crisis, price, quantity, and promotion can have a stronger influence on store brand purchases than consumer characteristics (age, profession, income, family size). Consumers tend to favor certain types of products. In times of a crisis, semi durable goods such as entertainment products, glassware and clothes are reduced in order to provide for the basic necessities such as vegetables, eggs and grains (McKenzie, 2006). Alimen and Bayraktaroglu (2011), describe 7 consumer adjustments relating to product consumption during a crisis: (1) cautious spending, (2) seeking simplicity in purchase and distribution, (3) seeking product adjustments, (4) quest for low price, (5) financial anxiety, (6) promotion adjustments, (7) awareness.

Crises affect consumer psychology and expectations. It comes as a shock for the consumer because of the decrease in income and unemployment. To survive in times of a crisis, consumers use their assets for consumption, such as wealth, liquid assets or borrowing money. Government welfare and unemployment insurance help unemployed consumers to meet the expenditure. A country that has well-established financial markets and social insurance systems can easily give support to the consumer for consumption and expenditure. Crisis brings stress to people's minds as jobs and salaries become uncertain.

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13 During a crisis, the government works hard to support people by providing remedial policies, economic stimulus packages and giving supporting and encouraging messages (Kaytaz & Gul, 2014). The crisis is one of the major reasons for changing the market because consumers change their purchase behavior during this time. They think and worry about their jobs and therefore do not enjoy spending their money on products or anything. Consumers are reduced to buying products that are related to leisure and entertainment, start buying fewer quantities and focus on the price of the product. The new financial situation creates uncertainty and panic. Due to the economic slowdown and unemployment, consumers tend to adjust consumption. For example, consumption of food and necessities increases during crises compared to expenditure on clothes. A crisis affects consumers not only economically but also psychologically. Consumers have become more money conscious and avoid buying premium products although they can afford to buy them. Their consumption behavior has changed, and they tend to do more programmed buying. There is always a threat to their job, that's why they prefer to save money to avoid the risk (Sharma & Sonwalkar, 2013).

During economic instability or an economic crisis, decision-making about price is always one of the most important factors that affect both consumers and management. In crises, there are always distinct changes in price-related attitudes. Consumers, for example, tend to look for and purchase products that are on sale, as well as seek a variety of price information. During a crisis, consumers tend to shift to being more price-conscious and look for cheap products. They tend to visit more shops to look for discounted products and to compare one with another. Some consumers become price sensitive, and they shop comparatively less. When consumers face this type of crisis, they do planned shopping, they make a list before going to shop to avoid extra buying (Hampson & McGoldrick, 2013). The crisis changes people's lifestyle, consumption pattern, social life and people are coping with the situation. In a crisis some consumers react to the situation and change their behavior whereas some others do not react. Some people change purchase decisions by price, quantity and quality (Koos et al., 2017).

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3. Methodology

This chapter will discuss and explain the research strategy, research design, epistemology, data collection, data analysis. Finally, this chapter will end with the role of ethical considerations for conducting the data collection.

3.1 Research strategy

Bell et al. (2019) explain that there are two main types of research strategies, quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research is the method that collects and analyzes data that is structured and can be represented numerically. As quantitative research relies mainly on data, it is very effective to answer “what” or “how” for a given situation, but quantitative research does not give evidence for why populations think, feel, or act in certain ways and is therefore difficult for understanding specific demographic groups (Goertzen, 2017). Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on different methodological steps to investigate a social or human problem. It is mainly based on the observations and interpretations of people’s perception of different events, which aims to take a snapshot of people's perception naturally. The qualitative researcher aims to conduct the study naturally by analyzing the words of the participants to build a whole picture. We might not get a complete scientific understanding of the human world, but to know the truth we can make a difference between things that might help to open new possibilities of understanding (Khan, 2014a).

According to Khan (2014b) qualitative research is the most suitable method for exploring research. The aim of this research is to narrate the situation and understand the phenomenon by studying and capturing respondents' experience by their own words through the interview and observation (Yilmaz, 2013). So, this research consists of a qualitative study. This method was chosen because it helps researchers to look better at a deep level of the phenomenon. The thesis aims for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of product preferences during a pandemic. As a result, a qualitative research strategy becomes the most suitable choice.

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15 Another reason for using a qualitative method is that the research aims to investigate human behavior in a context, specifically how Covid-19 affects product preferences, and by using semi-structured interviews, detailed information will be gathered to aid in the investigation of the phenomenon.

3.2 Research design

Research design is considered as the structure or plan of the proposed research work that carries all the elements in a research project. This approach is important because it helps smooth the functioning of the various research procedures. Research design or a plan is needed in advance for collecting relevant data and techniques that can be used in the analysis. The research design also helps the investigator to organize and formulate appropriate research (Akhtar, 2016).

There are two main methods of research design, exploratory and explanatory. The purpose of exploratory research is to achieve clear-sightedness and find out the phenomenon in a new light by asking questions. The qualitative approach carries this kind of inquiry to obtain a new perception of the present situations and issues (Rahi, 2017). According to the study by Akhtar (2016), this research is applicable and most suitable when information regarding the topic is scarce or when earlier studies on the topic have not been conducted entirely. Explanatory research is useful when drawing a problem for specific investigations or aims at formulating research. This study is primarily concerned with determining the causes or why aspects of phenomena occur (Akhtar, 2016). Therefore, an exploratory research design is adopted for this thesis for a better understanding of how the Covid-19 pandemic affected consumer product consumption regarding food and clothes of the people in Sweden and The Netherlands. Moreover, an exploratory research design was chosen because there is little research information about product consumption during crises. The research design was chosen with social distancing and country-specific rules and regulations in mind. The researchers find exploratory research to be the most useful for this thesis in order to understand both countries' consumer product consumption. For this research, we had basic knowledge about Covid-19, its spread, prevention, restrictions, etc., and how the other countries, along with Sweden and The Netherlands are reacting to the situation. The world is adopting a similar strategy while Sweden acts differently.

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16 A qualitative research strategy is considered a suitable research method as the researcher aims to investigate a new field of study or plan to determine and theorize remarkable issues (Jamshed, 2014). Quantitative research is often generalizable, predictable, and gives a causal explanation. It also allows data collection whose main focal point is precise and objective measurement by using numerical and statistical analysis (Campbell, 2014). Qualitative methods are useful to understand people's beliefs, attitude, experience, interactions, behavior (Kalra et al., 2013).The authors of this thesis aim to understand the social or human problem of Covid-19 from an individual perspective and how they are dealing with the problem. A pandemic is a critical situation and when comparing the reactions of two countries' consumers towards product consumption to understand how they are dealing and how they are changing their purchasing behavior is very complex to understand. Therefore, the authors find qualitative research to be useful, especially when solving a complex phenomenon and getting a deeper understanding.

The research consists of a case study approach which entails a research strategy that focuses on knowing the factors present within a setting (Eisenhardt, 1989). The evidence for this method can be qualitative or quantitative. However, it will be qualitative in this case and derived from semi-structured interviews regarding the residents of two countries. The main tactic that the research consists of is the selection of cases. This entails looking for subtle similarities and differences between two individual cases (Eisenhardt, 1989). This tactic can lead to a more sophisticated understanding of the problem and the cases studied as well as break simplistic frames.

3.3 Epistemology

Epistemology is known as the theory of knowledge, which is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It investigates the questions of what we know and what is truth, as well as epistemology assumptions, such as how one can investigate whatever he or she believes to be known (Slevitch, 2011). Epistemology deals with the different sources and approaches of knowledge. This can refer to what a researcher views as acceptable knowledge. Four types of sources of knowledge related to business research can be identified. These are: 1. intuitive knowledge is based on intuition, faith and belief.

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17 Human feelings mainly play a greater role if they are related to the facts. Authoritarian knowledge depends on information that is obtained from books, research papers, experts and supreme powers. Logical knowledge describes the creation of new knowledge by applying logical reasoning. Empirical knowledge depends on objective facts that can be established and demonstrated (Dudovskiy, n.d.). The authors have adapted a combination of sources of knowledge within their research process. These consist of authoritarian knowledge and logical knowledge as the authors relied on books, articles, other credible sources found online and created new knowledge through conducting research on their own.

There are different branches of epistemology such as positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism, realism approach (Dudovskiy, n.d.). An interpretivist approach is a natural approach that collects data through interviews and observations. According to this approach, a researcher who is playing a social actor is supposed to admire the differences between people. This study focuses on multiple methods to identify different aspects of the issue, understanding the phenomena (Dudovskiy, n.d.-a). The positivism approach follows the view that having actual knowledge is gained by observation. In this study it is mainly observable phenomena that give credible data and facts. The role of the research worker in this type of study is restricted while collecting data and interpreting it. These types of studies' findings are typically discernible and quantitative. The researcher is independent in positivism studies and there is no interference of human interests (Dudovskiy, n.d.-b). In the pragmatism research approach, research questions are the major factors of the research philosophy. According to the nature of the questions the pragmatics research can be combined with positivist and interpretivism philosophy. However, researchers can study with pragmatism research philosophy which can combine multiple research methods like qualitative and quantitative (Dudovskiy, n.d.-c). Realism research philosophy relies on the thought of independence of reality from the human mind. This philosophy is based on the belief in a scientific approach. Realism can be split into two groups, direct realism, and critical realism. Direct realism philosophy is described as what a person sees is what they get. Specifically, it portrays the globe through personal human senses. According to critical realism, perception and image of the real world can be intricate and therefore it does not portray the real world (Dudovskiy, n.d.-d). The authors of this thesis adopted an interpretivist approach. The chosen approach helps the researcher to understand different people’s experiences in the same reality in different ways. The purpose of selecting this research is to gain in-depth insights into the interviewees' responses as well as to understand why and how they act in the specific situation.

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3.4 Data collection

3.4.1 Primary data collection

Due to the scarce information on the topic, the main method of retrieving information on the topic consisted of primary data via 14 structured interviews. According to Jamshed (2014), semi-structured interviews present important data about an individual or group. The interviews consisted of approximately 15 minutes per respondent. For qualitative study, an appropriate sample size is counted when the research question gets the appropriate answer (Marshall, 1996). Each interview consisted of one respondent and one interviewer. The respondent was asked open-ended questions and this approach is widely used in research. Each respondent was selected in the form of friends, family, and neighbors of the authors. A specific age group, ethnicity, background, or gender was not selected for the purpose of the study. However, the goal was to have a wide variety of respondents and not based on background, gender, etc. Semi-structured interviews allow the researcher to better interact with the respondent (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The authors chose this method while keeping the current Covid-19 situation in mind. The authors have kept in mind that a global pandemic prevents the possibility of a face-to-face interview for safety reasons. The interviews were therefore conducted via the online meeting program Zoom. This was for the protection of the researchers and respondents against the infection of the virus.

Based on the topic and previous research, an interview guide (Appendix A) was created consisting of the important questions that needed to be addressed. The interview guide has been established in collaboration with the thesis advisor. Due to the respondents living in high English proficiency countries (Education First, 2020) with the Netherlands being first and Sweden fourth, the interview and questions were in the English language. The researchers, however, still confirmed with the respondents before the interviews if they were comfortable enough doing the interview in English.

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19 Country Week Length per interview Method Nr of respondents

NL 16 15 minutes Zoom 3

SE 16 15 minutes Zoom 5

NL 17 15 minutes Zoom 4

SE 17 15 minutes Zoom 2

Figure 2 - Interview schedule

The respondents were interviewed under the same conditions for both countries. One researcher was responsible for asking the questions while the other one took notes during the interviews. The interviews were then transcribed, coded, and analyzed. According to Qu and Dumay (2011), researchers need to develop as much expertise in relevant topic areas to ask informed questions during interviews. The authors of this paper adopted this for the interviews. This meant that prior to and while conducting the interviews, both authors took a big part in getting to know related topic areas in order to be able to ask relevant follow-up questions during the interview. The focus was to incorporate a series of themes related to the research topic of which the authors wanted to learn more (Qu & Dumay, 2011). These themes consisted of the themes discussed in the literature review, such as panic buying, product consumption and buying behavior. The demographics of the respondents were noted beforehand as they didn’t need to take a significant part in the research. The interview consisted of 8 questions with follow-up questions. The first question was chosen as an easy but valuable question for both the research and the interviewee. After this, the questions are structured in a way that each main question discusses a theme from the literature review and therefore an area in which the researchers are interested.

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3.4.2 Secondary data collection

Secondary data collection consisted of supporting literature in the form of peer-reviewed articles, books, reports, and websites from official governments in order to collect sufficient information on the topic. The databases Abi/Inform and Emerald were chosen as main sources for peer-reviewed articles due to the many articles offered on both databases and the option for efficiently searching for peer-reviewed articles. Some books and additional websites were used in the data collection process to provide the research with viable information on the topic and both countries independently. The secondary data collection process was visible throughout the entire research period. This was not limited to only the first stages of the research but was an important part of the last stages of the research as well.

3.5 Data analysis

According to Davenport and Prusak (1998), the data analysis of a qualitative research method is transferring data into information and then into knowledge. Chenail (2012) summarizes qualitative data analysis as the process of collecting documents, observations, and talks and being able to talk about these findings. A part of the data analysis is coding, which Neale (2016) describes as the process of reviewing the data line by line and identifying key issues or themes. Then segments of text can be attached to those codes. Coding generally describes an amount of conceptual thinking. Qualitative data firstly needs to be described, meaning that the researcher has to look for patterns, categories, and or explanations and then relate them to current knowledge of the subject (Neale, 2016).

The interviews will be recorded two-fold via audio-only through a laptop and a microphone of a cellular phone. The authors want to minimize the chance of faulty equipment as much as possible and will take these measures in order to do so. The consent of the respondent plays a key role in using this equipment. According to Neale (2016), a qualitative data analysis consists of two steps: a description and an interpretation. The authors will transcribe the interviews after conducting them and then will start with the next process being coding.

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21 It is important that the information given by the respondents is fully understood and formularized in order to successfully finish step 2. Step 2 consists of coding of the transcriptions. The authors of this thesis will code based on the findings of all interviews. This means that similarities between answers given will provide the basis for the code word.

The authors have chosen to use a conventional content analysis approach for the data analysis part. A conventional approach enables the researcher to gain a richer understanding of a phenomenon (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). This means that the authors derived the codes from the data and that these codes are defined during the process of analyzing the data. Figure 3 shows the chosen codes based on the data given by the respondents.

Question Code word 1 Code word 2 Code word 3

Q1 Change in occupation No change in occupation

Q2 Affected by Covid Not affected by Covid

Q3 Many restrictions Moderate restrictions No restrictions

Q4 Premium consumer Intermediate consumer Budget consumer

Q5.1 Important Medium important Not important

Q5.2 Many differences Medium differences No differences

Q5.3 Favoring products Not favoring products

Q5.4 Sacrifices Medium sacrifices No sacrifices

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22 Q7 Experience with PB No experience with PB

Q8 Has noticed a lot Has noticed a little Has not noticed

Q8.1 Good availability Moderate availability No availability

Q8.2 Experience with empty shelves.

Moderate experience with empty shelves.

No experience with empty shelves.

Figure 3 - Interview codes

3.6 Ethical considerations

Bryman and Bell (2007) describe ten elements that are important to keep in mind in terms of ethical considerations when conducting research using respondents. The authors of this thesis took the ten elements of Bryman and Bell (2007) into consideration when approaching respondents and handling their information. Consent of the respondents was asked for and given by each respondent prior to each interview. Participants were not harmed in any way, particularly due to the health risk that is currently active around the world. The participants were therefore asked to participate in the research via an online Zoom meeting.

When transcribing and handling the information given by the respondents, their names were removed and replaced with respondent 1, respondent 2, respondent 3, etc. This is to ensure full privacy for the participants involved. Participants were randomly chosen and were not given any rewards for their participation. Therefore, no conflict of interest occurred.

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4. Findings

This chapter will start by giving a brief introduction about Sweden’s demographics, culture, Covid situation and then present the findings from the data collected by the researchers through the interviews of Swedish consumers. It is followed by a brief introduction about the Netherlands demographics, culture, Covid situation and then present the findings from the data collected by interviewees of Dutch consumers. The findings will be divided into four categories such as consumer behavior, buying behavior, factors affecting buying behavior, and product consumption. Moreover, each section has different themes and subthemes.

4.1 Sweden

4.1.1 Demographics

Sweden is a Northern European country bordering Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and Denmark to the south. The capital of the country is Stockholm, and the official language consists of Swedish (Britannica, n.d.-b). The minority languages consist of Yiddish, Romany Chib, Sami, Finnish, and Meänkieli (Ministry for Integration and Gender Equality Sweden, 2007). The country entered the European Union in 1995 and has since then not adopted the Euro as a currency (European Union, n.d.-b). Sweden comes in at number 23 on the list of largest economies in the world with a GDP of $530.88 billion (Investopedia, 2020c). According to SCB (2021), in February 2021 the total population of Sweden was 10.385.347. Sweden's number of residents grew close to one million over the past decade. In 2009 there were roughly 9.42 million people in Sweden, but the population reached 10.38 million by the end of 2020 (Statista, 2021d). Since the 1970s Sweden's demographic profile has changed radically because of the immigration patterns. According to the CIA (2018), Sweden accounts for 80.9% Swedish, 1.8% Syrian, 1.4% Finnish, 1.4% Iraqi, and 14.5% other nationalities. Approximately 86% of the population lives in urban areas. The age structure of the Swedish population consists of 0-14 years (17.71%), 15-24 years (10.8%), 25-54 years (39.01%), 55-64 years (11.9%), 65 years and over (20.59%) (CIA, 2020). The median age is 41.1 years with 41.1 years for men and 42.1 years for women (CIA, 2020). Sweden’s life expectancy at birth is 82.4 years (CIA, 2020).

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24 Most of the Swedes, can be considered as atheists as 36% of the Swedish people believed in god in 2019 (Statista, 2020c). The Lutheran religion is the dominant religion in Sweden with 87%, others like Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish consist of 13% of the practiced religion in Sweden. According to the CIA (2020), education expenditure amounted to 7.7% of the GDP in 2016. In 2017 data shows that health expenditure amounted to 11% of the GDP (CIA, 2020).

4.1.2 Swedish Culture

According to Hofstede Insights (n.d.-b), the Swedish culture can be described as highly individual (71) and highly feminine (Mas 5) with a low power distance (31). Swedes tend to not avoid uncertainty (29), are moderately long-term oriented (53) and an indulgent society (78). Sweden is one of the countries which is considered as an ideal egalitarian welfare society (Horváth et al., 2013). Swedish people can come off as reserved at first but are in general friendly and social people (Lund University, 2021). According to AFS (2019) Swedish culture consists of respecting the environment and commitment to sustainability. Sweden is considered a global leader in organic agriculture, recycling, and renewable energy. The Swedish society holds equal and individualistic culture. Swedish people respect and care for others, as well as having a great sense of humor (AFS, 2019). They prefer to separate their personal life from public lives. According to Cultural Atlas (n.d.-b) family life is important in Swedish culture as well as modesty, equality and respect for human rights. In Sweden both parents work and divide housework equally. Swedish families spend their free time outdoors such as in the forest, around lakes and the sea, in the mountains, camping, hiking, sailing, skating, picking berries and mushrooms. Swedes like to make direct communication, they are blunt and literal while they present their opinion (AFS, 2019). They listen to others, speak softly and calmly. Swedish people work hard but not so much; they like to go out to enjoy life. As Sweden is an egalitarian society, they did not encourage competition and they raised their children by learning that they are not more special than the other children (Economic global, 2021).

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4.1.3 Food and Clothes

The total revenue of the Swedish food market accounted for €24.005 million in 2019, €24.905 million in 2020, and is expected to reach €24.957 million at the end of 2021 (Statista, 2021a). According to Statista (2021a), the largest segments within the Swedish food industry during the year 2020 consist of meat (€4.986 million), dairy products and eggs (€4.291 million), and confectionery and snacks (€3.446 million). In 2020, Swedish people spent less on baby food (-5.1%), and the annual increase in pet food had dropped from +8.1% in 2019 to +1.2%, however, they bought significantly more in 2020 in the segments oils and fats (+5%), fish and seafood (+4.5%), meat (+4.4%) dairy products and eggs (+4.3%) vegetables (+4.3%), bread and cereal products (+4.2%) and fruits and nuts (+4%) (Statista, 2021a).

In regard to clothing and footwear, the country has had unsteady spending behavior over the years. Consumer spending on clothing and footwear per capita consisted of 1035,1 dollars in 2017, 1023,38 dollars in 2018, 981,59 dollars in 2019 (pandemic), and is expected to reach 1087,04 dollars at the end of 2021 (Statista, 2021c). The revenue of the Swedish apparel market had decreased by -5.7% in 2020 for women’s apparel and -5.7% for children’s apparel, for men, this percentage consisted of -5.6% (Statista, 2020b). By the end of 2021, the revenue is however expected to change to +8.5% for women’s apparel, +8.7% for children’s apparel, and +8.7% for men’s apparel. During the first wave of the pandemic, online fashion sales had increased by 13% (Colliander & Rosengren, 2020).

4.1.4 Background of Covid-19

Sweden confirmed the first case of the coronavirus on February 4, 2020. The number of Covid-19 cases has increased by a total of 967,678. Sweden registered 7,141 new coronavirus cases on April 28, 2021 (Statista, 2021e). The number of cases per single day in Sweden peaked on June 24, 2020, with 1698 cases and then on November 19, Sweden recorded a peak of 7,631 infections. In the year 2020, November 25, Sweden confirmed 225 thousand infection cases, and over six thousand deaths were confirmed.

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26 By March 2020, Swedish industries experienced less demand and sales of their products as a result companies had to cut staff members (Michas, 2021). After detecting the first Covid-19 infection in Sweden, the public health authorities advised the public on infection control measures such as hand hygiene, sneezing habits, coughing habits, isolation if individuals have symptoms and tracing people who came close to the patient (Helsingen et al., 2020). When Sweden took the natural science herd-immunity approach, they received huge attention from all over the world. The Swedish government has been criticized by countries like the USA, Denmark, Finland and Norway in response to the pandemic and their approach (Korhonen & Granberg, 2020).

According to the studies of Ellyatt (2020), Sweden's response towards the pandemic is supervised by the country’s Public Health Agency (PHA). The PHA takes different measures to control the spread of the virus. Because of this approach, Sweden faced criticism from other countries as well as from its own citizens. Sweden’s Public Health Agency’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told CNBC that Sweden's strategy regarding the virus is different. Anders Tegnell stated that the plan is to slow down the spread of infection to keep healthcare and society working by social distancing. Sweden’s government has taken steps to prevent the spread of the virus, like working from home if possible and avoiding non-essential travel. In restaurants, bars, cafes and nightclubs seating restrictions have been implied to prevent overcrowding. The gatherings of more than 50 people were banned, colleges and universities were closed and switched to distant learning. Students under 16 were, however, still allowed to attend school on campus (Ellyatt, 2020). Sweden executed a less restrictive strategy based on the recommendations from the Public Health Agency (PHA). The main strategy was to protect senior and vulnerable citizens to slow down the spread of the virus in order for the healthcare system to cope with the situation. On the 17th of March 2020, non-EU/EEA citizens entering Sweden were denied entry. On the 11th of March 2020, all gatherings in public places of more than 500 people were prohibited, which was further extended to all gatherings of more than 50 people being prohibited on the 27th of March 2020. Visiting elderly homes was prohibited from the 31st of March. People who have little symptoms are recommended to stay at home and take sick leave (Lindström, 2020). According to Campta et al. (2021), the people that were mostly financially affected due to the pandemic were people that had occupations with the lowest wages prior and during the pandemic.

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4.1.5 Impact on Swedish consumers

Starting with the important part regarding consumer behavior and how Covid-19 affects their occupation. Followed by consumers during a crisis at a general level and what type of label respondents give themselves as a consumer. The respondents had the ability to choose between premium, intermediate, and budget.

An individual's occupation decides the income. Based on the occupation people's earnings fluctuate from high to low. Once a consumer knows his or her income, they can decide how much they want to spend on daily life consumption. In a crisis along with the situation, people's occupation or income is hampered because maximum industries suffer to survive. Therefore, some people lost their jobs, got fewer working hours, and couldn't find a new job. These things affect consumer behavior as income is the main source of living life. After taking all the interviews it is quite clear that people are afraid of the situation, though 5 out of 7 interviewees said that their occupation did not change during the pandemic but 2 of them mentioned that their working hours are less now because their working industry was badly affected by Covid-19. Interviewees 5 stated-

‘’Financially I would say it is very important for me because when the pandemic started our restaurant has been closed due to the recommendations put by government recommendations that restaurants need to close by 8. Before the pandemic our restaurant was closed at 12 so that's why our working hours are reduced due to pandemic. So, we get less hours and less hours means less money. So that's why I also faced a financial crisis a little bit.’’ - Interviewee 5

The general level is divided into three sub-themes like social, financial, and health aspects. Looking at the social perspective, one common theme was that all of the respondents were socially affected due to the crisis. As per the recommendations, they need to maintain a distance from people and can not meet many people at a place at a time which is affecting their social behavior. Interviewee 3 stated -

‘’Socially affected me because I am a very social person used to going out so much, now I don’t meet my friends like before and also family members’’ - Interviewee 3

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28 Furthermore, the financial aspect is another theme brought up regarding consumer behavior. We found varieties of answers from different respondents. Interviewee 1 and interviewee 5 are working in the restaurant industry, so they are highly affected due to the crisis. Interviewee 1 stated-

‘’... Financially for example before we have lots of opportunities for work but because of pandemics, we don’t have this opportunity. People are not going outside so much as I am working in a restaurant industry it affects our business and that’s why our working hours are also reduced.’’ - Interviewee 1

Some of the respondents faced difficulties during Covid-19 because they lost their job and found it difficult to find a new job in this critical situation. It is interesting that 2 of the respondents were not affected financially by the crisis. Their financial situation is getting better in this situation. Interviewee 6 stated-

‘’To be honest, I think it affected my finances in a good way, not a bad way. Because, yeah, I got the job before the pandemic. So, however, my income will come, and people start to call more often to the banks during the pandemic. They got some opportunities with loans and these kinds of things. So, for one industry, it can be like a good financial change. And for others it can be very bad. But for me it affected me in a good way. I receive my income and I don't waste as much. So, it's not a negative way, personally.’’ - Interviewee 6

Respondents' answers show that almost everyone's life is affected mentally by Covid-19 as they now get less opportunities for gatherings, less possibilities for visiting family and friends and everything is closed early. Interviewee 2 stated-

‘’Mentally I feel very depressed as in my family we are two people, me and my husband and he used to get work and I stay at home all the time, although because of pandemic people do not come to the home for a visit, not also like to go outside in park or restaurant for gathering.’’ - Interviewee 2

The label that respondents give themselves as a consumer during a crisis and before the crisis is very fascinating to find. We found interviewees give themselves a different label. 3 out of 7 interviewees remain the same now as before the pandemic. After starting the pandemic, the rest of the consumers changed their consumption patterns like moving from premium to budget, intermediate to budge or intermediate to premium. So, there are different types of consumers we found and Interviewee 1 stated-

‘’Before the pandemic, I would say I was a premium consumer but now I don’t know what will happen in the future, so I prefer what I need, and also I want to save money. So, you can say I am living a very normal life. Yes. Because before the pandemic my husband and I had a good income but now it’s changed.’’ - Interviewee 1

The impact of Covid-19 on consumer consumption. How does Covid-19 affect consumers&apos; product preferences? A country comparison between The Netherlands and Sweden.