Behaviors and attitudes of families while purchasing goods and services

This research is planned and executed in order to determine behaviors and attitudes of families while purchasing goods and services, in some districts of Ankara which are socio-economically different. Random chosen families from socio-economically different districts of Ankara province form the material of the research. Questionnaire method is used by the researcher; 484 individuals formed the sample set, 165 families from low socio- economical level, 170 families from average socio-economical level, and 149 families from high socio-economical level. More than half of the consumers which are taken as samples in the research are woman (% 55.2) the rest is consisting of man (% 44.8). % 39.7 of the consumers are officials, % 32.4 of the consumers are housewives. Most of the consumers have primary school education level or lower. More than half of the families are consisting of 4-5 persons. The income of the most of the families are ranging from 250 000 000 to 500 million Turkish liras. More than half of the families have kids aging from 7 to 1 8. The housewife decides the purchasing of the food, cleaning materials and personal care materials in the families which are taken into consideration in the research. It is observed that more than half of the families make a written plan when buying food and general cleaning material. Most of the families state what is going to be purchased in a written plan. The information sources used in purchasing the goods and services are generally experience and market researches. Food and general cleaning materials are usually purchased by the housewife of the house. In purchasing of the goods and services, when the socio-economical level of the family increases the sharing between the partners also increase. More than half of the families do their shopping in the weekends. The families do their daily shopping from the groceries, butchers, fruit stores and meet their other shopping needs from big supermarkets. mMore than half of the families are effected from the price, brand, TSE and ISO brands where high socio-economical leveled families are affected from the commercials. More than half of the families think that reading about the material and asking other people about the materials effects their decisions and most of them think that the sellers are not sensitive in protecting the consumer. The idea of foreign brands being more qualified than Turkish brands are commonly shared in the families with low socio-economical level. The families with low socio-economical level are more affected from discount sales and spend more time looking for cheaper goods. The families with higher socio-economical level pay more attention to the commercials of the goods that they are going to buy and they prefer foreign brands. Families come across more problems as their socio-economical level decrease. Price related problems and poor quality products are most common problems that families come across. The places that families come across problems are markets and the marketing experts which sell products from door to door. Most of the families blame the producer or the seller for the problems that occur in the purchasing of the product and try to solve the problem by wanting compensation from the seller or the shop. Higher socio-economical leveled families do more action when problems occur in the purchasing. With the increase of the socio-economical level of the family the chance of presence of an unused product increases. Nearly half of the families have clothing material which is purchased and not used. It is discovered that the unused material bought by the families are purchased without trying it or by the advice of a friend. IV