FRESHNESS and quality are the two most important criteria for Slovaks when they buy food. Price, which for a long time was the main factor, fell to second place, the Hospodárske Noviny reported, citing the results of a survey of 1,000 respondents conducted by GfK Slovakia. Traders have also confirmed this shift in preferences. According to the survey, as many as 85 percent of buyers consider food quality to be "very important".
"We have been noticing a change in people's shopping habits for about a year and a half," Zoltán Csóka, operations director for Billa, told the daily. Even though people are starting to pay more attention to quality, this criterion is not decisive for citizens from all regions of Slovakia.
"Quality is the most important factor for people living in Bratislava, Košice, Nitra and Trnava Regions and some other towns, where standards of living are the highest," said Ľubomír Drahovský, from market analysts Terno. But the success of discount stores, for example Lidl, still proves that in bigger towns many consumers are still price-sensitive.
