Abstract
French people's purchasing power has always been a pre-occupation, and it remains as an important issue, in a context of fluctuations of euro currency and political reforms. French people's consumption behaviours have been strongly transformed by the structure of shopping areas, as well as by the emerging confrontation between different kinds of shops. Big supermarkets have to cope with competition from little shops and above all, from discount shops which are increasingly taking up markets shares. For big companies as Carrefour and Auchan, it was the beginning of the problem. They began to lose market shares and that's why a lot of strategies have been implemented by the companies to cope with this new form of competition. The point is to know why they are loosing market shares. And, some common opinions often associate social status with the type of shop one visits. This specific economic context is particularly true in the city of Dijon. Dijon is a medium size city where every kind of shop can be found and accessed easily by consumers. Is this economic antagonism creating specific kinds of consumers? More precisely, we will try to give an answer to the question, can we explain consumer shopping habits by demographic and sociological characteristics?
