Survey: Green retailers attract more grocery shoppers

Singapore Grocery shopping is going green, with a global survey showing the majority of people would go out of their way to shop at an environmentally friendly supermarket and buy locally produced food.

Market research firm Synovate asked more than 6,700 people to detail their grocery shopping habits.

About 66% of respondents said they would specifically go to a supermarket because of its environmental policies, with Russians and Malaysians the most interested.

Nearly 80% said they supported recycling facilities at supermarkets and two-thirds said they prefer to buy local food over foreign, imported brands that consume a lot of energy being flown in.

The survey also showed an overall 40% of shoppers said they are spending less on groceries than they did 12 months ago, due to the economic downturn, while nearly half are buying items in bulk to save.

The survey was conducted across 10 markets: Brazil, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.