Assessment of service quality in the section of fruits and vegetables in retail formats

Abstract

Fresh products are distributed by various retail formats such as supermarkets, street markets, varejões, and quitandas. The purchase of these products by consumers depends on numerous factors such as satisfaction with the service, product quality, facilities, cleanliness and hygiene of the place, proximity, among other factors. The supermarkets have occupyied the place of street markets in selling fruits and vegetables due of the convenience and payment forms. Thus, this research aims to perform an evaluation of the service quality in street markets and in the section of fruits and vegetables (FV) in supermarkets at a city called Tupã in São Paulo state, to point out the strengths and weaknesses of these marketing channels and propose possible improvements, specifically for street markets. It was used the conceptual model of service quality SERVQUAL by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Barry (1985) for the research. The study pointed flaws in the service quality in both retail facilities, highlighting the dimensions of tangibility and reliability. Specifically in the street markets there are deficiencies in factors related to the modernizaton of equipament, legible written price and legible information about product, orientation to costumers and assurance. Propositions were listed to improve both retail formats, emphasizing the street markes, being able to reverse the degradation process of this relevant retail format