Purchasing Bakery Goods during COVID-19: A Mind Genomics Cartography of Hungarian Consumers

Abstract

At both global and national levels, COVID-19 caused huge changes both in politics and economics, including the agricultural sector and the food industry, from producers, manufacturers, and traders to consumers. Since March 2020, many restrictions and protective measures were introduced worldwide, which only began to be relaxed in the last weeks of spring 2021 as the number of people vaccinated against the coronavirus increased in Hungary. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Hungarian consumers toward food purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of safety. The research was based on the purchase of bakery products, which are basic food products and are most often found in an unpackaged form in Hungarian stores. The BimiLeap® study, a revolutionary tool for uncovering people’s minds, was completed by 125 participants, gathered by a snowballing technique. There were no significant differences among consumers’ attitudes based on the traditional socio-demographic descriptors; however, the mindset-based classification was able to differentiate significantly. The three identified mindsets covered people who themselves consider bakery products, the purchase method, and being in the store as the highest risk of a potential COVID infection.