How will the poison scare affect shoppers?

Awareness is high

• Awareness levels of the food scare affecting certain products at Pick 'n Pay stores is high at 85%, no doubt influenced by the enormous publicity surrounding this extortion attempt.
  
• Not surprisingly, a significantly higher awareness figure was recorded in Gauteng (88%) versus Cape Town (79%) and Durban (78%). Positive skews were also evident amongst Whites (only 5% are not aware of the scare) and respondents aged 35-49 years old.

What about other stores ?

• Almost three quarters of respondents (74%) are concerned that this incident will affect other stores over and above Pick 'n Pay.
  
• Loyalty to the store in question no doubt has a significant impact on how shoppers behave – 83% of Pick 'n Pay shoppers would avoid the products, but would still feel safe shopping at Pick 'n Pay.
  
• Another factor is the manner in which the store handles such incidents – 65% of respondents who were aware of the food scare feel that Pick 'n Pay have handled the incident to the best of their ability. Twenty four percent felt that it was handled fairly well, but that it could have been handled better, and only12% of those polled felt the retailer had not handled the incident very well.