Reloading Household Procurement

Household procurement patterns may change during undulating economic cycles, with inflationary pressures or varied income levels. 

As a result, the workflow for household procurement managers in high-, middle- and low-income households tend to differ in mode, structure, physical labour inputs, and time expended.


With large outlays, time-poor high-income households may outsource procurement of regular purchase items, such as groceries, to vendors who specialise in managing bulk grocery lists for household buying and preparation for storage. Working in this manner, high-income households may save on time and reduce stress.


Sadly, low-income households tend to bear the brunt of inflationary episodes, since their meagre daily or monthly incomes may only afford piecemeal grocery purchases on a 'buy-as-you-go' basis.


In my keen observation of households, I identify three (3) common household groceries procurement workflows:


[I] Independent household-facilitated groceries purchasing; this tends to be time consuming, stress-inducing but may be cost-saving.


[II] Independent vendor-facilitated purchasing; this tends to be time-saving, stress-relieving but includes additional handling costs.


[III] Cooperative-facilitated purchasing; if well designed, this can be time-saving, stress-reducing, and cost-reducing.


If low-income and middle-income households form consumer purchase cooperatives, they may also accrue gains from bulk purchasing as well as save on time and stress for regular household procurement.


Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic with its associated lockdowns and sit-at-home prescriptions, has implications for more remote and facilitated transactions, than unnecessary, riskier, and time-wasting  shopping adventures.


Which procurement workflow option does your household adopt?

Photo credit: Oluyomi Ola-David, 2021

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