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'Home Grocers': how e-commerce shapes the way diasporic people buy groceries

  • Yung Lo

This mini project was done as an individual assessment for the UCL Digital Anthropology master's programme. TASK: to produce a publicly accessible website presenting the results of a mini research project about an instance of digital technology use THEME (2022-23): 'Food in London' WHO: members of Chinese community living abroad in London who have used PandaFresh e-commerce platform, customers of Pan-Asian supermarket in a multi-cultural South London neighbourhood HOW: one-month ethnographic fieldwork (in-depth interviews in Mandarin & English, shop-along's, participant observation working at the till of local Asian supermarket), qualitative analysis and insight generation, website design (built via Wix) Featured on an internal trends & insights client newsletter for a national grocery chain. Project grade: First-class. Happy 'Shopping'! https://ucsalox.wixsite.com/home-grocers

CURIOSITY STARTING POINT:

Buying groceries is something so embedded into the fabric of our daily lives that not many of us would think twice about it.

Then, I read 'Crying in H Mart' by Michelle Zauner, a memoir about growing up mixed-race and the author's late Korean mother, the title inspired by the grief that bubbled up whenever she entered the Korean supermarket chain.

Captivated by how Asian supermarkets could spark such emotions in those of us with transnational identities, I then came across PandaFresh, an e-commerce grocery service under HungryPanda. A food delivery app specifically designed for Chinese communities abroad, HungryPanda targets those who may be unfamiliar with English, local tastes for food, and also local app interfaces that seem foreign to them.

I wondered how a digital platform catering to their community shapes the grocery shopping experiences of Chinese people in London, compared to shopping at a neighbourhood Asian supermarket which doesn't use e-commerce.

WHERE I ENDED UP:

Zoomed out to people's 'grocery ecology', since their use of a digital service like PandaFresh is experienced in relation to grocery habits. Both their shopping practices and the grocery items continuously shape their personal connections with places, including how they build a new 'home' in London.

By deep-diving into their experience of buying food, an 'everyday' practice repeating across time and space, I discovered how participants relate to both digital space (e.g.- navigating within e-commerce apps) and 'physical' ones (e.g.- navigating London).

SOME KEY FINDINGS:

* Both physical AND digital objects can evoke a strong sense of place (including associated memories and emotions): from fragrant herbs you can smell, to a pixelated image of a childhood snack.

* How we make 'home' is not always physical: our use of digital technologies equally contributes to how we experience 'home' as an augmented reality.
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