This research began as an investigation into consumer responses to the increasing number of supermarket own brands appearing in the grocery aisles of Australia when compared with the United Kingdom (UK) where retailer brands tend to dominate. Where the study ended was with the revelation of consumer ‘supermarket tribes’ and that this connectedness is linked to the consumption space as a way to endorse a lifestyle. We propose that the significance of spatial structure to ordinary practices, such as grocery shopping, may have been previously overlooked due to assumptions around its relative unimportance, when in fact this activity makes a valuable contribution to the culture of consumption. People do not always make economically rational decisions and instead support cultural theories that their lives are fashioned around the consumption experience, which ultimately contributes to their multiple realities. This study reveals that these realities can be made up of a series of fleeting moments as part of a grocery shop from which a perceived uniqueness, or not, is formed, and this is influenced by different market offerings. This was an unexpected outcome. Using a mix of focus groups and ethnographic data, we uncovered the presence of consumer tribes within the UK market, but which were not replicated in Australia. The exception to this was Aldi, where Australian shoppers revealed higher devotion to the store. This article contributes to theory by investigating the presence of consumer tribes for supermarket retailers where the number of different stores, and the type of customer interactions influence the likelihood of such a phenomenon to occur. This is a departure from the conventional retailer perspective and recognising this change to consumer expectations and consumption is important for retailer growth and improved market presence.

这项研究始于对消费者对澳大利亚杂货店货架上出现的越来越多的超市自有品牌的反应的调查，而英国 (UK) 的零售商品牌往往占主导地位。研究结束的地方是消费者“超市部落”的启示，这种联系与消费空间有关，是一种认可生活方式的方式。我们提出，空间结构对日常实践（例如杂货店购物）的重要性之前可能由于对其相对不重要的假设而被忽视，而事实上，这种活动对消费文化做出了宝贵的贡献。人们并不总是做出经济理性的决定，而是支持他们的生活是围绕消费体验塑造的文化理论，这最终促成了他们的多重现实。这项研究表明，这些现实可以由一系列转瞬即逝的时刻组成，作为杂货店的一部分，由此形成了感知的独特性，或者不是，这受到不同市场产品的影响。这是一个意想不到的结果。通过混合使用焦点小组和人种学数据，我们发现了英国市场中存在消费者部落，但在澳大利亚没有复制。Aldi 是个例外，澳大利亚购物者对这家商店表现出更高的忠诚度。本文通过调查超市零售商的消费者部落的存在来为理论做出贡献，其中不同商店的数量和客户互动的类型会影响这种现象发生的可能性。