Identifying consumers’ preferred market outlet for purchasing vegetables among the rural community using Fuzzy VIKOR

Vegetables play an important part in maintaining a healthy diet and are a key source of income for rural communities in Malaysia. This study aims to rank the criteria that influence rural consumers in choosing market outlets to purchase vegetables and to rank the preferred market outlets based on the selected criteria in purchasing vegetables among rural consumers. This study applied the Fuzzy VIKOR method to rank the criteria and the market outlets. The four market outlets in Langkap, Perak were evaluated by 88 primary grocery buyers on four criteria which are convenience, freshness, price and social connection. The four types of market outlets evaluated in this study included Econsave Supermarket, Public Market, Pasar Tani and Fresh Mart. The result revealed that Public Market is the most preferred market outlet by the primary grocery buyers to purchase vegetables in Langkap with the smallest VIKOR index. Among the criteria, convenience was perceived as the most important by the primary buyers in choosing the market outlet to purchase vegetables that meet their needs and budgets. The findings of this study will help the retailers to improve their business and assists the farmers in making better choices for supplying their vegetables to the ideal market. It can help the local authorities to make improvement on market facilities and cleanliness, which may help increase the local economic growth.