Imagining I moved to Salt lake city, the capital and most populous city of Utah and I want to order Italian takeout, I will start by doing research on the internet, my most used and preferred way to do research and specially searching for restaurants or food near me. The first restaurant I found was Caffe Molise. From reviewing the images, it looks spacious and expensive-looking, but it’s on the expensive side and has less varieties.The other restaurant was Stone Ground Italian kitchen. Although it has good reviews, the food did not look appetizing to me. The Italian food I’m looking for is mostly pasta, which I already like, and something in the middle of casual and fancy. I don’t really like to pick up food. I prefer cash on delivery because you don’t have to go outside and can order in the comfort of sitting at home, which is more convenient for me. My threshold is below 30$ because I’m trying a new restaurant and do not want to waste money if I don’t like the food.

Going through the motions of the first three stages, I was successfully able to recognize and define my problem, which was simply that I wanted to try Italian food from an Italian restaurant. My information search process happened through searching from the internet, and looking for the top restaurants and comparing different attributes of the restaurants i liked and didn’t like. Then, in the selecting decision, I finally chose the restaurant Osteria Amore. The reason for me choosing the restaurant was that the images from the customers I looked at on the internet of the food looked very appetizing to me. I loved the architecture of its building and the interior decor, this is usually my first impression of a restaurant and something that attracts me towards it. And it has 4.5/5 reviews, which is a bonus point.
As a consumer who had no knowledge of the area and restaurants, my honest opinion is that just searching restaurants on the internet and reading reviews cannot be enough for me to be satisfied by my decision of the restaurant i’m going to. I also prefer if my family or friends have been to the restaurant and tried the food. As a friend who has the same taste in food as me it can be really helpful if she has a positive or negative review. The popularity of the restaurant also affects my decision. If I’ve heard about it and seen an ad, I would be more likely to visit it, on the other hand, if I’ve never heard of the restaurant before, it can make me a little reluctant to try the food.

I was able to gather knowledge and information before just randomly going to any restaurant. I now know the information about the popular restaurants in my area, which is a benefit to me as a customer. After reading chapter 5 and knowing the process and stages involved in making consumer decisions, I became more aware and mindful of the process I was going through, because I knew the steps that I went through.

My preferences compared to the other consumers might be different because every individual has different perceptions and likes and dislikes. I believe other consumers, with an example of my friends that I have, prefer other sources of information like family or relative’s reviews and their personal knowledge before selecting a restaurant. Also some consumers are willing to take risks and try different restaurants, without gathering much information about them and are willing to spend a considerable amount of money.