Producers and retailers are the driving force behind the adoption of the idea of sustainability. It has been found that while preparing their product range offer, many still pay attention to the same set of criteria: size of the customers’ earnings, how often they shop, and how much they buy when shopping. In general, sustainable values applied by consumers in their purchasing decisions are rarely taken into account in consumer segmentation. The aim of this study is to recognize if values such as environmental protection, producers’ ethical behavior, fair trade or maximizing the utility function of consumption are important factors in the purchasing process of coffee and if they can be used as segmentation variables. The discussed findings come from a standardized online survey conducted on a sample of 800 Polish coffee consumers in July 2018. The obtained results are discussed by employing multi-dimensional analyses, such as exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and cluster analysis (CA). In consequence, six segments of coffee consumers are identified and described: “responsible, aspiring to be connoisseurs”, “loyal coffee enthusiasts”, “pragmatic users”, “coffee laypersons”, “sophisticated connoisseurs”, and “consumerists, connoisseurs, but not at any price”. Among the identified segments, the most often indicated sustainable consumption values refer to “responsible, aspiring to be connoisseurs”, and the least often to “consumerists, connoisseurs, but not at any price”. The conclusions may be used by manufacturing and trade enterprises operating in the coffee market to respond to the identified needs and expectations of consumers.

The aim of this paper is to determine the level of knowledge of the categories of sustainable development and consumers’ attitudes towards concept, assumptions, and principles of sustainable development in Polish society. The article also attempts to distinguish homogeneous clusters of consumers, based on their attitudes toward the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The text is based on the results of the original empirical research carried out by the authors in November 2020 on a sample of 1045 adult consumers from all over Poland. The research used an online survey technique. To determine the types of consumers, 17 diagnostic variables (goals of sustainable development) were adopted. Cluster analysis was used to distinguish the types of consumers, whereas the number of clusters was determined using the hierarchical Ward method with the square of the Euclidean distance. The individual objects were classified into clusters with the help of the non-hierarchical k-means method. The conducted analyses enabled the authors to distinguish three relatively homogeneous types of consumers based on their attitudes towards the sustainable development goals, namely: informed apologists, moderate supporters, and uninformed critics. The consumer types described in the article may constitute the basis for market segmentation for companies offering consumer goods and services. The article also presents the level of awareness of the sustainable development goals in Polish society and the level of their acceptance. In addition, the presented research results conducted in Poland may constitute the basis for implementation of similar research in other countries. In the case of many countries and societies, there is a lack of knowledge about the types of consumers based on their attitudes towards the idea of sustainable development; therefore, it can be concluded that the presented research results contribute to the theory of consumer behavior.

We have recently seen two conflicting trends in the use of cash. The share of e-payments in retail transactions is steadily increasing, but the same upward trend is true for the share of cash in circulation or at least the cash share remained unchanged. This paper shows the significance of perceived risk for consumers’ precautionary demand for cash after they make a decision to use e-payments. We use data from a study involving Polish consumers. The main conclusions are as follows: surveyed consumers perceive a level of risk associated with card and mobile payments and continue to carry cash for precautionary reasons. Factors such as the consumer’s mental state, lack of trust in e-payments, and attitude to risk influence the decision to maintain cash reserves, while the consumer’s income and age may be considered the main determinants of the value of the cash reserve. Consequently, the decision to use e-payments does not necessarily mean that the demand for cash drops to zero. A degree of difficult-to-reduce, autonomous demand for cash may exist independent of the traditionally studied determinants, in particular, those related to the transaction demand.

The progressive and unprecedented growth of the Earth’s population and the shrinking of the planet’s natural resources make it necessary to look at contemporary consumption from the point of sustainable development goals. The purpose of the paper is to characterise consumers’ attitude towards the idea of sustainable food consumption, which manifests itself in declared undertaking of sustainable behaviours both on the market and in households. The research employed the exploratory survey technique (direct survey) on a sample of 900 consumers from Poland and Slovakia. The most common declared sustainable behaviours include: avoiding overconsumption, monitoring healthy eating, as well as sorting and recycling of waste. On the other hand, the customers of both countries should be more strongly encouraged to reduce the consumption of water, electricity and natural gas when preparing meals. Less than half of all respondents declared such behaviour.

The aim of the article is to present trends in consumption, which currently affect or will affect the behaviour of coffee consumers in the next 2-5 years. The article is written in the form of theoretical considerations supported by an analysis of source materials. It presents the main megatrends, consumer trends and product trends observed on the coffee market. It also describes relations between the aforementioned phenomena and consumer behaviour. The analysis of the collected data made it possible to conclude that the main trends determining consumer behaviour are naturalness and sustainability, health and nutrition, multisensory experience, convenience, digitalisation and individualisation. In order to meet these trends, producers and sellers of coffee will also want to gain an influence on the choices and preferences of coffee consumers by supporting and developing such product trends as: craft coffee time, the ice age is coming, ready to drink coffee, co-branding to dial up indulgence, convenient formats go premium, the rise of super coffee or the world of smart vending machines.