dining environment for customers as illustrated in Tan’s
observation and interview with the owners of coffee shops
in Tainan and Kaohsiung (1999). When consumers think
about choosing a shop for teatime, they not only care about
a delicious meal and the price, but they also highly consider
the environment and atmosphere of the shop. For
example, the exterior features of a building, the uniqueness
of the interior decoration, the atmosphere of warm color
lights and soft music, and the attitude and efficiency of
waiters and waitresses are all considered. It would be highly
possible that the senses of sight, sound and smell would
also influence what people choose for the kinds of beverages
during their teatime.
Approximately two thirds (68.1%) of the participants
considered “effect of alertness and refreshment” an important
factor in beverage selection. More than two thirds
(69.3%) reported being influenced by their friends when
choosing a beverage, which is proven to correspond with
the finding of the interviews (see the description under 4.1).
In this study, 62.4% and 60.7% put health benefits and fair
price into consideration respectively. Opinions were divided
between those who agreed and disagreed (52.2% and
47.8%) on “sales and advertisement” being the reason that
affected people when choosing their beverages. The fewest
number of agreements occurred in the areas of “beauty
benefits”, “vogues and fashion” as well as ”religious belief”.
These factors were ranked the last three in the priority
of important reasons.
Less than half (45.3%) of the total respondents considered
“vogues and fashion” an influencing factor of
choosing beverages. That is to say, more than fifty percent
(53%) of coffee people and only 39.7% of tea people made
their agreements on vogues and fashion that caused them
to select their beverages during afternoon teatime. With the
development of capitalism and the prosperity of the economy,
coffee has become one of the modern drinks in Taiw