Abstract
The convenience-oriented lifestyles and the relative wealths of today’s consumers, especially in modern communities, more people eating in restaurants, fast food establishments and consumingprepared foods because of the exposition to the new food choices and develop a comfort level withit (Verbeke and Lopez, 2005). Many restaurants, hawkers or street stalls in this country areoffering such a combination of foods. As a matter of fact, many of these restaurants now do alittle bit of everything to keep up with changing trends and satisfy customers' wide-ranging taste.The food industry business has become increasingly competitive, with various multinational foodchain operators expanding into new geographies daily, along with the emergence of new players, newtypes of cuisines and new menu choices. These developments partly caused by the changes inconsumers’ desires for new alternatives and eating habits.Therefore, in this study will focus more on investigation of the food product itself whether thefood characteristics (appearance, taste, smell and texture and cooking method) and food dimensions(convenient location, quality and price) have an effect on the consumer purchase intention of Malaylocal food. The sample and populations for this study were taken from Shah Alam’s residents. Theywere randomly chosen at the local and private colleges and universities, shopping complexes,business offices and restaurants around Shah Alam.Through a survey, a significant amount of data was collected and a series of analyses likedescriptive statistics, reliability analysis, and multiple regression analysis was undertaken. Theresult revealed that, the highest standardized beta coefficient was food dimensions factor whichconsists of convenient location, quality and price as sub-variables (β = 0.645, p = 0.002) anddetermined as the largest influence and make the strongest contribution.Meanwhile the beta coefficient value for food characteristics which consists of appearance, taste,smell and texture and cooking method (β = 0.184, p = 0.062) was low compared to the food dimensionswhich indicated that it less contributes to purchase intention.From this study, the food dimensions were regarded as the most significant factor in predicting thepurchase intention on local food. As conclusion, hopefully the findings from this study can provideinsightful information to the Malay local food restaurateurs; to understand the consumer needs andhopefully they can position the product delicately to increase and improve the business