Study design, participants and measurements: In this descriptive comparative study, after consulting with a statistician and determining the error range of α = 0.05, the sample size was determined as 500. The participants were classified into four categories of 125 people from the affluent and downtown areas. The first group consisted of 125 male buyers in the retail store of upstate, the second group was 125 women shoppers in the same store, the third group included 125 male shoppers in a downtown store, and the last category was 125 females from the same downtown store. These buyers were aged over 18 and under the age of 65 years. For both affluent and downtown groups, three stores were selected, which are roughly equally well-suited to the question of Table 1. This study was carried out from 7 to 9 AM in six consecutive days. Considering the income level of people in the questionnaire, 5 million tomans per month was considered as the selection criterion; individuals who earned 5 milions or higher were considered wealthy. In this study, we used five general criteria to classify the food selection reasons: brand type, nutrition label information, physical characteristics, price, and prizes. An example of the questionnaire item is "when you are faced with fish cans of different types, what is your most important criterion for choosing one of them?"

Ethical considerations: All the ethical criteria were observed in this questionnaire: the names of people and their professions were not questioned. To identify the wealthy people, only their income range was included in the questionnaire. In other words, people were not asked about their total income.
Data analysis: Data were analyzed using descriptive (Mean, Standard deviation. Minimum, and Maximum), and analytical statistics (chi-square test). To compare the groups, the independent sample t-test or Kruskal-wallis test was conducted. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 16.
Results
The results of this research are summarized in Tables 2 to 6. A large part of the society considered brands initially to buy products. According to Table 2, only a part of the consumers paid attention to the information label, which is probably because women paid more attention to the consumption of low-calorie foods. The results of this study showed a significant difference among the male participants living in the downtown and affluent areas in choosing a specific foodstuff (P ​​< 0.05) (Table 3). Similarly, a significant difference was observed between the two groups of women living in downtown and affluent areas (Table 4).
In another comparison between males and females living in downtown and affluent areas, results showed a significant difference (P < 0.05) (Table 5 and 6). The findings showed that the most significant effect and type of selection in affluent areas depended on brand and type of packaging, but the price was not very important in these areas (Table 5). On the other hand, female residents of the affluent areas selected their products mainly based on the brand and the physical characteristics of products.
In contrast, in downtown areas, no significant difference was observed between men and women regarding the section of the food type and characteristics under study (P > 0.05). In this group, the most important and the only significant criterion was price (P < 0.05) (Table 6). However, the criteria of awards and type of brand were not very noticeable.  Focus on brand was dominant in a large part of society, especially among female consumers of affluent areas. Female buyers considered the label of information more than the males in the same area.

Considering the development of the food industry and the diversity of products, choosing a food product is a source of confusion for a wide variety of foods in the market. Various properties can affect choices. In this study, we tried to examine and rate several criteria and their impacts on the population under study. It was observed that the type of brand was the most important criterion studied in this research. From this study, we found that the price did not affect the selection of a food in rich areas of Yazd, but in the downtown area, this criterion was significantly important. In addition, the information label of products attracted the participants' attention to a small degree, which could be considered as a risky behavior with regard to the food safety. By increasing the consumers' awareness about the food label information (expiration date, calories in the food, ingredients in that food, etc.), we can promote the health level of the community and prevent from the spread of many diseases.

We appreciate the of people participated in this study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Safavizade V and Aman Mohammadi M contributed in designing the study. Alizade-sani M, Rostami M contributed, and Heydari A contributed in data collection and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors studied and approved the final version of the manuscript.