{"id":4898,"date":"2024-05-08T02:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T02:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?post_type=purduetoday&p=4898"},"modified":"2024-08-03T20:33:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-04T00:33:59","slug":"consumers-report-significant-rise-in-diet-satisfaction-since-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/Q2\/consumers-report-significant-rise-in-diet-satisfaction-since-january","title":{"rendered":"Consumers report significant rise in diet satisfaction since January"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.<\/strong> \u2014 The share of consumers who indicated they are either \u201crather happy\u201d or \u201cvery happy\u201d with their diets rose from 81% in January 2024 to 87% last month, according to the April 2024<\/a> Consumer Food Insights Report. This surprising finding follows extensive media attention devoted to issues like food inflation in recent months, the report\u2019s authors noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the CFI Report also found that urban consumers are more likely than rural consumers to be happy with their diets, which is supported by the authors\u2019 findings on diverging food insecurity rates. The survey-based report out of Purdue University\u2019s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability<\/strong><\/a> assesses food spending, consumer satisfaction and values, support of agricultural and food policies, and trust in information sources. Purdue experts conducted and evaluated the survey, which included 1,200 consumers across the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the past 28 months, we\u2019ve measured food insecurity among rural households that is nearly twice the rate of urban households, 22% vs. 14%, respectively,\u201d said the report\u2019s lead author,\u00a0Joseph Balagtas<\/a>, professor of\u00a0agricultural economics<\/a>\u00a0at Purdue and CFDAS director. \u201cPoverty rates are higher in rural areas, and one consequence of poverty is that it is harder to afford to put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT ATTRIBUTES DO CONSUMERS CONSIDER IMPORTANT WHEN CHOOSING WHERE TO BUY GROCERIES?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Weighted average rating: store attribute importance, April 2024. Consumer Food Insights, April 2024. Source: Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The April survey included questions related to consumers\u2019 store choices. Specifically, it gauged what types of food stores consumers have available to them and which of these available stores they shopped at in the last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey covered what a typical shopping trip is like for consumers and which store attributes are important to them when deciding where to shop. Also included was how responses differ between rural and urban consumers. The report classified households as rural or urban using the USDA Economic Research Service<\/a>\u2019s rural-urban commuting area codes<\/a>. All 28 months of CFI data are summarized in the new report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most commonly accessible store formats are traditional grocery stores (accessible to 82% of the sample) and superstores (82%), followed by dollar stores (66%), club stores (57%) and convenience stores (51%). Accessibility differs along the rural-urban divide. Grocery stores are slightly less accessible for the rural population than the urban population (76% vs. 83%), while superstores (89% vs. 82%) and dollar stores (78% vs. 64%) are more accessible for the rural population. The store format with the biggest difference in accessibility is club stores. \u201cOnly 30% of the rural population compared to 60% of the urban population tell us they have access to club stores,\u201d Balagtas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also find some rural-urban differences in store choice. \u201cAmong people with access to grocery stores, rural people are slightly less likely to shop at grocery stores and slightly more likely to shop at superstores,\u201d Balagtas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT ATTRIBUTES DO CONSUMERS CONSIDER MOST IMPORTANT WHEN CHOOSING WHERE TO BUY GROCERIES?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Share of consumers: most important store attribute selection, April 2024\/Share of consumers: most important store attribute selection by rural-urban, April 2024. Consumer Food Insights, April 2024. Source: Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Further, about 60% of rural households with access to a dollar or discount store shopped at one in the last 30 days. This finding aligns with 2021 market research<\/a> of the USDA Economic Research Service that highlights dollar-store market growth in rural U.S. nonmetro areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CFDAS researchers also attempted to gauge the importance of different store attributes in respondents\u2019 decision-making process. Following previous literature regarding store choice, they asked consumers to rate the importance of key items on a scale from 1, or not at all important, to 5, or very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe top-rated attributes were \u2018food selection,\u2019 \u2018offering of fresh produce\u2019 and \u2018price,\u2019 which received average ratings of 4.6, 4.6 and 4.5 out of 5, respectively,\u201d said Elijah Bryant, a survey research analyst at CFDAS and co-author of the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOut of the listed attributes, \u2018online shopping\u2019 received the lowest average rating at 3.1. However, it should be noted that this does not imply that online shipping is not important to consumers. It just did not score as high on the scale,\u201d Bryant said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CFDAS researchers further asked consumers to pick the attribute they consider most important when choosing where to buy groceries. One-third of consumers selected \u201cprice\u201d as the most important attribute, followed by \u201cfood selection\u201d (19%) and \u201coffering of fresh produce\u201d (12%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany consumers appear to be cost-focused when choosing where to shop, especially rural consumers, about half of whom picked \u2018price\u2019 as the most important attribute when picking where to shop,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cInflation over the past few years may have more consumers conscious of the cost of their groceries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average weekly food spending rose to $202 last month, up 10% from April 2023 and 17% from April 2022. Rural households spend less each week on food away from home than urban households. This likely resulted from rural residents eating fewer meals at restaurants, Bryant noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consumer price index measure of food inflation remained unchanged from last month at 2.2%. This is the first time the index has not decreased since it peaked at 11.3% in August 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for consumer beliefs and trust, the survey showed that urban consumers are more likely to view agriculture as a significant contributor to climate change than are rural Americans. Many of the latter rely on agriculture as an economic driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSimilarly, more urban consumers, 50%, believe that eating less meat is better for the environment than rural consumers, 38%,\u201d Bryant said. Even so, the researchers see few differences in the level of trust in different sources of food-related information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, the USDA, which works closely with the agriculture industry and rural economies, scores higher on the trust index among rural consumers compared to urban consumers,\u201d Bryant added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability is part of Purdue\u2019s Next Moves in agriculture and food systems<\/strong><\/a> and uses innovative data analysis shared through user-friendly platforms to improve the food system. In addition to the Consumer Food Insights Report, the center offers a portfolio of online dashboards<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture News Page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 The share of consumers who indicated they are either \u201crather happy\u201d or \u201cvery happy\u201d with their diets rose from 81% in January 2024 to 87% last month, according to the April 2024 Consumer Food Insights Report. This surprising<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"department":[6],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[53],"class_list":["post-4898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","department-agriculture","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7775,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4898\/revisions\/7775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4898"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=4898"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=4898"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=4898"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}