Purchases of Meats and Fish in Great Britain During the COVID-19 Lockdown Period

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the purchases of meat and fish in Great Britain during the lockdown period using time series constructed from a unique scanner panel dataset available since 2013 and which is based on information about 30 thousand households. The time series available for the analysis represent the purchases (expenditure and quantities) of all consumers and by income groups were used to compute price and quantity indices all the meats together and for each meat (i.e., beef, lamb, pork, poultry, and other meats) and fish. The changes in expenditure were decomposed into changes in prices, quantities purchased and changes in quality purchased (trading up/down in quality) i.e., whether cheaper meat or fish were purchased. A further extension of the analysis was produced by considering the evolution of calories, saturated fats and sodium per purchased quantity for meat and fish during the period of study. The results indicate that although the shares of quantities remained relatively constant, the calories, saturated fats and sodium from the purchased quantities showed an increasing trend, indicating that most of the incomes groups were lowering the nutritional quality of their meat and fish purchases. This is clearly shown by the fact “other meats” represents on average 39 percent of the calories contributed by meat and fish, 49 per cent of the saturated fats and about 68 of the total sodium in meat and fish during the lockdown period. This result highlights the need to emphasize healthy messages related to the purchases of meat.

How do consumers respond to price gaps in private brand agrifood products?

PurposeThere is a range around reference prices, the so-called latitude of price acceptance, where consumers seem insensitive to changes into prices, with these ranges being wider for buyers of private brands. This paper analyses objective price gap between two product alternatives as a main driver of consumer behaviour. Therefore, the authors shed light on whether the price gap conditions consumer-switching behaviour and at what point the price gap triggers a switching pattern.Design/methodology/approachShopping data on two product alternatives of olive oil were obtained from a household scanner panel of Spanish consumers (607 households) with weekly price tracking, and multilevel regression models were performed.FindingsThe results suggest that the price gap has a fundamental effect on the consumers' choice. In this case, up to 1 euro/litre the demand seems almost inelastic; beyond that price gap, the demand for the finer product plummets.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focussed on olive oil products. The research needs to be extended other food products.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the literature by documenting how the price context measured in terms of a price gap is a relevant stimulus in consumer choices, with a focus on the change in price sensitivity between product alternatives when competing brands are not involved but private brands are.

Nutritional Implications of Trade-Offs Between Fresh and Processed Potato Products in the United Kingdom (UK)

The UK ranks eleven among world potato producing countries with annual per capita production of about 102 kg. Since 2007, the price of potatoes has increased by 44 per cent and UK households have shown a decreasing trend on their purchases of potatoes. At the same time, retailers and manufacturers have been introducing processed potato products, which also has affected the demand for fresh potatoes. This has shifted demand from fresh potatoes to processed potatoes suggesting that consumers substitute fresh potatoes for processed ones. However, the extent to which this affect individual weekly nutritional composition is unknown. The objective of this study is to estimate the nutritional trade-offs between fresh and processed potatoes consumed in the UK using home scanner panel dataset for Great Britain in 2018. Price and expenditure elasticities were estimated using the linearized version of the Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) Demand System. Using estimated elasticities, we analyzed the implications of substituting fresh potatoes for processed potatoes on nutrient intake. The results, in terms of the degree of substitution between fresh potatoes and processed potato products, suggest that consumers consider new potatoes baby and baking potatoes as substitutes for mashed potatoes. Maris piper potatoes and new potatoes baby are substitutes for frozen chips and other potatoes whilst white old potatoes and other vegetables and salads are complements to frozen chips and other potatoes. Finally, price reductions in the processed potatoes will increase average weekly caloric intake as well as the intakes of saturated fat and sodium. The latter has implications for public health as they are the major causes of cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers.

Economic effects of ambient air pollution on consumer shopping behaviors

In this paper, we address why the lack of research on the indirect economic effect of air pollution arises and explored the desirable features of data that allow such examination. In light of scanner panel data on individual transactions from a region with significant fluctuations in the level of particulate matters, our empirical investigation reveals that the economic effect of air pollution is statistically and economically significant through the disruption on consumption behaviors. Our discussion on the essential features of the data for the systematic analysis on the economic effect of air pollution and empirical evidence based on such data provides ample guidance for the future research.

Eco-Packaging and its Market Performance: UPC-level Sales, Brand Spillover Effects, and Curvilinearity

The prior research has partially addressed the full impacts of eco-packaging, mainly focusing on intention or attitude in a limited context. We attempt to investigate the actual consumer behavioral pattern to the eco-packaging appeals with revealed preference data. To test the diverse impacts on various product hierarchies, the sales of frequently purchased product category was applied. The scanner panel data availability in multi-category products enables us to test (1) the eco-packaging appeal impacts on Universal Product Code level sales, (2) the eco-packaging impacts on brand spillover effect, and (3) the linear or non-linear relationship between eco-packaging appeal and sales. Our results show that eco-packaging does contribute to its individual product sales. With regard to the brand spillover effect, our results reveal rather interesting results: brand spillover effect is present when eco-packaging intensity is high in the own product category, but not when the intensity is high in other product categories even if they both carry the same umbrella brand. Lastly, we discover an inverted U-shaped relationship between eco-packaging intensity within a brand and brand-level sales. It implies that adding eco-packaging appeal to products would actually increase the whole brand sales immediately, but after a peak point, the positive association transfer is weakened. Our results highlight that it is necessary to consider that ecologically sound packaging does induce market success.

The Left-Digit Bias: When and Why Are Consumers Penny Wise and Pound Foolish?

Consumers’ price evaluations are influenced by the left-digit bias, wherein consumers judge the difference between $4.00 and $2.99 to be larger than that between $4.01 and $3.00, even though the numeric differences are identical. This research examines when and why consumers are more likely to fall prey to the left-digit bias. The authors propose that the left-digit bias is stronger in stimulus-based price evaluations, wherein people see the focal price and the reference price side by side, and weaker in memory-based price evaluations, wherein people have to retrieve at least one price from memory. This is because in stimulus-based price evaluations, people tend to rely on perceptual representations of prices without rounding them. In memory-based price evaluations, they rely more on conceptual representations, which makes them more likely to round the prices. Results from six studies—five experiments and a scanner panel study—support the hypothesis that the left-digit bias is stronger in stimulus-based evaluations. These results inform managers about when to use left-digit pricing and characterize fundamental differences between stimulus-based and memory-based evaluations.

The Impact of an Epidemic on Transit Ridership

This paper explores how an epidemic impacts ridership on public transportation. The scanner panel data on credit and debit card transactions provide an important opportunity for researchers to gather empirical evidence on how the outbreak of a disease can substantially affect public transit ridership in relation to the socioeconomic heterogeneity of the commuters. For example, transit mode decisions of consumers in the highest and lowest income classes remained largely consistent, while consumers in the middle-income class demonstrated a reduction in public transit ridership and instead switched to private transport use by a considerable margin. Our findings add important empirical knowledge about individual decisions between public transit and private vehicle use during an epidemic. Such estimated effect is qualitatively different from those of other macroeconomic factors and provides important guidance for policy interventions and practical decisions aimed at sustaining economic growth.

Retailers’ promotions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the overall effect of promotions on consumers’ food purchases in Scotland and to consider the implications of the findings for food and health policy. Design/methodology/approach This is achieved by analysing a representative scanner panel data set for the period 2006-2013. The methodology consists of exploring the impact of promotions on food expenditure and allocation within households’ food purchases, using expenditure regressions and estimations of the linear version the Almost Ideal Demand System. Findings The results indicate that whilst promotions have differentiated effects by category, they have similar results by SIMD. The effect of the promotions on the total expenditure is positive for all the quintiles. However, the effect of promotions on each food category is complex because of the cross-effects between categories. As regards the effect of prices, the results provide a picture that seems to indicate that typical economic measures such as specific taxes applied to substances which, e.g., encourage obesity, might have limited impact on the diet given the inelasticity of the demand to changes in prices. Originality/value A contribution of this paper has been to focus on the effect of promotions on all the food products consumed by Scottish households, instead of analysing promotional influences on a single or reduced number of products within a category.

How brand loyal shoppers respond to three different brand discontinuation scenarios

Purpose Retailers may respond to a manufacturer discontinuing a brand or product range in three ways: not offering an alternative, thus reducing the assortment size; replacing it with a substitute; or introducing a rebranded product by the same manufacturer, if such an option is available. This study aims to evaluate all three scenarios and assess the extent to which total category sales are affected; how these discontinuations affect alternative offerings within the product category; and whether usage levels moderate within category switching behaviour. Shoppers did not have the option of switching stores to acquire the discontinued brand – their preferred brand/product range ceased to exist. Design/methodology/approach All three studies are quasi-experiments using scanner panel data. The product discontinuations examined are real events that took place within the major supermarket chain in New Zealand. Findings In all the three scenarios, average category sales decreased for the three-month period following the discontinuation. In Study 1, where a preferred brand of milk was discontinued with no replacement, overall category sales decreased but competing brands gained sales; introducing a replacement corn chip range (Study 2) successfully captured the spend on the discontinued range, but other brands lost sales; and rebranding a cereal (Study 3) decreased both brand sales and category sales. With the exception of Study 1, near-substitute product offerings did not capture a greater proportion of the spend from the discontinued brand as compared to less similar substitutes. Expectations were that heavy users would have a greater propensity to shift to near alternatives than would medium/light users; however, none of the studies lend support. Originality/value This is the first research effort to use scanner panel data to explore the reactions by brand loyal customers to three different brand discontinuation scenarios initiated by the manufacturer.