How Where I Shop Influences What I Buy: The Importance of the Retail Format in Sustainable Tomato Consumption

Abstract

Although interest in sustainable food has increased substantially in recent years, the actual demand for such products has often risen quite unevenly across people. Making sense of the variable pace of behavioral change thus requires us to explore the foundations of sustainable consumption more closely, especially the importance assigned to specific attributes and the types of tradeoffs that prevail. Accordingly, this study utilizes a type of discrete choice experiment (DCE) to explore the influence of retail formats on decision-making processes. Stated-preference methods such as DCEs have proven useful to explain how and why individual willingness to pay (WTP) for qualities such as organic, fair trade, and locality can differ. By mostly focusing on product qualities, however, the importance of the retail format where products are purchased, and their impact on the valuation of attributes, is left unexplored. Framing this DCE in relation to tomato consumption, we find that type of retail format is a significant determinant of purchasing behavior, both on its own and via its interaction with the other qualities.