Category: Consumer behavior

Study: Price and appearance are top barriers to produce purchases

Read the full story in Food Dive.

In a recent survey, more than half of produce buyers said that price remained a top barrier to purchasing fruits and vegetables, according to a release from survey leads Category Partners and Beacon Research Solutions. The survey, taken by 4,000 shoppers in June, also found “poor appearance/quality/color” and “spoiling/inability to eat it all” to be barriers, as well.

The firms found that most produce shoppers make their purchasing decisions in-store, and that traditional marketing materials like ad circulars, cookbooks and recipe cards were more effective at driving category sales than nontraditional channels like social media.

Thirty-one percent of consumers surveyed said values like locally grown, natural, organic and non-GMO weren’t top of mind for them. Flavor, the survey revealed, is almost as important as health in driving purchase.

Consumer vs Prosumer: What’s the Difference?

Read the full post at Energy.gov.

Most of us have been consuming electricity from the grid the same way for more than a century now.

But that’s starting to change.

A new buzzword is out on the streets signaling a growing shift in how we power our homes and communities – “prosumers.”

Simply put, a prosumer is someone who both produces and consumes energy – a shift made possible, in part, due to the rise of new connected technologies and the steady increase of more renewable power like solar and wind onto our electric grid.

Think of it like a Facebook feed or YouTube page. Most users don’t just read or watch content – they also create their own and actively add to the conversation on social media.

American households use a variety of lightbulbs as CFL and LED adoption increases

Read the full story from the Energy Information Administration.

As lighting technologies evolve and adapt to federal standards, lighting in U.S. homes is in a state of transition. Data from the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) show that, as of 2015, most homes in the United States used more than one type of lightbulb, primarily a mix of incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL). Adoption of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs has been increasing, with 29% of U.S. households reporting at least one LED bulb installed.

I Want To Eat Fish Responsibly. But The Seafood Guides Are So Confusing!

Read the full story from NPR.

This month, I ventured to ask the man behind the counter at a Whole Foods Market what kind of shrimp he was selling. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I think they’re just normal shrimp.” I glanced at the sustainable seafood guide on my phone. There were 80 entries for shrimp, none of them listed “normal.”

What about the cod? Was it Atlantic or Pacific? Atlantic. How was it caught? I asked. “I’m not sure,” he said, looking doubtfully at a creamy fish slab. “With nets, I think. Not with harpoons.”

The shrimp had a blue sticker shaped like a fish on it, which appeared to be some type of official approval. Plus, they were on sale. I bought half a pound.

I was using the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch app, one of a handful of sustainable seafood guides which base their recommendations of sustainable seafood on a range of factors, including where the fish came from, how it was caught or farmed and how the local environment was affected. Spend an hour trying to make sense of these guides, and you may feel more confused than when you started — and guilty about putting an unsuspecting grocery employee on the spot.

2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) data now available

The first data from the 2015 RECS are now available. These housing characteristics tables, featuring estimates of fuel use, structural characteristics of homes, heating, appliances, electronics, and more, can be found at http://www.eia.gov/ consumption/residential/data/ 2015/.

EIA expects to release an overview of the 2015 data, a methodology report, and the preliminary public use microdata file in April. Square footage estimates from the 2015 RECS are expected in summer 2017. Estimates of energy consumption and expenditures are currently in production and are anticipated to be released in 2018.

EIA’s 2015 RECS Household Survey captured information about more than 200 energy-related items from more than 5,600 households. The 2015 RECS is the 14th iteration of the program, which has been conducted periodically since 1978.

Study finds people are willing to pay more for new biofuels

Read the full story from Washington State University.

When it comes to second generation biofuels, Washington State University research shows that consumers are willing to pay a premium of approximately 11 percent over conventional fuel.

“We were surprised the premium was that significant,” said Jill McCluskey, WSU professor in the School of Economic Sciences. “We wanted to study people in different regions of the country, to make sure we weren’t just getting a local result, and people in all three cities we studied said they would pay more for these fuels.”

The paper, “Consumer Preferences for Second-Generation Bioethanol,” was published in November in the journal Energy Economics.