Trying and buying locally grown produce at the workplace: Results of a marketing intervention

Abstract

Although consumers have a high opinion of locally grown produce, they do not consider origin as important as other factors in produce selection. Inconvenience is a major barrier to purchasing local produce. In a rural community in Maine, the Farm Fresh Project tested an intervention designed to exploit consumers' high regard for locally grown produce and also overcome the inconvenience of buying it. Each week for six weeks in the summer of 1997, employees at three worksites were offered tastings of locally grown produce, information about the produce, and an opportunity to order it at their workplaces. Changes in purchases of locally grown produce were compared with changes among employees at three matched control worksites. More than a quarter of workers at intervention worksites ordered produce through the project. Significant numbers of employees at intervention worksites who had not bought locally grown produce earlier in the summer bought it at outlets in the community during the four weeks following the intervention. Visits to the community farmers' market, purchases at roadside stands, pick-your-own purchases, and purchases of locally grown produce, both overall and at locations other than at the farmers' market, increased significantly in the intervention group. Among workers at control sites, only roadside stand purchases increased significantly. It appears that the opportunity to taste and purchase locally grown produce at a convenient venue, the workplace, motivated consumers to overcome barriers to purchasing locally grown produce at less convenient venues outside of the workplace. Temporary farm stands at workplaces may offer a promising new direct market for farmers.

Marketing locally produced foods: Consumer and farmer opinions in Washington County, Nebraska

“…The authors further found that consumers were willing to pay a premium for local foods. Ross et al 14 found that consumers who were provided locally grown produce at their workplace came to prefer it over conventional produce. These results are drawn from samples of consumers already participating in locally based food markets.…”

Niagara region farmers' markets: local food systems and sustainability considerations

“…The aging demographics of the customer base at farmers' markets may belie the future potential of such processes, while the R. Feagan et al potential for drawing more customers to direct marketing of food in the face of expediency motivations (Ross et al, 1999) is a very real problem. That is, how realistic is it to expect fundamental changes in consumer food transaction behaviour based on more than the price signal, and convenience.…”

Consumer Preference for Locally Grown Produce: An Analysis of Willingness-to-Pay and Geographic Scale

“…That is, local consumers increase the consumption of locally produced items relative to those "imported" from outside the area, thereby increasing local income by retaining local spending. As a result, local food systems are often lauded as an important development strategy in rural areas (Ikerd, 2005;Marsden, Banks, & Bristow, 2000;Ross, Anderson, Goldberg, Houser, & Rogers, 1999).…”