Who Shops at Local Farmers’ Markets? Committed Loyals, Experiencers and Produce-Orientated Consumers

Abstract

Lifestyle segmentation, used to explore consumer attitudes, interests, opinions and values, is applied to a local farmers’ market (the Otago farmers’ market, in New Zealand) in order to build a profile of consumer motivations and behavioural drivers beyond simple demographic data. Prior research indicates a growing need for studies that seek to understand the intangible aspects of food selection and consumption. Farmers’ market consumers are often treated as a homogenous group, with purchase and consumption decision making assumed to rest with tangible aspects of produce on offer, such as its organic nature or lower cost. The overall experience of the consumer within the food purchase environment is often overlooked. The current study finds that three distinctly different consumer segments exist within the farmers’ market context, with those concerned with the tangible aspects of produce being the smallest group of consumers. Two consumer segments driven by differing experience-related motivations give the greatest insight into consumer behaviour in a farmers’ market context, with committed, loyal consumers being concerned with relationships with sellers and producers, and experience orientated consumers motivated by the opportunity to interact with other farmers’ market attendees.

Sustainability marketing at the farmers’ market: An ethnographic analysis of ambiguous communication

“…Some farmers responded to this potential mismatch by letting the customer guide the conversation and “put their spin on it” to avoid opening a “bag of worms.” They did this to avoid an issue becoming “contentious” and coming “back to bite you.” As one farmer said, farmers may be interested in sustainability, but consumers are likely interested in health. This signals that while some customers may be advocates or green consumers (Prothero et al, ), many of them are motivated by personal motivations like health or flavor, something that other research on farmers’ markets has found (McNeill & Hale, ; Wolf et al, ). Most farmers were open about their growing methods, but they did not want to force those ideas on disinterested (Bean & Sharp, ) customers.…”

“…As one farmer said, farmers may be interested in sustainability, but consumers are likely interested in health. This signals that while some customers may be advocates or green consumers (Prothero et al, 2010), many of them are motivated by personal motivations like health or flavor, something that other research on farmers' markets has found (McNeill & Hale, 2016;Wolf et al, 2005). Most farmers were open about their growing methods, but they did not want to force those ideas on disinterested (Bean & Sharp, 2011) customers.…”

“…Different types of consumers will focus on different questions. There were product oriented (McNeill & Hale, ) and die‐hard shoppers (McGrath et al, ) at this market who were passionate about food or who were involved in agriculture. These consumers expressed more skepticism regarding farmer claims during interview sessions and were more likely to ask questions about food production methods, characteristics that align with ethical consumers (Brenton, ).…”

“…Sustainability is a linchpin of many farmers’ markets, and some argue that sustainability is a reason why direct, alternative markets have grown recently in the United States (US), Canada, New Zealand, and the UK (Betz & Farmer, ; Brown, ; Carey, Bell, Duff, Sheridan, & Shields, ; Guthrie, Guthrie, & Lawson, ; Lawson, Guthrie, Cameron, & Fischer, ; Smithers, Lamarche, & Joseph, ; USDA, , ). Customers attend markets for many reasons: to get fresh food (Alonso & O'Neill, ; Brown, ; McNeill & Hale, ; Trobe, ), to encourage sustainable farming practices (Alkon, ; Garner, ), to support local farms economically (Brown & Miller, ; Lyson, Gillespie, & Hilchey, ), to build community ties (Feagan & Morris, ), have a more personal exchange (Garner, ; Robinson & Hartenfeld, ), and express their morality or ethics (Garner, ; McEachern, Warnaby, Carrigan, & Szmigin, ).…”

Farmers’ Market Actors, Dynamics, and Attributes: A Bibliometric Study

“…The concept of a farmers market has been present in the literature since 1940 and mainly studied by researchers from the US and the UK [15]. In recent decades, there has been a proliferation of farmers' markets outside North America and Western Europe, mainly related to the organic movement [16], becoming a global tendency documented by several researchers under a situated knowledge approach (e.g., Central and Eastern Europe [3,17], Latin America [18][19][20][21], Asia [22,23], Oceania [24][25][26], and Africa [27]). Due to the increase in the proliferation of contributions, there is a need for understanding the common drivers of the global research with reference to farmers' markets.…”